As some of you know and some of you may not know, I keep my Targa V19 aka Dock Holiday at the marina at Collin Park. Yesterday we the first time it's been back on the bunks since I first put it in the water. It was time for a little TLC and a bit of tweaking things after spending a good bit of time fishing out of it. I had a few small changes I wanted to make and one pretty big one. And, last time out, the trolling motor would not run. I have had suspicions about the twist lock connector that the motor plugs into the boat with and so I wanted to maybe remake those connections.

First things first, I wanted to move the Mul-T-Bars. I have never really been happy with the way they were mounted. I loved the height of them but they just seemed to be in the wrong spot. Between the bimini and the rad racks, there just wasn't enough space left. So, I relocated them to the deck at the very back of the boat.

Stainless Steel Threaded Inserts

So that I didn't have to take the entire boat apart, which I would have had to If I would have through bolted them, I used threaded inserts. I have used these before in furniture building and I thought they would do a good job. I was right (I think). Time will tell but I can just about pull the boat with them now and I would not have been able to do that before.

The other change I made was to add a rod holder. I am moving from running 6 rods to running 8. I think most of the time, I will still be using 2 long lines and 4 planer boards but I will be adding 2 suspended baits to the mix also. But if we are getting bit on the planers, I will run 6 boards instead of 4. I like the flexibility to do that.




And may I say that those black Mul-T-Bars with the 4 black Smackdown Rod Holders looks bad a$$. Forgive me...

You can see from the second image above that I have a Kingpin Anchor system on the back of the boat. One on each side. I leave the mounts on the base all the time because they make a great place to hang the drift sock from. Yes I did check the clearance to make sure I could remove them if I need to before I mounted the base plate for the rod rack.

The next project was to reinforce the Nic's Knacks Bait Board. This thing is awesome. It is all 3/4 inch material so it is heavy. Then at a Mul-T-Bar mount and it is just more that the Versa-Track can handle. So I mounted it to the top of the gunnel and I through bolted the board to the mount. I will have to watch where the knife is when I cut bait but I know it's not going anywhere and again, I could pull the boat with it...



My next conundrum was about the landing net. I have not found a good place to keep it when we are fishing. When we are boating it can lay on the back deck or sit just about anywhere but when we are fishing, it always seems to be in the way and it always gets hooked on everything when you try and pull it out to use it. So, I added one more smackdown rod holder that hold the net at the ready and just out over the side of the boat so it isn't in the way and it is easy to access AND it doesn't get hooked on every little thing when you grab it to use it... I know this sounds like I'm picking at nits but, that cotton pickin thing is always in the way or snagged when I need it. So the pic below shows what I think is the solution. Time will tell.



Now for the reel pain in my arse today...



The trolling motor. So the trolling motor itself wasn't the issue. Now was it the wiring, or the connectors or the fuses, sort of... I have found that the guys who put these boats together like to hide fuses. I found another one today, hidden up under the console. it was inline with another fuse that I added when I put the Pro-Mariner three bank charger in. So, I cut it out and did away with it. That fixed one part of the problem. The other issue was that the batteries were so dead that the float charger would not start charging them. Thank you YouTube for the help with that. I have a little 10 amp charger that I keep in the garage and I put it on one of the batteries and it took enough of a charge that the float charger started working. The other battery, the other trolling motor battery (it's a 24 VDC system) would not take a charge from that small charger. I had to pop the hood on the truck and charge it from there. Got it resuscitated and put it back in the boat. Hooked it up to the other battery, put the charger leads on it and viola! Fault was gone, the remote saw the trolling motor and everything was good. The batteries will need to charge over night but we should be good to go after that.

Oh, I forgot one thing...


When I set the boat up back in June, I pulled the clam shell seats that came with it and put on two Millennium Boat Seats The only problem with that was when I turned the helm seat to face backwards to fish, I bumped into the throttle. I could fenaggle it to work but It scratched up the throttle level a bit so today I pulled up the seat base and moved it over about an inch and a half. All good now. No issues with spinning the seat.

If you look close in the picture, you can see the holes where it was before...



Forgot one other thing... I changed the oil in the motor and the lower unit too. After a good cleaning tomorrow, it's back to the lake and in the water. Planning on fishing Friday. As I sit here writing this post, it occurs to me that I am a desk jockey and I feel like I've worked all day! As a friend of mine says, getting old ain't for sissies!

GB & TL Y'all...

Nice job, Tim.

It blows my mind thanking about running 6 planer boards, but yeah it will sure increase your hook up rate. I run just two, one each side, and that's all my old reptile brain can handle without stress. It will be interesting to see how that goes for you.

