Comp Vector thread

[JoshP1]

My wife and I have been talking about me getting another fast boat for a couple years now as I am not happy with the max speed I get from my Xpress H22bay (50mph +-). I was dead set on an Allison XB2003 and was planning to get rid of the Xpress. I look at Facebook Marketplace fairly often and a few days ago I found a Hydrostream Vector in Houma, LA. The young man and I sent messages back and fourth a little and I ended up picking it up last night. So now I have the absolute ugliest boat on the face of the planet and am totally, 100% in love!!! I have dreamed of having one of these hooked nose, sculpted deck boats since I was a kid!

Before we start with the obligatory everything wood must be torn out, I know. I did a Viper and jumped in head first on it. There is a thread somewhere in here I started, but never finished. With this boat I want to add a basic interior, ie: floor, bench seat at the back, two buckets at the front. I imagine adding the floor would be the same as putting one into a core boat other than I have two sets of stringers and no core. I'm also planning on adding a floatation box under the deck like my Viper had. Adding all of this is going to make my boat heavier, but I want to make a comfortable for four of us to ride in at the same time.

By the way, it a 1986 built in March with a black hull and big flake green deck. The splash well has been deleted and there was a center seat box built up front. It looks like someone added transom knees after the fact and at one point, it had a foot throttle on a pedalstool. I'll take/post pictures in a little bit as I'm just getting my day started. She is definitely going to need a bunch of love to get to hauling my fat self around.

Josh

[JoshP1]

[LakeFever]

Nice! Here comes the itch keep updating and ask any questions you have along the way. Plenty of good dudes here who will help you out

[JoshP1]

LF, thanks man. I've been on here since about 2005 or so. Great community. I do have the itch and the dust hasn't even started flying yet!!! That last Viper was brutal! Luckily with Vector there will be a lot less glass work. I'm not planning to get crazy with anything, but do plan to remove all the wood to be replaced with composite. It should last forever after that. Not sure on power right now, probably look for a 2.4 Merc later. I'm inclined to work on mechanical things instead of computerized, meaning I have no idea what I'm doing with modern fuel injection systems or ECUs.

[LakeFever]

The efi stuff has nice manners around the dock, starts easy. Otherwise it dont do anything carbs wont do.

[tnelsmn]

Awesome platform to start with! A vector will be my next build as well. Looking forward to watching the build come together! Quick tip for pictures on this old website, take them landscape and they'll show up here orientated correctly.

[JoshP1]

Quick question with a probable long answer! I am going to redo the stringers, transom, and add knees to this boat. It is a comp hull with the four stringers, no floor, and no core. Would I see any problems with NOT setting the hull on a cradle? If could get this done on the trailer, it would save me a ton of money and would be done a heck of a lot quicker (relative term). I may just be thinking out loud, but my thinking process is, there is no core to be replaced, so I should have a fairly stiff hull compared to one with all the core removed. I'm really just trying to make this as easy as possible on my wallet. I know I can not skimp on materials for the layups and composition of structural members.

Edited to say the trailer is a four bunk trailer using flat 2x4 next to the pad and vertical 2x6 between the outside and middle lift strakes.

[JoshP1]

"T", thanks for suggestion on the pictures! I'll definitely keep it in mind when I take the next round!

[JoshP1]

I started cleaning her out today. I am going to take it slow and rebuild this thing right. I'm on a budget as the wife is the CFO in the home! She actually got the boat for Christmas for me! After moving around a bit in the hull, I think I'm going to need a cradle. This thing is a potato chip! I can lay under the deck and almost see through the glass with the gelcoat. There is some type of core material attached to the underside. I don't believe it's from the factory as the same type is under the deleted splash well. There is no core in the hull other than where the bow eye and drain plug are located. I am going to redo the transom as well as I can almost pull out one of the eyes. I'm still undecided on splitting the deck from the hull.

Pros: It would be easier to reach everything on the inside of both as I plan to replace all wood with composite. I would be able to clean up the outer edges of each for a much better transition between them.

Cons: I'll have to actually split them apart. Both will become very flimsy alone. I will definitely have to build a cradle to support the hull while the deck is off.

Any input from you guys would be helpful as these are the things I can think of right now. I've been looking at places to get supplies from and different types of supplies to put in. I'm probably going to get most of it from boat builder central as it'll be easier to keep track of for me.

From what I can tell, there is a seat box built in for the driver. There was a small floor put in between the two inboard stringers from the trailing edge of the seat box to approximately 10 inches in front of the bilge area. The inboard stringers were 6 inches tall by half inch thick and 64 inches long. There are transom knees that were an afterthought on top of the inner stringers as well. The knees go approximately 3/4 up the transom. The outboard stringers were four inches tall by half inch thick and 118.5 inches long. My plan is to replace both sets of stringers. They are all rotten and mostly torn out. I will put the outboard stringers against the outer edge of the lifting strake instead of making a radius from the outer edge of the transom (inside of the strake) to the outer edge of the strake at the midship area and finally back to the inner edge of the strake in front of the dashboard area. In doing this with the outboard stringers, I'll be able to install a floor between the outer stringers, over the inner stringers, which will be stiff enough to provide support to the hull and passengers. I even thought about adding core material to the inside of the hull between the inner stringers and between the inner and outer stringers to make it more like a non-comp hull, but that would defeat the whole purpose of having a comp hull. I would also love to put a windshield on it, but it never had one and doesn't even have the cutouts on the upper "wings" at the back of the cockpit. I think my seat is an Allison copy and I will be making another just like it. Then I'll use it to make a pattern to build a bench seat for the back.

