Thread: 1996 Blazer VL100 Restoration to Crappie Chaser

The inner decking had raw wood, paneling thickness sheeting, again just stapled to the stringers to hold in place. Afterwards it was just glassed over, roughly, with chop. Of course the wood rotted, had to be replaced, so I cleaned the undersides of the skins real good with the grinder then used them for a pattern for new cores cut from 1/4in Coosa 26. After the new cores were epoxied the the undersides of the skins a layer of 1708 & Chop was added to arrest stretch flexing as much as possible. A peanut butter consistency epoxy was troweled over the stringers, the mid hull stiffeners added earlier, and the beveled seam against sides. Since the new deck was much thicker it didn't line up perfectly, well it is a 15ft bass boat so I just put extra taping on the side seams to create a new "Bridge" to the side. I've hit a design block so to speak and stopped early, fixed a Turkey & Coke, and decided to update this post. See the other little boat sits with the rubrail aft, almost in the water, so my plan is to redesign the corners so as to allow the installation of the baitwell pump where it can easily be replaced by a older man. Reaching to the bottom of the bilge is going to be more problematic due to the added transom bracing. A few pictures are attached to keep up visually.

"You can't tell the brand of the boat from the insides, they all look the same". Name Branded boats of the era were just slapped together. Kinda like RV's today.

Finally reached a point to flip boat over to see what will be required to Blueprint. As posted in a earlier post both VL100 Blazer boats I own have a 18in Hook in front of a Transom wedge so when you plane off the bow is shoved into the water. A massive Rocker is forward of the 2 Hooks & Wedges, Rockers give Bow Lift so you can see the drag being generated here. I have to trim past the gauge with 8in of setback to get the boat up. Also included is a picture of the blocking supporting the boat in the back, the front is sitting on a stack of trailer tires, the top one with 5psi to help conform to the boat. In the Pad area it is fairly straight, both strakes are tapered to the back, your supposed to leave since designed into the hull. Usually for turning. These boats turn like poorly. I'm going to have to venture into Un-Charted waters here to see if we can't get the hull to work for us instead of against us. This is a new 6ft straight edge. I saw the repair while working on the inside, the flake matches on the outside and I think it was done in the factory. Maybe they hit the boat with something. One of my Vendors stopped by and we were talking about Blazer and he said they were just bought by maybe L&M a boat yard south of Mobile, AL. Something like that. In the third picture you can see my Champion in the background with the Cap off. This Blazer was built in 1995 the Champion was built in 1996, the Champion hull is still perfectly straight.

Impressive work

Are you planning on lowering or possibly removing the strakes?

Originally Posted by BuckeyeCrappie

Are you planning on lowering or possibly removing the strakes?

I was looking to add them, that's why the Champ is in the shop for reference material. Champion built one of the best bass boat designs for open water (Reservoir Boats), management killed them. The measurements off the Champion left little room on such a narrower hull to begin with for adding strakes. So the Pad will be mapped out from the Champion to the Blazer, my reasoning's is although the Champ pad is on a larger boat the added width on the Blazer from the existing pad will provide the extra lift need to break the corners loose.

Started on the port side, prepped the gelcoat for blueprinting so all the work would stick. I took my time plotting out on the hull the low spots to get my glass cut and shred the edges. No high spots to deal with on this section. I just rolled the vinylester on wetting the chop out until it was done.

After setting up but a little tacky I skimmed with the Rage/Vinylester mixture. Cutting the skimming revealed high & low spots. They were dealt with my Air File then vinylester was rolled again to fill holes and after curing it was skimmed again. Second cutting revealed the little low spots left. I'm posting this update for one reason.

For those who decide to do this, look at the pictures carefully, use sharp sandpaper and once the sandpaper is leaving scratches all the way across - level - Stop sanding. Too many people continue to sand and the paper is digging a hole in what you just filled in. The low spots are very clear, if I kept sanding until the low spots were cut I would have a Hook. Anyway the adjacent lifting strake has a high spot to sand out, nothing to fill.

Wow, I am learning a lot reading this.

I find it very interesting but it’s all over my head. You’re doing a very good and thorough job though.