48 DA Owners Club

Swung by a local marine salvage dealer today and came across a score for a couple hundred bucks. Found a complete digital panel kit complete with the MDK conversion panel. Went straight to the boat and installed her. Love it now I have a panel on the dash and one on the genset itself. Super nice as all that data is at my fingertips now. No more flashing codes if there is an issue.

 

Happy New Year fellow 48'ers.... Finally got enjoy my new upgrades last night as we spent the night on the hook in the ICW with our friends. Loving my new upholstery and rear sun cover. Hope all your 2023 boating wishes come true. I personally am counting down the days to get back the the Bahamas and the crystal blue water.

 

@ocgrant
Love the new interior. Very tastefully done.
Enjoy man. Happy new year!

 

Love the extension! Can we get some exterior pics of the your Sunshade and how it attaches to the roof? Any pics without any Canvas on so we see the structure? Nice job.

 

Here are a few. Worked on this for a year as I didn’t want poles and I wanted it to come back to the transom. I have Sun curtains that zip into this for the sides and the rear to block the Sun. Here are some pics I can take you more if you want.

 

Very, very nice. I can tell you put a lot of time in to that. Did you bend the tubing your self in order to get it just the way you wanted it? Did you do some mock ups with PVC or anything like that? Is that 3/4" tubing? Bigger? Again, great job Sir.

Bill

 

Is there plans for this ? Cad or pdf ?

 

Sorry no plans, all in my head. My upholstery guy made a template of the rear line of the boat using template fiber re-enforced plastic sheet. This way we could get the curves to match the curve lines of the boat. One big "horse-shoe"made by a local stainless fabricator off that template. Then the pipe (1 inch) was cut to length on the boat to determine the upper-outside mounting locations to achieve the right height & length to the stern edge. Originally we were going to mount inside for what we thought would be a cleaner look but when we mocked it up it up the 48 has some weird angles on the roof line and it "pinched" the horse-shoe too much which lost canvas coverage area and looked weird. So we switched to outside mounts, added a track on the roof for the canvas and achieved what I feel is a better look and more coverage. Then we built support poles with curve in them for the top and small stand offs that I used to adjust the rake angle. This part took the most time to get the rake angle correct, so with the canvas pulled extremely tight the water would run off and not stretch and pool. I am happy and excited to try it out this summer over in the Bahamas. Next is the bow shade I am working on perfecting now.

 

Grant,your interior looks incredible! The diamond pattern really looks perfect ! Can I ask what the lower cockpit floor is ? Thanks again for all the research and improvements you share ! Happy New Year

 

Funny you ask... That is https://corinthianmarine.com and while I feel it is the best product unfortunately the clown that installed it did a crappy job on his templates and I hate the gaps around the engine hatch, my pet peeve. If you look back on this site in the beginning of the 48 thread Jeffery (no longer owns a 48) did his with the same material (teak look) better install. I have been debating re-doing it with the "teak look" and my new upholstery guy will make it the way I want it with less gaps and perfect seems. Or just going full teak which is my dream. The company that did all the teak for Sea Ray is near me up by Tampa and we have chatted a few times at the boat shows about getting that piece made and shipped down, I just haven't pulled the trigger yet.

 

Thanks Grant, I will look back at threads. I checked into teak also, and at some point will do it. One thing that concerned me as I looked at prior teak install was they covered the seem in the floor that you would have to cut out if you needed to lift or remove the rear floor for an engine for a repair . Hopefully none of us would need to remove the rear section of floor but to do that and damage the teak would be terrible . Just food for thought .

 

You are correct, but the catch to that is the teak is mounted to a fiberglass sheet that goes on top of our deck with plugs that cover the screws. So if you need to remove you drill out the plugs and cut the outer caulking and the hole floor is removed to gain access to the original floor so you can get to the engines. This is if you do it the factory way and not some independent teak guy. If you are seriously interested maybe we could get a deal on a couple of these. The shipping is the killer as it is big freight, for me I can rent a truck and pick it up. Last time I checked they wanted $5100 + freight teakdeckingsystems.com

 

That makes sense !! The quote I had gotten was $ 9000.00 installed! I will look at the system you are talking about , my issue would be getting it to New Jersey

 

Plastic plugs that hold that panel are lost/failed I know it sounds overly simple to fix but have not found a good solution. Anyone have a source or replacement plug to secure that Panel?

 

@rlynch03 These??? How many do you need? The new kit came with them and I still have them

 

That is them. Thanks for the part number. I can order via Onan for a few bucks.

 

Ran across this on YouTube. Anyone we "know"?

 

Cool video, nice boat. Hope he joins our thread here.

 

Never seen a 48 with a Crane before. I got to admit, I like the simplicity. Seems like a great alternative to a hydraulic platform.

 

I agree as while the hydraulic swim platform is very functional I see more aged boats have issues with them where I travel and be stuck as you can't run when it is stuck down. I thought I wanted one last year, did the research and liked the Sea Lift single cylinder unit but chickened out last minute.