hagerty1
Member
The life and times of an orphan Checkmate 14’
Someone asked for details
Part 1
• 1986 Purchased hull 1 in Lorain Oh. Sitting in a back yard for 5 years upside down. It was painted (believe it or not with orange WRINKLE paint. No trailer no controls no anything except 2 old style Checkmate fiberglass seat frames, and the guts mounted in the dash of a cable steering setup. Paid $ 50.00. Seemed like a good idea at the time, at least to me….Wife not so much. Found an old P.O.S. trailer and dragged her home to my rented duplex. Boat had center mount steering. I was unemployed at the time but did antique furniture refinishing for cash. My budget was ZERO.
1. First step was to chemically strip the orange wrinkle paint. The flake gel under the paint was 80% shot. Had stripper for the furniture gig.
2. Got together with the owner of a local Marine repair shop, Gene’s Marine in Lorain. GREAT old guy. He let me barter work for stuff. He had an old warehouse FULL of stuff going back 30 years. I got all my materials this way.
3. Primed and painted boat white with a roller/brush tip process I learned painting a 30’ Trimaran in Miami. Used Interlux Blue Glo White paint with slow dry 333 thinner. This technique with this paint produces a GLASS smooth ultra-glossy finish. No **** you could not get a finer finish with any spray. You roll on the paint with a lint free roller and “Tip” or very lightly brush to smooth. When paint is curing it “Shrinks” and pulls all brush marks out. You cannot dock a boat with this paint in the water as the paint will blister if submerged for more that 2-3 days. Other than that it’s tough and shines like a mirror.
4. Found an old cable and pulley steering system and installed.
5. I bartered for an old Marc 55 Mercury outboard. I cleaned and stripped it and gave it a nice new white & red paint job.
6. Got a wonderful dual handle old style Merc control with cables for more barter. No safety crap on this baby. If you had the throttle set at full and shifter in gear, it would start and haul ass. I loved that dual handle control it let me set engine speeds as I wanted regardless of shift position.
7. Wiring harness from Gene
8. Transom and some floor sections were kind of funky but I had no money to fix. I figured at 55 H.P. the transom wasn’t going anywhere.
9. Controversial seating………………………. I found an old bench seat from an I don’t know what on the side of the road, and guess what…it fit real nice. I mounted the 2 buckets I got with the boat behind the bench, everyone laughed at that setup but I tell you, it was great. I had little ones them and I always felt safe with them up in that bench seat. Also with center steering it worked great.
10. A six gallon tank and battery off we go………..slow……………..35 MPH
https://plus.google.com/photos/118298089550959087042/albums/5933131518712937841
• 1987 MORE POWER………. DASH CHANGE
1. Center steering is a PITA limited control mounting etc had to go. Decided on left hand steering figured if it’s good enough for my car……..
2. Cut out dash area to make room. I was working at a wheelchair co. at the time that imported some beautiful 12 layer Baltic Birch plywood to make trays for kid’s wheelchairs. Got me some, and made a dash cover.
3. I bartered for a used Teleflex steering system. I also found some scrap brass strip coil that was 4” wide. I made switch plates from the brass and bought lighted multi colored switches, looked very cool at night.
4. Added stereo
5. Got old style chrome surface mount gauges, speed and tach.
6. Traded my Marc 55 to a collector for a 65 H.P. Merc.
7. Beefed up transom with welded steel bracket.
8. Used the birch on inner transom to fashion rod holder clamp plates. (Believe it or not I spent 99% of my time in this boat trolling for walleye in Lake Erie.) Nice new Blue carpet and birch trim all around. Oh yea 2 chrome racing strips down the bow.
