[Captbubba]

 Robolo_under_tent.jpg ( 45.77K ) Number of downloads: 16

I'm sure it's totally canyon capable. She holds 200 gallons...and at a 25-27kt cruise burns aroeund 24-25 per hour....a bit better than 1 nautical mpg. Canyons up here are 68-70 miles off...and I'm sure trolling speed would burn almost nothing.

I'm not crazy about the open transom running 70 miles one way...and enclosing it and adding a bracket wouldn't make much sense to me....we'll see.

Here's a few more photos....

Hi Taggteam, The boat looks nice. I have a 1986 2680 the I have been rebuilding part time over the last several years with my brother, his two sons and a family friend. To date we have removed the rear floor and factory stringers, installed all new rear stringers and a closed transom. On this trip I just installed an Armstrong Bracket, removed the floor under the center console and removed the gas tank and also lifted the front cap and removed the floor section in front of the gas tank hole where you would stand before stepping down into the cuddy. What we found out was that the boat is made in 3 main parts; the Hull, the floor section and the top cap. What Robalo did was use the same floor section for the center console/cuddy and the full cuddy cabin model 2660. Under the floor in front of the center console is a non skid step and floor that is used on the 2660 but covered up on the 2680. The floor down in the cuddy on the 2680 extends back to the rear on the other side of the step about 3 feet. Our boat did not have a water tank when I purchased it so we are going to install a tank in the extra floor section under the front floor. I currently have 259 pictures on shutterfly and will add the new pictures of the gas tank hole, forward floor and new bracket soon. These pictures would probably help you out a lot to know how everything is constructed under the floor if you need to install any new equipment or are considering sealing off the transom and adding a bracket. I will tell you that cleaning out the old stringers, installing new ones, installing a new transom and the bracket were quite a job as I show in the pictures. This is my first time using the Robalo boat owners site and I will try to upload some of the pictures to this reply but if you would like to see them all send me an email address to Captbubba@comcast.net and I will email you a Shutterfly link to them. Good luck with your boat!
Sincerely,
Martin

Captbubba@comcast.net

This post has been edited by Captbubba: Jul 30 2010, 10:51 AM

Attached File(s)

 Sand_Man.jpg ( 40.38K ) Number of downloads: 14
 Cleaned_and_patch_glass_transom.jpg ( 45.54K ) Number of downloads: 13
 First_new_stringer.jpg ( 36.82K ) Number of downloads: 14
 Gutted_transome.jpg ( 53.13K ) Number of downloads: 18
 Planning_stringers.jpg ( 53.24K ) Number of downloads: 17
 Building_new_stringers.jpg ( 42.42K ) Number of downloads: 20
 New_stringers_and_bulkhead_in_place.jpg ( 44.45K ) Number of downloads: 30
 Bracket_layout.jpg ( 41.36K ) Number of downloads: 19
 New_transom.jpg ( 46.1K ) Number of downloads: 12

 

[Captbubba]

 Robolo_under_tent.jpg ( 45.77K ) Number of downloads: 16



Hi Taggteam, The boat looks nice. I have a 1986 2680 the I have been rebuilding part time over the last several years with my brother and his two sons. To date we have removed the rear floor and factory stringers, installed all new rear stringers and a closed transom. On this trip I just installed an Armstrong Bracket, removed the floor under the center console and removed the gas tank and also lifted the front cap and removed the floor section in front of the gas tank hole where you would stand before steping down into the cuddy. What we found out was that the boat is made in 3 main parts; the Hull, the floor section and the top cap. What Robalo did was use the same floor section for the center console/cuddy and the full cuddy cabin model 2660. Under the floor in front of the center console is a non skid step and floor that is used on the 2660 but coverd up on the 2680. The floor down in the cuddy on the 2680 extends back to the rear on the other side of the step about 3 feet. Our boat did not have a water tank when I purchased it so we are going to install a tank in the extra floor section under the front floor. I currently have 259 pictures on shutterfly and will add the new pictures of the gas tank hole, forward floor and new bracket soon. These pictures would probably help you out a lot to know how everything is constructed under the floor if you need to install any new equiptment or are considering sealing off the transome and adding a bracket. I will tell you that cleaning out the old stringers, installing new ones, installing a new transome and the bracket were quite a job as I show in the pictures. This is my first time using the Robalo boatowners site and I wil try to upload some of the pictures to this reply but if you would like to see them all send me an email address to Captbubba@comcast.net and I will email you a Shutterfly link to them. Good luck with your boat!
Sincerely,
Martin
Captbubba@comcast.net

Here are a few more pictures of the Armstrong Bracket....

Attached File(s)

 Arm_temp.jpg ( 275.52K ) Number of downloads: 21
 Armstrong_1.jpg ( 215.16K ) Number of downloads: 26
 Armstrong_2.jpg ( 321.96K ) Number of downloads: 21

 

[ReelPlumber]

Nice work Captbubba. That is one badass bracket. Wold love to see more pictures. Could I talk you into starting your own rebuild topic and will move these post to it?

That transom looks factory......Very Nice!!!!

I cant wait to see more. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dribble.gif)

[taggteam]

AWESOME..... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wub.gif)

[mrrobalo]

Very impressive to say the least. I can't wait to get home to see them on the computer. I can give you some more insight on some of the questions as I'm at PoPs and only have my iPhone for Internet here right now. Looking forward to see you production pics.

[Captbubba]

Nice work Captbubba. That is one badass bracket. Wold love to see more pictures. Could I talk you into starting your own rebuild topic and will move these post to it?

That transom looks factory......Very Nice!!!!

