58 Skagit express 20' Restore (up north edition)

[Kelly]

Very interesting on your sink. The original customer or even dealer could've opted out. Were there 30 something holes on the port side of the original bulkhead? If not, it's possible your boat was special ordered without one thus making sense there was no hole in your sink.
Rereading your initial post, it is a '58 20 Express. Even with a respray or gel coat you can tell with the aluminum window frames. And don't let the two colors fool you, unless you can tell is been sprayed, Skagit used two colors to ensure the final had complete coverage. My (now) red 20 had a burgundy final color, blasting it brought out the red as the burgundy was too thin to hold up against the media. .

[Helmar]

It did not....i found it to be odd too. No trail that it had been patched either...... Thank you Kelly and Helmar for all the pics!!! im gonna start mocking up a helm console out of cardboard tonight and see what i can come up with....

Thinking of having it mount internally (mounting flange) so i can gain a couple inches of real estate for stuff. It will have a hinged or flanged access panel so i can keep it weather tight and obviously still have access.

On the Helm, its hard to make them look stock with all the new trick stuff available to us. I do like the idea that can put a whole bunch on just one screen now. It still seems that stuff has to go up on the map dash and block part of your view..
Normally on some of the boat projects that I do, I will try to adjust the seat height to the customer. I try to put their eyes in the center of the window when cruising. That one picture of this 58 were he dropped the seat down 5 inches, he must of been a tall person. I always try to make room or create a step up were your seating is (I hide the battery's and fuel forward as close to the bulkhead as I can) because it seems as every time I see someone docking or loading, they are Always standing up it seems.. Not sure why I though that in there but I did.....

It would be interesting to see what you come up with...I will look to see what I can find on this end as it seems that Every ones helm needs to be different for what they have for power and setup.

[Gwilliamson]

I whipped up some kind of cardboard template console. I went 16x16 on the main panel. I think i can get everything to fit. Switches may end up down below but im gonna play around with it.

[Kelly]

Looks good, though the steering wheel would be low to your knees in that configuration unless you raise the whole box above the stock location. You could do what this guy did...

[Kelly]

This is from Welike, though she's a '56. The box on this one has a flat facial side, hence the straight-up steering wheel.

[Kelly]

another option I just thought of... take the original helm box and mount it upside down. Look at this picture, check out all of that acreage for your gadgets and wheel. . wow.

[Kelly]

Looking back at your cardboard helm, it looks like that's what you did, flipped it around. .duh on my part.

[Gwilliamson]

I wish i had a stock console, both sides were missing with my boat.... so unless one of you fine boys from down south can pop out a part off an existing one im screw up here in alaska. As much as i love the look of the stock ones, that exteral mounting flange drives me nuts. Plus that 10” main panel height i feel doesnt give me room for anything. Just going 4” more down gives a ton of space.... the one thing i dont like about my initial set up is the offsetting of the helm, so I certainly take into consideration what you said about knee clearance. That bottom angle may end up being harder and might even go another 2” more on the main panel. I absolutely love those guage pods up on the dash by the window and my go that route insted of converting my engine to nmea 2000 to interface with the gps combo. Thanks Kelly for hooking me up with those pics.

Also, i dont really want any navigation stuff on the port side incase i go out alone i need it at my fingertips. That actually was my main reason for offsettting the helm is for ease of touchscreen use.

[Helmar]

I wish i had a stock console, both sides were missing with my boat.... so unless one of you fine boys from down south can pop out a part off an existing one im screw up here in alaska. As much as i love the look of the stock ones, that exteral mounting flange drives me nuts. Plus that 10” main panel height i feel doesnt give me room for anything. Just going 4” more down gives a ton of space.... the one thing i dont like about my initial set up is the offsetting of the helm, so I certainly take into consideration what you said about knee clearance. That bottom angle may end up being harder and might even go another 2” more on the main panel. I absolutely love those guage pods up on the dash by the window and my go that route insted of converting my engine to nmea 2000 to interface with the gps combo. Thanks Kelly for hooking me up with those pics.

Also, i dont really want any navigation stuff on the port side incase i go out alone i need it at my fingertips. That actually was my main reason for offsettting the helm is for ease of touchscreen use.

That sure looks like it will work, Stick that up in the boat and figure out a chair or stool to use as a mockup and give her a test.

I did this on Kellys boat, we needed to fill some big holes in his helm and we just cut the holes out of his old gas tanks. Which brings me to this.
I have taken Glass Mat and just did a lay up on house window glass to make my flat pieces and then glass mat over some plastic PCV pipe to get my radius's I needed for the edges. It looks like you might have everything there to create the same thing but modified to your specks. You could even make up your water tank if you want. Anything you don't want the fiberglass to stick too just use some of the wax paper or the PVA stuff? I just spaced the name of the release agent stuff...Getting old. I love the smell of Fiberlays P-16 laminating resin in a closed area, can you tell
You should be able to hot glue it all from the front side and glass the insides first, then go back and finish the outside.

Just some ideas is all.

[Gwilliamson]

That sure looks like it will work, Stick that up in the boat and figure out a chair or stool to use as a mockup and give her a test.

