my formula 233

[OPTI]

well its proably time to share my 233 with you,for those of you that dont know me ,im a marine mechanic by trade ,owned boats all my life raced off shore boats ,and even built a couple of boats .my wife and i are mad fisherman so after much searching for a boat to suit our needs ,we settled on a edencraft formula 233.
im pretty hard on my boats ,so i wanted something built really tuff,trailable and capable of the odd overnighting trip.
being a custom boat builder edencraft were able to build me what i wanted ,something hard to find in the fiberglass boat industry,my boat differs from the standard build in many ways so id thought id share some of my thoughts and changes ,
the standard lay up was changed ,instead of polyester resign we used vynel ester resign,its got 30 % more addhesion properties than poly,which means stronger ,no timber was used ,instead divinicel foam 20mm 60 density ,the entire hull was foam filled including the keel section,i opted not to have the foward under floor storage area ,instead having a v berth set up,note i had pvc pipe run through the stringer for the controls and wiring,this makes things a lot neater .i dont know why it wasnt standard.i opted for a 600 lt fuel tank instead of the 400 lt and no under floor rear kill tank,im going to use a big esky as a kill tank so its lift out and no mess left in the hull[i hate smelly boats],im planing to do a lot of marlin fishing and thought i might need a game chair,i wont be able to mount one later with a foam floor ,so a bought a 37 kg chair and a 10 mm aluminium plate was glassed under the floor between the stringers.the trim tabs also had to be bought and fitted before the floor was down [to aid in easier instillation]

[ozscott]

Mate - that is some overkill set up! I love it. Cant wait to see the shots of it flying off 2m swell at 60 miles an hour.

[OPTI]

these are the tabs i bought,they are dana billets ,after breaking lenco and bennet tabs on previous boats these were the only solution ,if i had my time again id proably go for qls,note the morse cables are for the mechanical guages,a little old school but very accurate and reliable

[Angla]

Thanks for the pic's. It certainly looks like the mechanic knows his way around fibreglassing too. Good luck with the build and I'm sure the follow up pics will be awaited with longing to see the end result. What sort of power will you be giving it and what sort of area will it be fishing?

Cheers
Chris

[TJ Bear]

Opti is that foam panel floor screwed to the longitudinals?

[OPTI]

just screwed in place while the divelette [glue] went off.its pre glassed and then another 6 oz on the top.the screws were removed of cause

[OPTI]

ok im cutting to the chase [so to speak] but ask away ,any questions.
im putting a pair of 225 merc opti max outboards ,i know everyone is thinking why not 4 /,i know these motors have all the service tools for them and really just luv them ,but they have caused me problems in the fitting up department.
i designed and made the plug for the transom for edencraft ,so i got what i wanted ,i designed the sides of the bait tank to be able to fit built in tackle lockers,so i lost a little cockpit as a trade off.
i thought i had a lot of room ? but quickly found out it was going to be tight.
i have one pump each side for the trim tabs ,an oil bottle each side for the motors [2/ i know]had to get the smaller oil bottles @ 600 [not happy]power steering pump stb side,i had the bait tank made shallower to fit the pumps under neith ,just as well ,i have a jabsco cyclone and a shore flow under there.[no where for the batteries?oh and i havnt cabled tied it all up yet so it looks a little untidy.

[Hell Boy]

going to be one tuff boat once its finshed

just a queston regarding the hull and keel foam, in some of your pictures there are loose bits of foam in some of the cavities. is this your foam hull?

i don't know much about fulling a boat full of foam, but I'm guessing the tighter the better to reduce the amount of water in the hull. I'm not having a dig at you, I'm just interested in the whole process of putting foam in a boat to give it basic floatation.

looking forwards to seeing the boat completed.

Cheers,

Bryn

[OPTI]

the engine well is rigged and ready for the engines ,just waiting for the transom plates to come back from anodising,ive had to put the engines at 22.5 inch centres to allow for tab clearance ,i prefer the motors in tight anyway ,steering in seastar pro helm ,pro power assist pump and twin pro bull horn rams with tie bar,the fuel fills are for the oil bottles,the rigging kits are from rex marine as are the billet fuel fillers etc

[OPTI]

going to be one tuff boat once its finshed

just a queston regarding the hull and keel foam, in some of your pictures there are loose bits of foam in some of the cavities. is this your foam hull?

i don't know much about fulling a boat full of foam, but I'm guessing the tighter
Cheers,

Bryn

they put those left over bits in before the floor ,once the floor is layed they poor in the pouring foam through holes and it fills the void soild.

[ozscott]

What to those cables on the tabs do mate...and how did you break bennetts etc.

Interesting about the optimax...a bloke I trust a lot Brian at Wondall Road marine swears by the later year Optis.

Cheers

PS. The only down side to the Optis is that as I understand things, they cannot be run without appropriate battery power (ie they cannot be pull started and run independently)

[OPTI]

tab cables are for the mechanical guages,ive bent the tabs and broken the plastic rams on the bennets and lencos
up the pointy end ive installed a stress free [the biggest one]so dropping the pick on the 50;s is no problem now,i made a custom bow sprit and bollard

[ozscott]

I guessed the plastic rams, interesting though about the plates - but how did you break them - are you saying it was such severe pounding in bad seas, or did you back into something?

Cheers

[OPTI]

just pounded them to death ,surprisingly easy.
back to the other end ,ive fitted 2,3000 gpr bilge pumps with float switch and manual switch,the deck isnt self draining so everything gets pumped out,these pumps will remove 250 ltr in 30 seconds.i ran the hoses and wiring through flush mount kits through the floor just to keep it all neat.i ran -16 earls braided hose and fittings for the main salt water feed,seeing the boat floats on this hose i figured the expense is worth the piece of mind when im out trolling lures on the shelf.it has a stailness shut off valve at the hull

[Wahoo]

Very nice Opti, that will be a sweet set up , just had a look at the new 21 Formula, Enough to give me a woody

Daz