9. I installed a set of fixed tabs (a story in themselves) as I had a lot of torque twist with the 65 H.P. which I later discovered was due to a semi spun prop hub. I was visiting my sister in Illinois the first time I ran the 65 Merc. Boat rolled like hell to starboard. Could not figure it out. I was in corn country. No marine stores. But I being of a rigging persuasion not politically correct to mention, was not giving up. I found a TSC store. Tractor Supply for you non-farm folk. I looked all over the store for anything I might use. I found them…………….I’m sure you have already guessed. Pig feeder bin covers. That’s right Checkmate experts, Pig feeder covers. They are shaped perfectly made of steel with rolled edges for strength and hinged at one end. 2 of those and 2 turnbuckles and I had me some trim tabs. Worked Great.
10. Installed a 6 gallon fuel tank in bow compartment. I was running 6 gal front and 6 gal rear. The extra front weight helped a lot, as I had no tilt/trim on the 65.
11. RESULTS: Faster up to around 45+ better range and better trim. Reconditioned prop solved the horrible torque roll. Still too slow.
12. I did replace the pig feeder tabs with some Bennett hydraulics
** In I988 I found a sister hull with no serial no title. Good thing I did as that year while making a river run I crushed the bow of my first hull below the waterline trying to “Beach” her on a slippery log. My comment to my buddy just before the horrid crunching sound was “don’t worry this hull is bullet proof” Bullet proof it may be, log proof not so much. We were lucky that I was running off the front tank and it was almost empty, this made her squat quite a bit. I manually set the motor pin way up and went back down the river squatting enough that the big freakin hole in the bow only took in a little water. When I got her home I realized it was going to be a lot more work to fix this hull than to just continue the saga with hull 2 using hull one’s title. I know technically it’s two boats but I am choosing to ignore that fact.
• 1989 NEW DO 2
1. Painted boat as two-tone since deck section original flake was in pretty good shape. Blue Glo White with Blue flake deck. This time I used a two part epoxy below the waterline so I could keep her at the marina in the water (more barter at Gene’s Marine Lorain Ohio.
2. Scrapped bench seat and went with 4 new buckets in blue.
3. New Stainless steel transom bracket.
4. 12 gallon fuel tank in the bow section foamed in.
5. 12 gallon rear fuel tank.
6. More scrap brass, this time 2” fabricated a brass rub rail fastened with stainless screws and stainless finish washers. Polished then clear urethane. Bitchin look…………….
7. Moved steering to right side and installed new Teleflex system.
8. Said goodbye to my beloved 2 handle control for a single handle standard Mercury. (what a piece of crap)
9. Traded up to the 140 H.P. in-line Mercury with tilt/trim. Ran and still run 2 blade brass prop.
10. Redid the birch dash and went to Teleflex black gauges.
11. Installed outriggers for trolling
RESULT: I discovered that this hull can carry a hell of a lot of weight. Keep in mind fellas………this is a 14’ boat.
o 24 gallons of fuel 12 front 12 rear
o Tilt Trim Pump for motor
o Hydraulic pump for trim tabs
o Trim Tabs
o Stainless transom bracket
o Marine heavy duty Battery
o Four passengers
o Large cooler
o Fishing gear
SPEED: It had no problem in the 50-55+++ range at less than ½ throttle.
ISSUE I just did not trust the stringers and the transom. I just kept picturing that 140 clawing its way through the boat and up my ***. Only ran this setup for 1 summer. I knew I was on track and the boat could do the weight. I just needed to get her back to her original strength or better.
https://plus.google.com/photos/118298089550959087042/albums/5939464485782523969
• BEST AND FINAL………………………………….
1. Took her down to bare ass glass. All and I mean ALL wood removed.
2. Starting with transom I used laminate of the ultra-tough waterproof birch multi-ply and west system epoxy to rebuild the transom. ALL LAY UP AND GLASS WORK WAS DONE WITH WEST EPOXY. I left only outer skin original. I had access to Kevlar cross weave from a ultra-light wheelchair project I was working on. I made a laminate of Ply/Kevlar/Epoxy buildup to get the proper thickness. Bedded it in using West epoxy and Micro beads. Strapped and skinned with a combination of woven glass and Kevlar laid up with West epoxy. I also took a slight “Hook” out of the bottom. I also reconfigured the transom well completely. This made the boat totally one of a kind, as you can see in photos. I knew I did not need the cut out in the rear as I was installing a Jack Plate.
