You guys are too nice.
Bruce - I'm afraid to share cost's as it WILL show me to be a rather foolish man... especially in this boat market, (and that's with free labor). I did it becuase I enjoyed doing it. To give you an idea though, I have more into it (even forgetting the puchase price of the boat), than I probably could get for her today...Oh well, no one ever got into boating thinking it was a financially sound decision.
SLW- the original vents sucked - literally. They would scoop water and spray into the boat and, with all those little louvers, they were impossible to keep clean. I made the new ones but didn't get to splash it this year so next season will tell. Performance after the diesels has been nice - especially with fuel prices after '03. I no longer have flow scans because of the diesels return lines but, average consumption is way down... almost cut in half (around 8 GPH total). My best guess from the engines power/ fuel curves puts consumption (per engine) at 9 GPH at WOT 23/24 knots, 7 GPH at 20/21 knots (this is my new conservative cruise speed at 10% below rated WOT). If I was to compare to my old cruise speed of around 18 knots, I went from burning around 22 GPH total of gasline to about 12 gph total of diesel. It's not without draw backs though - soot & smell can be a problem for the misses.
As far as the helms, I changed all the guages, controls, cables etc.. but the general layout looks original... not much innovation there. One thing I'm proud of and it doesn't show up real well in the pics is a custom cabinet I made for a tiny space right besides the new midsize fridge/freezer. That little thing is deep and on ball bearing slides. It holds over 2 cases of cans for restocking the fridge... little things amuse little minds.
LSP - I do want to share this with you if your considering buying one. Even though I own one and like it, I have no illusions about Trojans "place" in the market. These boats were production - low to mid tier boats. They aren't considered to be in the same league as a Betram or a Hatteras. Having said that, I have seen just about every square inch of this very old girl and I'm impressed with it's construction quality and how it's held up after so long. After more than 30 years, I had not a single blister. The hull, stringers and structural elements are still in great shape. My fore deck and flybridge (which are cored) did have some soft spots that I fixed but they weren't causing any problems. That's a fairly common (correctable)fault. I would buy another one in a heartbeat. I think many Trojans represent a super bargain in a market thats already full of bargains.
Good luck with your search.
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