My new boat

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Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.

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My new boat


Over the weekend I had my new boat trailered to the boat launch.

MyNewBoat.JPG





:D
 
Congratulations Mike...obviously AG is working out very well financially. :xyxthumbs:
 
Heck Mike, you'll knock out a polish and coat in a just a few short hours on it! LOL

Or, like an old story I used to share from back in the day:

One afternoon, I'm at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, and was looking at the captured U505 German Submarine.

So, as I'm standing there, this little old Italian Man is standing next to me, so I thought I'd strike up a conversation with him......

So I asked him, "Hey Mister, is that a U-Boat? His Reply was, "No, that's a no my Boat, I just'a Loook" LOL
 
Just remember Mike: Real men don't use bow-thrusters. :laughing::laughing::laughing:
 
I think you could use that boat in your next 20 training classes. My arms and shoulders are aching just looking at it
 
I worked up in Stuart/Hobe Sound as a sport fish captain years ago. Jim Smith's were always the prettiest and fastest sport fishing boats built up there and there are a lot of custom builders up there. American Yacht is also top notch. Jim Smiths are built for speed over sea keeping ability. Everything in the boat is built from light weight foam or honeycomb core and Kevlar or carbon laminate layered composite materials, from the galley counter tops to the hull. The engines are the highest horsepower and lightest diesel engines available. It's all about speed. I bet that boat does close to 50 knots flat out. That's flying in a 70+ foot sportfishing yacht.

In Florida these four million dollar plus yachts compete in high dollar Sailfish tournaments with purses of over a million dollars. In a tournament everyone starts at the same time (Bimini start), so he who has the fastest boat gets to the fishing grounds the soonest and can stay the longest.

Oh, btw, these high end boats don't get waxed. They are painted with Awlgrip or Imron. For the first four to five years the boats are just washed. If you wax them you degrade the clear protective resin layer that floats to the surface when Awlgrip and Imron dry. After year five when the resin layer starts to oxidize from UV rays instead of waxing the boats they just go to the boatyard for a new paint job and new teak decks to the tune of 150k. High dollar sport fish captains are paid to fish not wax. American Yachts does a lot of paint work on these types of Sportfishing yachts. They are arguably the best at paint work up there. American also builds some pretty amazing sportfish yachts too.

That Jim Smith isn't even finished being built yet. It's probably on it's way to a boat yard that installs tuna towers. Captains climb up in the tuna tower to spot birds off at a distance that are feeding off the bait fish that the Sailfish have slashed to pieces while feeding. Find the birds and you've found the Sailfish.
 
dennis b said:
I worked up in Stuart/Hobe Sound as a sport fish captain years ago. Jim Smith's were always the prettiest and fastest sport fishing boats built up there and there are a lot of custom builders up there. American Yacht is also top notch. Jim Smiths are built for speed over sea keeping ability. Everything in the boat is built from core composite materials, from the galley counter tops to the hull. The engines are the highest horsepower and lightest diesel engines available. Generally Mann diesel engines. It's all about speed not endurance.

In Florida these four million dollar plus yachts compete in high dollar Sailfish tournaments with purses of over a million dollars. In a tournament everyone starts at the same time (Bimini start), so he who has the fastest boat gets to the fishing grounds the soonest and can stay the longest.

Oh, btw, these high end boats don't get waxed. They are painted with Awlgrip or Imron. For the first four to five years the boats are just washed. If you wax them you degrade the clear protective resin layer that floats to the surface when Awlgrip and Imron dry. After year five when the resin layer starts to oxidize from UV rays instead of waxing the boats they just go to the boatyard for a new paint job and new teak decks to the tune of 150k. High dollars sport fish captains are paid to fish not wax. American Yachts does a lot of paint work on these types of Sportfishing yachts. They are arguably the best at paint work up there. American also builds some pretty amazing sportfish yachts too.

That Jim Smith isn't even finished being built yet. It's probably on it's way to a boat yard that installs tuna towers. Captains climb up in the tuna tower to spot birds off at a distance that are feeding off the bait fish that the Sailfish have slashed to pieces while feeding. Find the birds and you've found the Sailfish.
Click to expand...

Great information. Thanks for the post.

I had to look up what the 85’ Jim Smiths look like on the inside. They look nicer on the inside than the awesome exterior.

47953be5cb521a599283d4407704de4c.jpg


That seat on this Jim Smith looks made for one thing.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Hi Dennis,

Thanks for adding much good stuff.


dennis b said:
Oh, btw, these high end boats don't get waxed. They are painted with Awlgrip or Imron. For the first four to five years the boats are just washed. If you wax them you degrade the clear protective resin layer that floats to the surface when Awlgrip and Imron dry.
Click to expand...

I cover this topic in my boat detailing book.

