23' center console Donzi fishing boat

[Jraysray]

An exact twin was for sell here in Clear Lake(Houston Area). I wonder if its the same boat?

[Conquistador_del_mar]

Most likely it is the same boat. The man I bought it from has a son who used it in Houston. The father could not use it due to a very serious injury he sustained which left his right arm useless. A lab is growing a new arm to be transplanted when it is ready in about another 3 years. He is a great man who was dealt a hard blow. I used to think these artificially grown body parts was sci-fi until talking to him. Bill

[Conquistador_del_mar]

-----You will know pretty soon as I am sending the Bennetts off in about a half an hour......Bill S

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Thank you, Bill. I couldn't believe how great it is turning out where you really wanted some Kiekhaufer 280 K-planes and I wanted the Bennetts back for this Donzi. I will be sending the K-planes next week. Bill

[olredalert]

-----I think you will get a laugh when you see the box as I never opened it. Just took the address label off, turned it upside down, stuck it back on and took it to Fed-X. I have the paperwork if needed and the other envelope will follow as soon as I can.......Bill S

[Conquistador_del_mar]

I decided to upgrade the GPS/fishfinder in the Donzi with this top of the line color unit. http://www.ebay.com/itm/330629814967...84.m1497.l2649

It is quite a discount from the new price here.
http://www.boatbandit.com/detail.aspx?ID=52

[Jraysray]

"Most likely it is the same boat"

Well I've been on your boat then. Very nice boat. If you are curious PM me and I will tell you what they were asking for it here.

[Conquistador_del_mar]

He started at $10,500 here but dropped it to $7000 which is where I bought it. How much were they asking there? You have been on it? Cool. I tried to PM you, but your box is full. Bill

[Jraysray]

I remember 18k on the for sale sign. I could be crazy but I dont think so. I just remember a "wth" reaction. It sat down here on several lots. Caught my eye everytime I passed though. Sounds like you got a realistic deal!

[Conquistador_del_mar]

He added the very nice custom installed T-top which had to have been fairly expensive. The 250HP Merc runs great on the hose, but I have not lake tested it yet. I feel like it is a $10,000 boat so I am very pleased with the price I paid. It should be really nice when I get done with it for my purposes. Thanks for letting me know what they were asking down there. Bill

[Conquistador_del_mar]

Well, I should have known that the transom was probably not built in 3 sections with the center section being solid and the sides rotted, but that was the conclusion I had drawn until tonight since the transom had no fracture lines at the bottom of the outboard and sounded solid with pounding the outside and inside under the motorwell. After cutting out the starboard side transom glass on the inside of the transom under the rear side hatch, it became apparent that the transom extends all the way across the hull and that the transom wood is rotted from one side to the other. The glass I cut out was installed after the hull and deck were joined and is fairly thin and extends from the side of the hull to the motorwell and down to the battery mount horizontal deck plate. The reason it has held up so well is that the transom is .63" thick solid fiberglass. At this point, I am debating cleaning out the rotted wood (it is all dry and can be vacuumed up from what I can see so far) and then filling the wood void with an epoxy or resin up to the top of the lower section of the transom where the motor mounts. All the inside glass below that level is fairly thick and should not leak the filler material before it cures from what I can see from the center deckplate access hole. I would then build new transom pieces for each side (about 2" thick) and re-glass the inside that I cut out. Without ripping my head off with doing it "the right way", what do you think about filling the void with epoxy or resin? I want to make sure the transom to inner glass can not compress which would allow the motor mount bolts to become loose. If the transom were not so heavily laid with glass, it would have fractured before now. I will take some pictures to show the transom. In the meantime, here are a few shots as I work at various aspects of the boat I hope to enjoy soon. It is not a pretty scene right now - lol. Bill

[Jamesbon]

Wow, that's not the best news, but at least it's winter and you have time on your side and a nice indoor shop to work in It isn't really surprising though. My friends F23 has a "wobbly" transom too. If he hammers the engine, the whole engine/transom moves. I don't think he cares though. As long as it's still hanging on there, he doesn't see a problem. LOL. As you know, mine was totally shot as well. I bet this may be an "inherent characteristic" on most of these F23's. I dug out what I could, then replaced the wood and glassed it all back together. We figured seeing how the S.M. bracket has such a big footprint on the transom there shouldn't be any more issues. So far so good. This is the perfect time to add an o/b bracket. The worst part of that mod is re-rigging everything with longer cables, wires and harnesses. Worth the effort though. Best of luck getting her fixed.

[Greg Guimond]

Bill are you thinking taking the chainsaw to clear it out and then perhaps an Arjay pour to top it off ?

[Conquistador_del_mar]

I have had my plate full recently with my mother's death, but I am now about to finish up the transom work. As it turned out, the starboard side was rotten to about 30" from the hull side and the port side was only rotten to about 18" from the side. The rot started from the sides instead of the bilge drain - probably due to no fiberglass at the tops of the transom sides under the access doors. I cleared out all the rotten wood back to solid wood and left fans running to help dry it out for about 2 weeks (it really was not very wet to start with). I rebuilt the transom on the starboard side with two 3/4" sheets of plywood glassed into place and then filled the rest of the void in the lower section of the engine mount area of the transom with about a gallon of resin thru a 5/8" hole I drilled at the outside of the top of the transom motorwell. I will do the same on the port side using much less resin. I left a chain hoist lifting up on the lower unit of the outboard to help straighten out the slight indentation at the bottom of the outboard mount area during the entire process. The resin should have permeated into the remaining wood and hardened. I was mostly concerned with the outboard mounting bolts crushing the two 5/8" thick inner and outer transom pieces together over time and use, but it appears that area was not rotten. I really think it will be fine now -. Later, Bill

[Conquistador_del_mar]

With any luck, I should be able to finish the transom work by tomorrow and move on to the rest of the projects in the boat. I also need to repair the forward bulkhead before moving on. I will detail out the interior and deck before starting to install quite a few new parts. At this point, I will be lucky to have it ready by Christmas, but we take out the fishing boat all year long so no big deal. I am really looking forward to using this boat - it will be such a great ride on those rough days we get here in north Texas on Lake Texoma. Bill

[Conquistador_del_mar]

I finished the port side transom work this afternoon. Onwards, Bill