28' Victory Cat Rebuild

[keegs]

I picked up a 25' Victory Cat (who built the boats in Australia based on a Motion / Skater hull mould I believe) earlier this year which had a transom delam / rot issue after what looked to be a poor job of sealing the bolts through the engine mounts causing water ingress etc.

After pulling off the engines and getting started on the transom, I ended up deciding to a do a complete overhaul of the cockpit, upholstery, engines, etc. - so basically, I've rebuilt the entire boat.

Below is a bit of that story, figured it might be of interest to a few of you - and always nice to get feedback and ideas alone the way as well!

[keegs]

Here are some pics of where it started:

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[keegs]

Engines off and transom being removed - it was extremely wet from where the water had intruded through the engine mounts. Old owners had tried to "easy fix" it with the plate you see in the pic above.

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445009Transom and new knees / stringers going in

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Decided to strip the entire interior and redesign the layout, taking inspiration from some of the newer DCB / Skater cockpits

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Stern storage - ice well, wet storage and fender holders (which will receive laser cut foam inserts to prevent movement).

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Top side of dash glassed up

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Driver seat / plate fitting

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Rear seats mocked up

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Fabric selection. Using a combination of Alcantara and Macrosuede. This is being matched to the exterior, which will be wrapped / sprayed to mimic the AMG colours, seen below.

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New powerheads and sportmasters arrive. The old engines were just 2.5L 200's with offshore mids and standard boxes.

Moving to 2.5L 280's with 1.87 Sportmasters. Will play around with props (and potentially ratios) once we start to dial the boat in post rigging.

To save any questions, I stuck with 280's as I love these engines and I simply cannot stand the sound of a 4 stroke, regardless of some of the benefits.

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More cockpit mockup

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Cockpit glassed up, together with additional bulkhead braces / gussets

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Dash is glassed, first coat

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Transom is filled and faired and coated

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Top of dash comes back from upholstery

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[JPEROG]

Sure looks like a 25 Motion to me. Cool project, 280s make them a fun boat.

Joe

[keegs]

Sure looks like a 25 Motion to me. Cool project, 280s make them a fun boat.

Joe

The sales guys who advertised it had it listed as a "28 Victory" and said it was based on a Skater Hull. However, upon further investigation I think you're right - in that although it was built / layed up in Australia by "Victory", the hull is actually based off the Skater / Motion 24/25. They were used by some of the Riv / Maritimo guys for racing a while back and some of them have indicated that the moulds were the ones made from them as well. Hard to know because it was such limited production here in Austraila.

I haven't actually run the tape over it, but never thought it looked 28" from the side, so I'm now assuming given the identical hull appearance it's actually the 25".

Either way, the hull is in good shape and I'm happier to know it's a Skater / Motion base than I was before haha.

More updates will come shortly - it's our Winter here so perfect time to be doing everything before Summer!

[JPEROG]

Very very fun boats to drive-the biggest problem is the confidence that it will install in you. Always remember that its a relatively short boat and when waves have a decent spread between them, they can easily trip the little guys. Take your time, remember that it can stuff really fast, and you will break a lot hearts "not much faster in that size range and will surprise many large boat owners".

You also need to remain conscientious of how much weight you are adding. Weight kills performance when you are only dealing with a 600 hp package. The good thing is that 300XS motors will overcome that if it doesn't do what you want.

Joe

[XstreamVking]

Excellent job. I see that you repaired the trans from the outside. Some will say that is a no-no. If done properly, I disagree.

[keegs]

Excellent job. I see that you repaired the trans from the outside. Some will say that is a no-no. If done properly, I disagree.


Agree. This was considered at length and I did debate it amongst myself and others. In the end it seemed to make more sense to do it from the outside given the respective state of the transom on the outer / inner skin, as well as the cap and the other work we were going to do. In the end we replaced the outer skin with what I would say is a better job than was originally done, especially considering what had happened to it over the years through poor rigging etc.

[keegs]

New trailer + boat goes in for it's exterior paint / wrap.

Have made some exciting rigging / equipment choices including a custom MoTeC C1212 dash - so will keep you all posted when that's starts too.

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[89LASER]

Nice work, I do like an all white boat. Good luck with it.

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New exterior wrap goes on..

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Electronics and wiring, what a nightmare this all was!

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[mrichartz]

Electronics and wiring, what a nightmare this all was!

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All say invalid attachment...

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All say invalid attachment...

Should hopefully work now

[mrichartz]

Should hopefully work now

Yes all show up now..

Looks good!

[JPEROG]

Small projects turn into major undertakings with a lot of money involved and once you commit there is no turning back. Glad to see you are chasing it to completion and will get to enjoy the finished product.

Joe

[keegs]

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[powerabout]

Agree. This was considered at length and I did debate it amongst myself and others. In the end it seemed to make more sense to do it from the outside given the respective state of the transom on the outer / inner skin, as well as the cap and the other work we were going to do. In the end we replaced the outer skin with what I would say is a better job than was originally done, especially considering what had happened to it over the years through poor rigging etc.
its getting that cloth strength around the corners that makes me think its not a great way to do it?

[keegs]

its getting that cloth strength around the corners that makes me think its not a great way to do it?

The corners aren't cut out when you repair from the rear (or they shouldn't be). A 3" or so perimeter is left in tact and the new core is then wedged into place behind that before you fibreglass the old (or new) skin into place. This is the same process set out by West System and can be found explained in a fair bit of detail here - https://www.westsystem.com/wp-content/uploads/Fiberglass-Manual-2015.pdf

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[XstreamVking]

I have done many from the outside with zero failures. Have even re-used the outer skin on some that were in good shape. Lot of myths about glassing transoms out there that are flat out bs. If you know how to lay glass and engineer a laminated structure no problems. If you try and just putty it in, it will fail.

[keegs]

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Project almost complete.

Ran 91MPH with full fuel on the second outing, but that was with the 4 blades (as we're machining new 3 blade cleavers) and still playing with engine height. Pretty happy considering all the extra weight added with interior etc.

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