I cant wait to see more. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dribble.gif)

Hi ReelPlumber, Thanks and sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I was in Va. working on the boat and just returned to my home in NJ. I would be glad to start a rebuild topic if you want to move these post to it. Here is a link to a new Shutterfly page with more pictures on it.
http://robalorebuild.shutterfly.com/

Captbubba

This post has been edited by Captbubba: Aug 1 2010, 01:32 PM

[2-N-TOW]

Beautiful work...those stringers look like you could bolt an inboard to them! What was the layup for your stringers? Are they foam filled? Where is the boat in Virginia?

[Captbubba]

Beautiful work...those stringers look like you could bolt an inboard to them! What was the layup for your stringers? Are they foam filled? Where is the boat in Virginia?

Thanks Dan,
Yea, the stringers are big and look a little unusual in a boat this size but we wanted to build some stringers with a wider surface area on top than the standard 3/4" plywood covered in glass stringers like the ones we removed. Also, a lot of the support in the floor was build into the original floor mold from the factory and having removed all of that we needed to build support from the hull up. I was not sure how we were going to build these stringers and then a few fortunate and humorous things happen that gave us the ideas on how to build them. The fortunate thing was stumbling on an episode of Ship Shape TV when the host John Greviskis was having a boat made for himself at Albury Brothers boats in Florida. The boat they were making had two long stringers installed in the boat. They made the stringers on a mold, popped them off the mold, fit them to the boat, glassed them in place and then filled them with foam. The humorous thing was that I was sitting at my Parents table around this time having breakfast trying to figure out how to make the molds for our boat when she opened the oven and took out bacon that she had cooked on a cookie sheet with the bacon sitting on what looked like wax paper. I have used wax paper in the past as a mold release but it never really worked good because the resin would heat up while it cured and melt the wax and stick to the glass when it cooled and be hard to remove. I had never seen bacon cooked that way and ask her why she did it that way and if the wax paper melted. She said it was not wax paper but Reynolds Parchment paper that they sell at any grocery store and she could cook more bacon quicker in the oven doing it this way. That morning I took a couple pieces of parchment paper to the warehouse where we are working on the boat and did some test. I wet out some glass with a hot batch of resin and the parchment paper worked every time and came off very clean and easy. Now that we knew how we were going to cover our molds, we went to Home Depot to get wood to make them. On the way in, in front of the store, they had a large pile of concrete blocks and they had stacked some of them 3 high and 3 wide to hang the Home Depot sign on to show the price of the blocks. I looked at my brother and we both agreed that the width of the blocks would make a good size beam and all you had to do to make different size beams would be to add more or less blocks. We purchased a dozen or so blocks and for the first beam we just covered the blocks with parchment paper, laid glass over it and wet it out. I think on the first beam which is a small one on the starboard side we used four layers of 1708 matt and several pieces of 1.5 oz matt. After it had cured, we glassed a piece of 1/2" plywood to the inside top to add stiffness and also to have something to screw into when we attach the floor. Rolling on the 1.5 oz matt with glass rollers makes a mess and you have to keep cleaning the loose glass strands off the roller so for the remaining beams we used 4 layers of just the 1708, 24 oz Double Bias Stitchmat (double bias matt stitched to 3/4 oz matt) and with the matt inside was a lot easier and cleaner to wet out. We also cut and coated the 1/2" plywood with resin and sat it on top of the parchment paper covered blocks and glassed over top of it, which was easier than glassing in afterwards and made a flatter top to the remaining 3 beams. We then cut the beams to fit the couture of the hull, glassed them in place and drilled a fill hole and a relief hole for the foam. We used 2 pound density rigid Urethane foam and filled each beam. We were going to glass additional reinforcements (we did one on the inside of the first beam in from port.) but the beams were so stiff to begin with and way more so after the foam that we felt it was not necessary. The parchment paper is a great, inexpensive and easy way to cover almost any mold and Reynolds has come out with a non-stick aluminum foil that works as good as the parchment paper and even better in certain situations where it needs to conform to a shape. We already built the mold for our new gunnels, we tested the paper and the foil and the foil seemed to do a better job holding the outside shape. Being an information website, here are the places we have purchased supplies from. I don't know if they are the least expensive but all three have been very easy to deal with and very helpful.

Mertons.com East Longmedow, MA
fiberglasssite.com Kingsville, MD
easternburlap.com Norfolk, VA.

Well, thanks for the questions Dan. Also, we are working on the boat right up interstate 460 from you in Petersburg at my brother's warehouse. Let us know if you're in the area and and want to check it out and we will give you directions to his warehouse.

Martin

This post has been edited by Captbubba: Aug 1 2010, 05:21 PM

[2-N-TOW]

Great idea on the parchment paper...never thought of that one! It is funny where some of the ideas come from for working on boats; I have found more pots and pans that made perfect molds for glass work that the wife does not even know about...just be sure to wash the PVA mold release off before returning to the cabinet.

Eastern Burlap is where I get all my stuff but it is good to know that other places in the area are just as helpful.

May take you up on the offer to run up to Petersburg one day...that boat has really got my curiosity.

[Captbubba]

Great idea on the parchment paper...never thought of that one! It is funny where some of the ideas come from for working on boats; I have found more pots and pans that made perfect molds for glass work that the wife does not even know about...just be sure to wash the PVA mold release off before returning to the cabinet.

Eastern Burlap is where I get all my stuff but it is good to know that other places in the area are just as helpful.

May take you up on the offer to run up to Petersburg one day...that boat has really got my curiosity.

Hi Dan, No problem if you want to take a look at the boat. It's located at my brother Daves warehouse (Topside Tent and Party Rentals) and his phone number is 804-751-0202. Feel free to give him a call and drop on by! Here is a link to his website with a map to the warehouse;
http://www.topsidetentrentals.com/contact.html