I was going to look for a 2.4/2.5 Merc for it, but my brother-in-law bought an old crossflow Evinrude from one of my uncles he is willing to give me. I know it started as a 115 and was upgraded to the 140 during the late '90s/early 00s. I plan to go through it to get it running, but will definitely run it for a while. I had the same motor on a 16 foot Cajun skiff built out of all 3/16 aluminum with a 4 foot bottom. That boat ran above 70 with no issue. I used to beat jetskis all the time. I also beat a late '90s Sprint with a 225 Mercury on it. I have no idea how fast top end was, but that boat was very heavy compared to this Hydrostream. The motor should push my Vector just fine as I'm not looking to go Mach 1, LOL!

[LakeFever]

Comp hulls still have core from the ones ive seen although i cant say ive seen a factory comp vector before. Regardless the glass on these things is sooooo thin i would absolutely core it. Tony and I laid the core over the bare hull, then put the stringers on top. From the factory they are laid up as you plan the stringers on the hull and core in between.

as for doing the work on the trailer many do this and have fine results. If you split the cap off i cant see how you can manage the build properly without a cradle. Mine was so floppy once the cap was removed. Plus you want to keep the pad and chines true and square when your laminating it back solid. There are ways to keep costs low by using cheap marine ply and poly resin. My feelings are pay the extra for vinylester because it bonds to old glass so much better plus it has other beneficial attributes over poly. Coosa is great, light, but so pricey. Core can be laid in over heavily wetted csm i believe most use 1.5oz just be sure to prime the balsa a lot until it stops soaking resin, at least two coats and get in in between the pieces too. Or use foam core and corebond for a waterproof easy install. More cost in materials but many top shelf guys prefer using no wood at all nowadays. Makes sense i guess. I used vinylester resin, corebond, balsa core, coosa everything else.

[JoshP1]

Lake, My '78 Viper was a core boat and was a sloppy mess when I got it. It had the stringers laid in on the bottom of the hull with the balsa core laid in between like you explained above. This '86 Vector doesn't have any balsa core at all. If there was factory core in it at one point, someone took a lot of time to get it out without leaving any trace. There is a seat box up front with what appears to be a very short "box stringer" under it. The box is about as wide as the center concave portion of the pad just so water/trash can flow through the seat box to the bilge area. the rest of the seat box is molded in to the hull bottom. All of the glass in the seat box appears to be blown or shot in with plywood structure from port to starboard. There is no wood for the seat box from fore to aft other than the four main stringers. The blown/shot chop glass appears to be the same as the underneath of the deck and is sloppy like a "Friday boat". Meaning, the guys at the factory sprayed that part on Friday with the weekend quickly approaching and a big party on the horizon. A lot of my Viper was sprayed like that and it was basically junk. I wish I would have kept that boat now and would have finished it, I could have had a matching pair of the two first models from what I understand.

As far as splitting the deck/hull, I would have to cut out a portion of the deleted splash well in order to replace the transom. I also want to install transom knees that span the total height of the transom for batter strength. I almost want to cut out the whole deleted splash well leaving only the most forward edge in place to make reassembly a little easier. I'll have to do some adjusting of the hull on trailer position to get it to lay flat enough where I would be comfortable enough to finish cutting out the stringers. Right now as the hull sits on the bunks, it rocks like a rocking chair. The bow is about a foot and a half or so from the bow roller at the trailer tongue. I don't want the bow on that roller because it has already bashed the gel and glass pretty bad.

[LakeFever]

If the hull has been redone in glass only it should be rigid enough to withstand a cap separation without distorting. I would think this would have taken considerable glass lays to make it sound enough without a core. Something like 7-9 layers of 1708. Then again some race focused guys are not all that focused on strength just on lightweight so who knows? This type of layup runs past my pay grade here i dont know what to suggest in lieu of a new core. Have you placed a long straight edge down the pad? Post some close up pics of the hull

[rjdubiel]

you are in for a compete rebuild so take a drill and drill from the inside of the boat in the pad and other areas as I bet there is core. Don't drill through the hull, just the inside layer of glass and see what you have under there. Also you can do the rebuild on the trailer but make sure to support the bow and the rest of the hull so that it is square and straight before you start putting it back together.

[XstreamVking]

If you can, do an accurate weight before and after the re-build.

[Dave S]

Me thinks this is a copy/ splash....Flat deck..... no notches for windshield.... and no well......I may be wrong..... I am not a stream guru ..... Forshure..........