3. Stringers were marine ply, cut to shape then saturated with a slow cure mix of West epoxy then strapped using Glass cloth and Kevlar. No more rot.
4. Seat riser boxes were done similarly using the same epoxy treatment and strap technique. I also made a stronger front tank mounting system.
5. I left a center section of the floor framed and open for stowage. I constructed a cover made of Holly & Teak decking hinged at rear. Looks fantastic.
6. HULL PREP & PAINT:
o Decided to go with PPG Base/Clear worked great on my Vision 221
o Chemically stripped whole boat except epoxy below waterline.
o Faired out with polyester resin filler sand, sand, sand and more sanding.
o Three coats PPG DP epoxy primer white then grey then white wet sand between coats. The color change shows all the rough spots.
o 3 color base coat paint. DBU Sapphire Blue Metallic DBU Pure White DBU Silver Metallic
o Had a buddy Pin stripe and fan the blue, white and silver, his son drew the Checkmate horse logo on the bow by hand. Waterline stripes to match in blue and silver.
o Used Original Checkmate Decals on aft sides and on raised bow section
o 16 coats of DCU-2001 Concept clear high solid urethane clear applied 2 coats at a time @ 1-1.2 dry mil each, then full cure scotch bright rough up, then 2 again until 12 coats. Final hand block wet sand then last 4 full wet coats. Final clear is 16-18 Mil. This clear makes the decals look like they were painted on.
7. Carpeted in factory Checkmate Blue.
8. Interior side trim in Checkmate headliner white.
9. Went with 4 White and Grey bucket seats aftermarket ran out of $$$$ could not afford Checkmate buckets.
10. Teak trim in front foot well
11. Remote fuel valve at steering station to switch between front 12 gallon tank and rear 12 gallon tank. Custom chrome front deck fuel filler & brass venting.
12. New Dash: ¼” custom brushed dark grey hard anodized aluminum. All new white telefax sportsman gauges. New stereo with automatic retracting antenna. All new wiring and switches.
13. New single handle Teleflex super control with tilt/trim and jack plate controls on handle. No dead man switch…if I’m dead I don’t care…..
14. CMC Hydraulic Jack Plate w 5.5” setback
15. New stainless HP high speed Bennett trim tab system
16. Tested many props but found my 2 blade bronze always works best.
17. Bought a used full wobble roller trailer for her.
RESULTS: Boat runs like a scalded rabbit…………………….. Sits well at rest in water as seen in pictures, these of boat fully fueled and loaded. Fantastic range with 24 gallons of fuel. Transom solid as a rock, no flex at all. Will cruise @ 40 M.P.H. @ ¼ throttle all day long and then some. I have had her up to around 70 M.P.H. at this speed she wants to fly away……. with the extreme bow flare of this hull I ain’t goin no faster. I was at I believe a little over ¾ throttle. I have NEVER run this boat full out and I have no intention of doing so. I was not tached out at this speed, but to be honest I’m not positive at what r.p.m. I was at as I was holding on for dear life on a bet. It was me and my best friend and he wasn’t looking to go any faster either. So, the boat looks beautiful she turns heads everywhere. No one would guess the weight being carried on board. This boat planes so fast it will snap your head back. I run the front tank to about ½ then do the same to the rear, then back to the front, keeps trim balance. With just one person or an uneven load the trim tabs REALLY help a boat this size. It takes very little trim to bring her running dead even. The Jack Plate works great, I’m sure with a surface running prop it may be more useful, but I can’t go as fast as she will go now. As I am getting old……………………I don’t run her as much as I should. One thing is for sure ********I WILL DIE WITH MY NAME ON THE TITLE********
https://plus.google.com/photos/118298089550959087042/albums/5939466123788471809
Someone asked for details
Part 1
• 1986 Purchased hull 1 in Lorain Oh. Sitting in a back yard for 5 years upside down. It was painted (believe it or not with orange WRINKLE paint. No trailer no controls no anything except 2 old style Checkmate fiberglass seat frames, and the guts mounted in the dash of a cable steering setup. Paid $ 50.00. Seemed like a good idea at the time, at least to me….Wife not so much. Found an old P.O.S. trailer and dragged her home to my rented duplex. Boat had center mount steering. I was unemployed at the time but did antique furniture refinishing for cash. My budget was ZERO.