Here's what I've seen here in South Florida over the last 10+ years. Because there's no type of formal training or education on these specialty marine paints and because anyone breathing can start a car or boat detailing business, I've seen guy here at the lobby at Autogeek trying to by a polish or a product to undo the damage they've done compounding Awlgrip or other brands of marine specialty paints.

They find out the hard way - they've destroyed the paint.

Like Dennis stated above, when the paint is sprayed, there's a component in the paint that migrates out to the surface to create a harder, more corrosion and oxidation resistant shell covering all of the paint. It's microscopically thin. If you ABRADE it with a compound, a polish and likely even a cleaner/wax or AIO - you have just compromised this shell.

It's like I share in this article only swap out the word cars with the word boats.

Detailing cars starts with the brain - not the buffer -Mike Phillips



dennis b said:
American Yachts does a lot of paint work on these types of Sportfishing yachts. They are arguably the best at paint work up there. American also builds some pretty amazing sportfish yachts too.
Click to expand...

Agree except to add while their paint work is top notch, TWICE this year I've been asked to American Yachts to come down and diagnose the problem with the the finish quality on 2 different Yachts.


Anyone want to guess the problem?


:buffing:
 
I've seen where the sanding crews don't change the sanding discs on the DA's often enough. They don't get a good key for the new finish to adhere to or they don't solvent prep well enough and have adhesion issues or the finish fisheye's. Heat and humidity are also ever present and conspire to ruin a finish. There a million ways in South Florida to ruin a paint finish at a boat yard.

At least American has the common sense to call you in when they don't fully grasp a problem they are having. Calling in an expert when in doubt is the smart thing to do.

Another interesting fact about Awlgrip is that it used to be a Cyanide based paint coating. It might not be any more but it's best not to get to involved with creating any sanding or compounding dust without full respiration gear. Messing with Awlgrip is best left to the paint crews at the boat yard who have the correct safety gear and paint booth.
 
dennis b said:
I've seen where the sanding crews don't change the sanding discs on the DA's often enough. They don't get a good key for the new finish to adhere to or they don't solvent prep well enough and have adhesion issues or the finish fisheye's. Heat and humidity are also ever present and conspire to ruin a finish. There a million ways in South Florida to ruin a paint finish at a boat yard.
Click to expand...


Nope. Both time the problem was after paint, it was holograms. Both times I was asked to come down and troubleshoot the problem here's what I did,

I packed MINIMAL items in a bag before driving down the road

  1. Captain's Compound and BLACKFIRE One Step
  2. FLEX CBEAST
  3. RUPES blue foam cutting pad - OLD version being discontinued - not the new CP foam pads
  4. Microfiber towels
  5. Painter's tape to show before and after results



Both times, with about 5-6 people watching, without missing a beat, I removed the holograms and created a flawless show car finish in full sun.

Stupid Simple.


Both times, the Captains were pissed. After the first time, the Captain and his I think the First Mate, I could be wrong on his title but he was below the Captain in rank but in charge of the boat's overall condition, anyways, I had a detailing project that night and both of these guys were intrigued by the tools, the products and the process so they joined us here at Autogeek.



Here's the write-up for this project,
(am I the only guy that teaches car and boat classes that also does projects and types up )



Review SONAX EXCUT and FINAL - Kustom 1950 Ford Coupe - From neglected to respected!

Jeff the First Mate is on the left and the Captain Michel is on the right,

SONAX_EXCUT_FINAL_019.JPG



Considering it was the first time for both guys to use a polisher, (FLEX 3401 - look at the picture), I'd say they did very good.


SONAX_EXCUT_FINAL_022.JPG




Somewhere I have before and after pictures for both Yachts. I document everything - I just don't always have time to do create all the write-ups.



The cure is simple - the detailers and/or detail business that gets hired to do the buffing on these large boats simply need to take a quality boat class that just happens to be in their backyard. I guess $1000.00 for a hands-on class that shows how to do it right the first time is too much. Certainly cannot be any fun buffing out a Yacht of these proportions a second time - probably at a loss.


:laughing:
 
Pretty neat that the captain and first mate were willing to learn how to maintain the finish correctly. I remember a lot of the captains on the elite fishing boats weren't expected to do work like that. The boats just make an annual pilgrimage to the boat yard for professional varnish work, teak sanding and paint touch ups. In a way I understand why fishing crews don't wax and just keep the boats clean and the engines in top shape during the fishing season. A lot of fishing boat are constantly on the move. Owners send the boat to Havana for two weeks and the owner flies in to fish. Then the boat is off to Costa Rica, then Belize, then Turks and Caicos', then The Dominican Republic, then to ten different islands in the Bahamas. You get the idea. The crews have little time to do anything but just wash the boat. So it just makes the annual pilgrimage to the boat yard once a year and everything gets refreshed at once. I did that for a couple of years. It's grueling. All you want to do is crawl in your bunk at night not do wax on wax off. Haha.
 
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