I did this on Kellys boat, we needed to fill some big holes in his helm and we just cut the holes out of his old gas tanks. Which brings me to this.
I have taken Glass Mat and just did a lay up on house window glass to make my flat pieces and then glass mat over some plastic PCV pipe to get my radius's I needed for the edges. It looks like you might have everything there to create the same thing but modified to your specks. You could even make up your water tank if you want. Anything you don't want the fiberglass to stick too just use some of the wax paper or the PVA stuff? I just spaced the name of the release agent stuff...Getting old. I love the smell of Fiberlays P-16 laminating resin in a closed area, can you tell
You should be able to hot glue it all from the front side and glass the insides first, then go back and finish the outside.

Just some ideas is all.

speaking of seats, how tall are your guys pedestals? something i have yet to find a stat on. I know 26-30'' is usually average.

[Helmar]

speaking of seats, how tall are your guys pedestals? something i have yet to find a stat on. I know 26-30'' is usually average.

I can get those for you but the ones I have and do are all different. I ask the customers to take a measurement from their eye level to were there butt sits in the seat.. Then I set build things as so they are looking right out the center of the helm window when on plane.
I always try to move fuel and batteries forward so if the fuel tanks are not saddle tanks but box tanks, I build the seating around them. Make the lids removable to access the fuel level sender as those do go bad more than often.
The concept for this is to keep as much weight forward to help balance out the boat so your not working the engine as hard to keep her up on plane as well as fuel consumption. But, that is just me and the way I do things..
Any time I have to rebuild anything structurally, I will drill holes in areas that do not effect structure for weight. I try and not put any more weight in the boat if possible. Every little bit counts in my book.
I have restored enough of these over the years that I take Everything into consideration when restoring, such as they were not ever built for Storing Gear. Just chuck everything in a pile in the cabin must of been what they were thinking.
Of course with the competition they all had among themselves, they were trying new things all the time. This is why its hard to find any two Skagits identically the same unless the serial numbers are close to each other..
They would start out with a Base, then modify things for the customers. I learned this when Marty Loken was able to Interview Roberts and the other fellow that I forget the names now. Everything was more of a flurry for them they stated trying to stay on top. It went as far as the companies trying to hire employees from each others companies back then.
You have people like Tim Jones (who owns Two of the 31 Saratogons that was in the Skagit game ever since he was a small boy. In fact, Tim Jones was the one that started the first Skagit boat club called Skagit Boys. It went on to be Skagit Classics and so on. Then we were a spin off from Fiberglassics as Fiberglassics Northwest. But, we started this club as NW ClassicBoatClub and also the ClassicBoatClub.com to accommodate most of the NorthWest built boats.

Now that I am at the point were I have to stop doing what I am doing (restoration) do to health issues, I have a Dorsett Catalina that I got from a dear friend Chuck Carrey (RIP Chuck) that those boats were designed for the Bay Area and the choppy waters. Those Ride Nice !!!. Seafair Sedans had that easy ride type hull design whereas my Skagits and Bell Boys are all ride like a barn door with a motor on the back in the choppy waters..
All the Skagits have Solid Fiberglass stringers. Only some of the Bell Boys did that back then too. The Dorsetts in the late 50 and early 60's, still use that damn MDO Plywood stringers.
I have enough fiberglass roving and mat to do this Catalina back with fiberglass stringers. I can do this, make it just as light as the MDO so I am not worried about adding any weight to her.

The big issue is, Will I be able to pull that off before I can't.

Boat for boat, it would still take Three Bayliners to make One Skagit so set her up for optimum performance if you can....

You are looking good with what you are doing. Hope you have kids that have the same passion that you can pass her onto as she will sure out last us

Helmar said all that

[Gwilliamson]

So with my engine sitting down on a boat in seattle, i was just told it came with some goodies too like extra wiring harnesses, 2 shifters, and 2 instrument panels. Obviously they wont fit my dash layout, but i wont have to buy guages!!!!! Pretty stoked on that. So I built another template today off Helmars demensions and went 20” wide vs the previous 16” wide. If i have the room im definitely going this route instead.

[Kelly]

Looks better. If I may, a recommendation would be to round off the edges of your box(es) like the originals. The rounded edges aren't dramatic, but definitely not squared off. Look around the boat and you'll see nearly zero hard edges. That's the draw for me...reminds me of the art deco diesel trains of the 40s and 50s.
I realize you can't round off cardboard (easily) so maybe that was your plan...or not.

That's my taste though, yours may differ.

[Gwilliamson]

Looks better. If I may, a recommendation would be to round off the edges of your box(es) like the originals. The rounded edges aren't dramatic, but definitely not squared off. Look around the boat and you'll see nearly zero hard edges. That's the draw for me...reminds me of the art deco diesel trains of the 40s and 50s.
I realize you can't round off cardboard (easily) so maybe that was your plan...or not.

That's my taste though, yours may differ.

Oh for sure.... im not gonna round the edges on the cardboard but when we goto glass them up i will for sure.... hard corners dont belong on a glass boat. Especially a classic.

[Kelly]

Cool, looking forward to seeing your progress.