It is finally time to get started on the part of this skiff rebuild I am most excited about. Building the new center console. There was nothing wrong with the one I removed, but I want bigger and better. Mainly a way to hide the fuel tank. While at the same time creating more storage. The way the skiff was originally. There was only storage in the seat and below the front deck.
If you are like me. When I go fishing I bring everything I may need to catch every fish in the world. I am a strong believer in bringing tackle to catch different species. You never know when a plan is not going to work out. You have to have the gear to change gears. I think I may even put that on a shirt one day. I often would spend a hour loading the boat with gear and tackle. It would be amazing to have enough storage to keep it on the boat all the time, but that's a lot of space. Just safety equipment takes up a large compartment. I always keep four of five life vest in the boat at all times. After the thousandth time turning around on the way to the lake because I forgot them. They now never leave the boat.
Singe 1996 this skiff has had about the same layout. Two different center consoles over the years. Both having about about the same design. Always built around the gas tank centered in the boat. This made the entire center console about useless for storage. Even if it were bigger you cant store batteries with gas tanks. This has always been a issue. For a few years the batteries stayed in plastic batterie boxes in the back. They would always be in the way and put a lot of weight in the back. For the last 12 years they have been moved to under the front deck. This worked much better, but it was just to much weight in the bow. The boat ran great with this extra weight in the bow. It really helped in keeping the bow down. When you were sitting still though. You could tell the bow was lower than the stern. I plan to make provisions to keep the batteries centered in the boat. Hopefully improving the water line and ride.
This will be my first go at building a console. There is going to be a lot of figuring and foo bars. In the end I just hope it turns out as good as i have it pictured in my head. If so this is going to be a game changer for this old Carolina Skiff! Thank you for taking the time to read and watch the video. I hope you enjoy it and please subscribe!