1. First step was to chemically strip the orange wrinkle paint. The flake gel under the paint was 80% shot. Had stripper for the furniture gig.
2. Got together with the owner of a local Marine repair shop, Gene’s Marine in Lorain. GREAT old guy. He let me barter work for stuff. He had an old warehouse FULL of stuff going back 30 years. I got all my materials this way.
3. Primed and painted boat white with a roller/brush tip process I learned painting a 30’ Trimaran in Miami. Used Interlux Blue Glo White paint with slow dry 333 thinner. This technique with this paint produces a GLASS smooth ultra-glossy finish. No **** you could not get a finer finish with any spray. You roll on the paint with a lint free roller and “Tip” or very lightly brush to smooth. When paint is curing it “Shrinks” and pulls all brush marks out. You cannot dock a boat with this paint in the water as the paint will blister if submerged for more that 2-3 days. Other than that it’s tough and shines like a mirror.
4. Found an old cable and pulley steering system and installed.
5. I bartered for an old Marc 55 Mercury outboard. I cleaned and stripped it and gave it a nice new white & red paint job.
6. Got a wonderful dual handle old style Merc control with cables for more barter. No safety crap on this baby. If you had the throttle set at full and shifter in gear, it would start and haul ass. I loved that dual handle control it let me set engine speeds as I wanted regardless of shift position.
7. Wiring harness from Gene
8. Transom and some floor sections were kind of funky but I had no money to fix. I figured at 55 H.P. the transom wasn’t going anywhere.
9. Controversial seating………………………. I found an old bench seat from an I don’t know what on the side of the road, and guess what…it fit real nice. I mounted the 2 buckets I got with the boat behind the bench, everyone laughed at that setup but I tell you, it was great. I had little ones them and I always felt safe with them up in that bench seat. Also with center steering it worked great.
10. A six gallon tank and battery off we go………..slow……………..35 MPH
https://plus.google.com/photos/118298089550959087042/albums/5933131518712937841
• 1987 MORE POWER………. DASH CHANGE
1. Center steering is a PITA limited control mounting etc had to go. Decided on left hand steering figured if it’s good enough for my car……..
2. Cut out dash area to make room. I was working at a wheelchair co. at the time that imported some beautiful 12 layer Baltic Birch plywood to make trays for kid’s wheelchairs. Got me some, and made a dash cover.
3. I bartered for a used Teleflex steering system. I also found some scrap brass strip coil that was 4” wide. I made switch plates from the brass and bought lighted multi colored switches, looked very cool at night.
4. Added stereo
5. Got old style chrome surface mount gauges, speed and tach.
6. Traded my Marc 55 to a collector for a 65 H.P. Merc.
7. Beefed up transom with welded steel bracket.
8. Used the birch on inner transom to fashion rod holder clamp plates. (Believe it or not I spent 99% of my time in this boat trolling for walleye in Lake Erie.) Nice new Blue carpet and birch trim all around. Oh yea 2 chrome racing strips down the bow.
9. I installed a set of fixed tabs (a story in themselves) as I had a lot of torque twist with the 65 H.P. which I later discovered was due to a semi spun prop hub. I was visiting my sister in Illinois the first time I ran the 65 Merc. Boat rolled like hell to starboard. Could not figure it out. I was in corn country. No marine stores. But I being of a rigging persuasion not politically correct to mention, was not giving up. I found a TSC store. Tractor Supply for you non-farm folk. I looked all over the store for anything I might use. I found them…………….I’m sure you have already guessed. Pig feeder bin covers. That’s right Checkmate experts, Pig feeder covers. They are shaped perfectly made of steel with rolled edges for strength and hinged at one end. 2 of those and 2 turnbuckles and I had me some trim tabs. Worked Great.
10. Installed a 6 gallon fuel tank in bow compartment. I was running 6 gal front and 6 gal rear. The extra front weight helped a lot, as I had no tilt/trim on the 65.
11. RESULTS: Faster up to around 45+ better range and better trim. Reconditioned prop solved the horrible torque roll. Still too slow.
12. I did replace the pig feeder tabs with some Bennett hydraulics
** In I988 I found a sister hull with no serial no title. Good thing I did as that year while making a river run I crushed the bow of my first hull below the waterline trying to “Beach” her on a slippery log. My comment to my buddy just before the horrid crunching sound was “don’t worry this hull is bullet proof” Bullet proof it may be, log proof not so much. We were lucky that I was running off the front tank and it was almost empty, this made her squat quite a bit. I manually set the motor pin way up and went back down the river squatting enough that the big freakin hole in the bow only took in a little water. When I got her home I realized it was going to be a lot more work to fix this hull than to just continue the saga with hull 2 using hull one’s title. I know technically it’s two boats but I am choosing to ignore that fact.
• 1989 NEW DO 2
1. Painted boat as two-tone since deck section original flake was in pretty good shape. Blue Glo White with Blue flake deck. This time I used a two part epoxy below the waterline so I could keep her at the marina in the water (more barter at Gene’s Marine Lorain Ohio.
2. Scrapped bench seat and went with 4 new buckets in blue.
3. New Stainless steel transom bracket.
4. 12 gallon fuel tank in the bow section foamed in.
5. 12 gallon rear fuel tank.
6. More scrap brass, this time 2” fabricated a brass rub rail fastened with stainless screws and stainless finish washers. Polished then clear urethane. Bitchin look…………….
7. Moved steering to right side and installed new Teleflex system.
8. Said goodbye to my beloved 2 handle control for a single handle standard Mercury. (what a piece of crap)
9. Traded up to the 140 H.P. in-line Mercury with tilt/trim. Ran and still run 2 blade brass prop.
10. Redid the birch dash and went to Teleflex black gauges.
11. Installed outriggers for trolling
RESULT: I discovered that this hull can carry a hell of a lot of weight. Keep in mind fellas………this is a 14’ boat.
o 24 gallons of fuel 12 front 12 rear
o Tilt Trim Pump for motor
o Hydraulic pump for trim tabs
o Trim Tabs
o Stainless transom bracket
o Marine heavy duty Battery
o Four passengers
o Large cooler
o Fishing gear
SPEED: It had no problem in the 50-55+++ range at less than ½ throttle.
ISSUE I just did not trust the stringers and the transom. I just kept picturing that 140 clawing its way through the boat and up my ***. Only ran this setup for 1 summer. I knew I was on track and the boat could do the weight. I just needed to get her back to her original strength or better.
https://plus.google.com/photos/118298089550959087042/albums/5939464485782523969
• BEST AND FINAL………………………………….
1. Took her down to bare ass glass. All and I mean ALL wood removed.
2. Starting with transom I used laminate of the ultra-tough waterproof birch multi-ply and west system epoxy to rebuild the transom. ALL LAY UP AND GLASS WORK WAS DONE WITH WEST EPOXY. I left only outer skin original. I had access to Kevlar cross weave from a ultra-light wheelchair project I was working on. I made a laminate of Ply/Kevlar/Epoxy buildup to get the proper thickness. Bedded it in using West epoxy and Micro beads. Strapped and skinned with a combination of woven glass and Kevlar laid up with West epoxy. I also took a slight “Hook” out of the bottom. I also reconfigured the transom well completely. This made the boat totally one of a kind, as you can see in photos. I knew I did not need the cut out in the rear as I was installing a Jack Plate.
3. Stringers were marine ply, cut to shape then saturated with a slow cure mix of West epoxy then strapped using Glass cloth and Kevlar. No more rot.
4. Seat riser boxes were done similarly using the same epoxy treatment and strap technique. I also made a stronger front tank mounting system.
5. I left a center section of the floor framed and open for stowage. I constructed a cover made of Holly & Teak decking hinged at rear. Looks fantastic.
6. HULL PREP & PAINT:
o Decided to go with PPG Base/Clear worked great on my Vision 221
o Chemically stripped whole boat except epoxy below waterline.
o Faired out with polyester resin filler sand, sand, sand and more sanding.
o Three coats PPG DP epoxy primer white then grey then white wet sand between coats. The color change shows all the rough spots.
o 3 color base coat paint. DBU Sapphire Blue Metallic DBU Pure White DBU Silver Metallic
o Had a buddy Pin stripe and fan the blue, white and silver, his son drew the Checkmate horse logo on the bow by hand. Waterline stripes to match in blue and silver.
o Used Original Checkmate Decals on aft sides and on raised bow section
o 16 coats of DCU-2001 Concept clear high solid urethane clear applied 2 coats at a time @ 1-1.2 dry mil each, then full cure scotch bright rough up, then 2 again until 12 coats. Final hand block wet sand then last 4 full wet coats. Final clear is 16-18 Mil. This clear makes the decals look like they were painted on.
7. Carpeted in factory Checkmate Blue.
8. Interior side trim in Checkmate headliner white.
9. Went with 4 White and Grey bucket seats aftermarket ran out of $$$$ could not afford Checkmate buckets.
10. Teak trim in front foot well
11. Remote fuel valve at steering station to switch between front 12 gallon tank and rear 12 gallon tank. Custom chrome front deck fuel filler & brass venting.
12. New Dash: ¼” custom brushed dark grey hard anodized aluminum. All new white telefax sportsman gauges. New stereo with automatic retracting antenna. All new wiring and switches.
13. New single handle Teleflex super control with tilt/trim and jack plate controls on handle. No dead man switch…if I’m dead I don’t care…..
14. CMC Hydraulic Jack Plate w 5.5” setback
15. New stainless HP high speed Bennett trim tab system
16. Tested many props but found my 2 blade bronze always works best.
17. Bought a used full wobble roller trailer for her.
RESULTS: Boat runs like a scalded rabbit…………………….. Sits well at rest in water as seen in pictures, these of boat fully fueled and loaded. Fantastic range with 24 gallons of fuel. Transom solid as a rock, no flex at all. Will cruise @ 40 M.P.H. @ ¼ throttle all day long and then some. I have had her up to around 70 M.P.H. at this speed she wants to fly away……. with the extreme bow flare of this hull I ain’t goin no faster. I was at I believe a little over ¾ throttle. I have NEVER run this boat full out and I have no intention of doing so. I was not tached out at this speed, but to be honest I’m not positive at what r.p.m. I was at as I was holding on for dear life on a bet. It was me and my best friend and he wasn’t looking to go any faster either. So, the boat looks beautiful she turns heads everywhere. No one would guess the weight being carried on board. This boat planes so fast it will snap your head back. I run the front tank to about ½ then do the same to the rear, then back to the front, keeps trim balance. With just one person or an uneven load the trim tabs REALLY help a boat this size. It takes very little trim to bring her running dead even. The Jack Plate works great, I’m sure with a surface running prop it may be more useful, but I can’t go as fast as she will go now. As I am getting old……………………I don’t run her as much as I should. One thing is for sure ********I WILL DIE WITH MY NAME ON THE TITLE********
https://plus.google.com/photos/118298089550959087042/albums/5939466123788471809