I LOVE your landing net solution! Like you I also get the darn thing caught up in anything and everything when I want to grab the thing. I may do something similar, and I note that Catfish Dave (YouTube) has a similar set up.

Good luck with the cleaning tomorrow, and post nap some pics when Dock Holiday is all finished.

Nice work CT, I have no idea why any inline fuzes would be a good thing when you don't even know those things are there just to start with. Then most likely you're going to need tools to get to it if you needed to R&R the fuse. Boat wiring can be hard enough to troubleshoot, let alone when fuses are hidden. Boats don't have a chassis ground and usually that is where things go south is on the ground side of the wiring.

Your seat bases are some really nice big bases, got to love those for sure. I just love things over built... The dip net is always a challenge to find a good place for. Like how you located yours now. Got your engine Oil and Filter changed and your lower unit oil to boot. Man your just about ready. Have boat ready to fish...

Edit: I almost forgot, I just have no idea how you guys run that many lines at one time and keep them untangled lol...

Tim, looks like a labor of love to me! I'm so on board with the extra rod holder for the net. I'm definitely adding that to mine now.

The only question I have is, with the new placement of the multibars, are you going to be able to lay them out over the gunnels or is that a non-issue? Seems to me you would want to be able to get that extra width when you're running all your lines.

Also, I don't know if you've ever run into this before but, twice now I've let my trolling batteries run completely out of juice and one of them has reversed polarity. My system is a 36 volt system and when one of the batteries goes completely dead it starts taking a charge from the other batteries and it does this in reverse which ends up switching the polarity. It was a real head scratcher to find out that, once that happened, the negative became the positive and vice-versa. This happened with a fairly new battery earlier this year and I just went and got a new one to replace it. I had every intention of taking the older one back but I didn't, and after months of it sitting in the garage, I took it to get it replaced and they said there was nothing wrong with it other than it needed charging. I took it home and charged it and it was fine which was another head scratcher because I guess it completely discharged and polarity switched back to normal. I guess....I don't know. It's all too much for my feeble mind but it worked out great because a couple of weeks ago, one of my older batteries died and I had that one ready to go. It was the first time in my life that I had what I needed, when I needed it!

Anyway, Dock Holliday looks like it's getting the proper care! You should be fishing out of it when you're an old man! Wait, didn't you say you were going out Friday? I guess my statement rings true lol.....

Looks really good Tim. Your boat looked good drifting on Monday. We might be back out there friday also.

Awesome job!

The freezing Temps and a run down battery is a real issue too. A low or run down battery can freeze, that happens that battery will not recover from that. My cordless tools are no exception to this and I have forgotten to charge them and allowed them to freeze before.

They would still take a charge and run my tools, just not very long before it would crash. So I would keep a close watch over them if they were exposed to freezing temps.

Well, yesterday was the work day. Today was a day at the spa for Dock Holiday. And was it ever needed.



This is the before of the Starboard Gunnel.



This is the after.



This is the port side with a section done and some not done so you can see the contrast.



And this... is how I did it. This Boat Juice is the real deal. That stuff sprayed on, then scrub it with a soft nylon brush in the cordless drill and then wipe. Easy Peasy...

And the results...

I am ready to get after 'em tomorrow! Look out blue cats I'm a comin!

I would think you should be thrilled with the outcome of your efforts here. It's always good when the end results look like your's does now, ready to float lol. Heck I am so ready to take my rig out, but just like yesterday here, we had over 50mph wind gusts that gets in the way of going. Least that is my excuse for not going yesterday lol...

Your rig man looks awesome and ready to go and get wet and nasty with fish slime!

Awesome post!

I thought it was bad luck to wash a boat...? Thats what I tell my wife anyway!

I like the changes Tim... but I might need to come inspect them up close. And after all that work, you may need some medicinal support in the way of whiskey to help with sore muscles. Even if you are not hurting, it is a good excuse!

Ken

You can never be too careful Ken, and believe me, I was sore! But the muscles didn't hurt as bad as the fish yesterday. I soaked baits a long time and only had 1 fish to show for it. Most guys I talked to had a similar result. Going back at it this morning, looking for a better outcome!

Funny thing about getting old, those sore muscles also have joints they attach to, those just flat out hurt, way past sore. They no longer have the full range of motion they use to. Working on our boats really seem to bring that out too lol.

You getting all that dried on fish slime of Doc Holiday, you have removed her cloaking device, so surely you didn't expect her to get on the fish first time out. She looks all pretty and everything, but you got to know she is not happy about it right? She is going to punish you for it to some degree lol...

Rowdy, I made up for it today. 10 fish total weight of 142 pounds. She is cloaked in slime again...