Major surgery for the Carrot Juice

For the last 6 months I've been noticing a sloshing sound when I rock my boat sitting on the trailer.
I drilled a hole and installed a porthole to try and get the water out. But I had to gouge out foam and when I got to the water, it was only about half inch deep.
This boat has a weird design. It has compartments, or honeycomb design under the floor but they were designed to never take on water and were foam filled. So they were never designed to drain the water out and the water is trapped since it came in from the floor above.

I took it to a guy who works on lots of boats here and he has to cut out the whole floor and remove the foam. Then drill holes through the back of each of about 10 compartments so the water will continually drain out to the bilge.

Why didn't the Guatemalans think of this when they designed it? Water gets in but can't get out....gfrrrrrr. Anyway, it's going to cost me US$1750.00 for the work. Lucky we just put that boat together for our friends and they can take us out this week. :thumbsup2:
I'll try and post pics of this surgery as it progresses. Beware of buying a Pesquero Panga from Guatemala. It looks just like the Mexican Imemsa but the under floor design was done by morons.

Yeah, that's the boat in my pics. It's the standard Central American Skiff hull shape. But the Mexican one has a better design under the floor. I didn't know all this when I bought it.
Once this work is done it'll be fine. And it's lucky. haha I wouldn't trade if for anything.

Here's the "befoe" pic. haha

Quote from ladvr

Nice rig Hank. Pangas have become quite common here in LA .

They're a practical boat. Good on gas, plane easily on low horsepower for the length and are known as "the boat that built Belize".
The downside is the flat bottom makes for a pounding when beating into the wind. Most all boats do but a deep V is more comfortable for sure.
I don't have a choice because I have to cross water as shallow as a foot at low tide to get in or out of our canal here where I launch it.

I passed by the guy's shop today. He hasn't started it yet. He has about 5 other boats there he's working on. I want to see what it looks like when he gets the floor off. Maybe there's a cubera hiding in there.

In the operating room. There was a lot less water than we thought. And it wasn't so much in the foam. More in the stringers. But still, it was slowly building up so it's good to cut the drains in all the compartments to let it drain back to the bilge.
And naturally the weather is all time when I don't have a boat. Look at the glassy, beautiful morning. And it's full moon. The snappers can rest easy for a week or so.

Look at the guys working with the fiberglass. No masks. Barefoot, short sleeves. I told the one guy....a young guy he should wear a mask. His dad owns the shop. He just smiled and turned on his grinder.

There is no.....well, I can go in the water off our beach here but usually the vis is less than 10 feet. We have a pipeline going out to sea about 1000 feet to about 18 feet of water. The pipe attracts a lot of mangrove, or black snapper, as they're called here. We also have some busted pipe out there due to a hurricane a couple years back and 10-15 lb jewfish hide in those. Also a lot of barracuda.
But honestly the murky inshore water makes me a bit nervous. We have a river about half mile up the coast and I would bet some good size bullsharks come in to breed or whatever they do in fresh water. I see a lot of manatees here too.

Just saw the boat. They drained 40 gallons of water out of the stringers and a couple compartments. That's 320 lbs. Or about 5 good sized cuberas. haha.
He's going to lay the floor back on tomorrow and put a seat across in front of the console. Both my ice boxes are semi crushed from guys using them as seats. Plus it'll give it a bit more structural strength.
He says maybe by Tuesday.....but this is Belize.......

Well, she's back. But my elbow and the weather has prevented me from a sea trial. Sunday is looking god though. I'm rigging a rope ladder to climb in the boat. Being dry really sucks.
they did a real nice job on the floor and the seat. I'm getting all set for a trip out to an atholl for wahoo at the full moon. 70 gallons of gas, water, food, 4 guns, floatlines, ya man. The guy we're going to see is the fishing tournament champ out there. They sent me pics of the fish they got on the full moon of late Nov.
He's pretty stoked and also spears but only in the reef. He doesn't have a reel or floatline setup and is stoked to see the breakaway slip tip rigs. ya man.

The guys that fixed the boat said a lot of people laughed at the big console on the "Juice". But it's nice, I can see ahead for logs and things and it keeps me a bit more dry. Also, my very good friend had a boat just like this run them over in the Placencia lagoon 7 years ago. The guy just kept coming at them beause the high bow was blocking them from his view. He ran over them, killing my friend's mother. so, let them laugh. I'll laugh back as I clean fish guts off the deck. hah. goddammit......:laughing: