Haines Hunter V19C GLANVILLE HEYDENRYCH

Take a new Bass Strait Ocean Pro 600 deck and fit it too an old Haines V19C hull? Sounds simple enough? Well professional seafarer Glanville Heydenrych tells us it’s not as easy as it sounds – but the results are amazing!

“Justcut off the old deck and glass on a new one,” they said. Sounds simple doesn’t it? Well, professional seafarer Glanville Heydenrych is here to tell you quite differently. He has recently taken 18 long months taking the hull from an old Haines Hunter V19C stern drive, fully rebuilding it and then fitting a brand new deck supplied by old mate Ben Toesland at Bass Strait Boats from their Ocean Pro 600. After all the “Straiter” evolved from the V19 hull, didn’t it?

Well yes it did, however, there has been a considerable amount of evolution ever since, and considering the quite flexible nature of fibreglass, the new deck doesn’t exactly fit as easily as one would expect. Glanville and his friends found out the hard way, yet 18 months after the start, he has finally achieved his offshore dream boat.

Glanville previously owned an old beaten up V19R for a while but sold it to move into an American centre console that he thought would better cater for his fishing and diving exploits. When based on the Gold Coast, where he also skippered a 34 Blackwatch for Mufasa Sport Fishing Charters. Unfortunately, he didn’t like the American brand at all and really missed the ride and reliability of the old Haines. He said, “It’s hard to explain, but it really is a hull you can trust at high speed and in a variety of challenging sea conditions.” Hence, he sold the centre console and began work on finding a suitable hull to create a practical fishing machine he could rebuild and customise, with no expense spared.

Let’s let Glanville tell the story in his own words…

“I found this old inboard V19C and from inspection it presented itself very well with very few blemishes, chips or scratches to the hull and, in fact, after an acid wash turned out like new. Judging by how the boat was setup it had done minor work and definitely hadn’t been flogged in any rough ocean environment. After a bit of negotiation, I scored a deal.

They may be a bit daggy by our latest standards but the original Haines Hunter V19C was a mighty fine boat!

The deck was completely removed and the grind out began

The painful grind out began after I stripped the hull of everything. I wanted to build a tank but also not go crazy stupid with unnecessary weight, just throwing glass on for the sake of it so I decided to go full Epoxy build from start to finish with the added benefit of strength of double bias cloth. I started by laminating a couple of layers of 450gsm on the entire hull with a few extra layers in the strakes and as a bed for the stringers to lay on. The stringers were dual laminated 12mm marine ply making them a total of around 28mm wide which were glued and coved onto the hull prior to glassing in. I decided to go timber for transom, deck and stringers (I know the boat and I can assure you I won’t be drilling into any timber if I can avoid it) for everything above deck, I used laminated PVC foam sheets.

The old timber transom lasted 50 years so this one should see us all out. Templating the old transom.

Wow, look at me now! All fitted out and ready to fish!

I was lucky enough for Ben Toseland at Bass Strait Boats to help us out with one of his Ocean Pro 600 top decks which I absolutely love the look of and with a little trial and error managed to join it onto the V19C hull successfully, but it took quite some effort aided by Acro-props and ratchet straps to reform the shape. It was jointed with epoxy bog and fully seam glassed from inside and out with 4 layers of 450gsm beefing up the join considerably with through bolting on the flange join.

I decided to cut out the anchor hatch and glass it closed as these are the bane of my existence. They are always banging, leaking water into the cabin, busting hinges and everything else that goes with it. Now none of that to worry about.

I also cut and extended the dash to customise fit all my electronics, leaving enough spaces to get a sponge around for detailed cleans.

The transducers I built into the keel of the boat and I’m happy I did. The image I get at 40knts is as clear as day and have actually marked bait doing this speed. It’s a game changer when you go to a new area and are looking for ground.

The boat tops out around 45knts and still has some room for propeller adjustments. Not being a Merc fan myself, this choice went against the grain…. However, I’ve been pleasantly surprised and now there’s no doubt in my mind that this was the best choice of outboard for this rig. The midrange power the Merc 225HP displays is insane and makes it such a pleasure to drive. I wake up and want to go fishing just to drive the rig, it’s just that much fun! The added performance provided by the hydraulic jacking plate just makes performance a dream.

I custom made some hatches for tackle storage in the cabin and also put 2 dry boxes port and starboard, but I left a gap between them and the floor to have rod storage for 8ft casting rods.

The transom/livewell setup was interesting. A fair bit of thought went into the cutting and repairing to maintain strength and I think it’s stronger now than it ever could be.

The fuel tank is custom alloy 6mm and holds a whopping 288 litres. I custom installed a small baffle area, so every last drop can be used. The tank sits on some trailer Teflon planks 20mm off the floor and is secured to the stringers by 10mm tabs. I didn’t want to foam fill around the tank as I’ve heard of all sorts of horror stories. This way I have bungs on either side and can wash any salt away from the fuel tank cavity. The bungs have been installed so it completely dries.

With the new transom glassed in the underfloor reconstruction began

The fuel tank is custom alloy 6mm and holds a whopping 288 litres plus all buoyancy is completely sealed and foam filled

There are now 2 deck kill tanks and a bilge compartment. Each of the compartments is completely sealed and glassed to prevent water ingress into the stringer compartments.

Below the deck is foam filled and when the deck was installed, I put a considerable amount of epoxy bog onto each stringer to create 20 individual fully sealed and foam filled buoyancy thanks. I would be 100% confident to drill a 100mm hole anywhere in the boat and still go to the shelf fishing!!!!

The new Bass Strait deck took some fitting but was eventually bolted and internally glassed into place.

The dash was cut and extended to fit all the electronics.

Boat has 2 x 1100gph bilges both on individual float switches with lights attached onto dash.

There are now 2 custom lives wells. I’m not sure of the exact litre capacity, but they will keep plenty of slimies alive, in fact much more than most boats I’ve been on this size. They are both properly plumbed with drains on bottom and top to eliminate the debris the livies cough up.

I decided to not go with seating but instead I use a mobile 300L esky with rubber padding to not slide around. I like to be able to position this esky where ever I need on the deck whether it be as a seat, for a double mattress on the deck while camping, moving under the bimini during rain, or most of the time it sits centre of the deck creating a workbench, table, seat, lean post, etc. I just love having the open deck space when fishing and lets be real, when are you able to sit in a helm seat of a 6m boat and drive out to the shelf at 30knts without the thing ripping out the deck causing you more problems than Ben Hur. It’s practical!

Internal cabin fit out and side pockets.

I have been lucky enough to own several boats and throughout my professional career as a fishing guide and sportfishing captain have learnt a thing or two about what to do and what not to do with boats. This is my version of a boat that is a practical fishing machine that will outlast my lifetime.

My god, where do you start?

I did all the laminating, sanding and fairing myself and I’m very happy with the way it came up, but my god I wouldn’t do this again! There is something to be said for boat companies having the tools, space and a willing team to get itchy, I now realize why boats are so expensive, one off customs like this are a tedious task and I’m happy it’s mostly behind me with just minor tinkers left to complete.

The most frustrating thing during this whole build for me was I ended up moving interstate for a job opportunity right in the middle of the build. The boat wasn’t yet ready to travel, so I was having to commute in my time off to go work on it to get it done. It was costly, a massive pain in the ass, and took a lot longer than anticipated.

A word of advice: if you ever drank too much and decided you wanted to take on this devil of building a boat, make sure you have a shed, the time and the money to get it complete! A lot of money can be thrown into a build and if something happens along the way and you have to forfeit it, then it’s going to be a very expensive mistake!!! The resale will not be worth a tenth on the dollar that you put in and that doesn’t account for the good times you sacrificed having beers with the boys or family outings.

Do your research before you start, get quotes on everything you want to do, add 15% and put it all on paper before you start. I went through 6 x 20L drums of epoxy resin at $600 a pop. Things add up really quick. I think I was fairly close on expectation vs reality having some experience doing this before, but COVID, tax and travel got the better of me by a small margin.

If I did it differently, I may have used thermolite for the transom, deck and stringers, but am I upset I used timber? No, do I think it will ever be a problem? No… it’s built solid with care taken and attention to detail and the added waterproof properties of epoxy, and the knowledge to not stupidly unnecessarily drill into timber, and I have no doubt this rig will outlast me.

I would like to say thanks to all who helped out in this great project, especially Paul from Black Marlin Towers Fabrications, who custom built the bimini.”

We at Deadrise have to say that it’s a pleasure dealing with professionals like Glanville who share their experience, wisdom, and knowledge freely. What a great project and terrific result ending with a boat that will most certainly see out our lifetimes with exceptional seafaring qualities.

We also had an interesting discussion re the 225HP Merc as selected. It’s providing this rather weighty package with 45 knot Wide Open Throttle performance, which in our opinion is well and truly enough for any offshore fishing boat. It gets up and boogies from a standing start, has tonnes of torque for riding the backs of the swell on a river mouth entry, has terrific mid-range performance and has an efficient power/weight relationship providing terrific economy.

The family that goes boating together, stays together. What a great result –congratulations Glanville, terrific work!

In fact, we have both experienced difficulties in big bumpy seas with the critical action provided by our modern short binnacle controls and the immediacy of fly by wire on over horse powered hulls. It’s so easy to get unexpectedly jolted in the rough where a simple touch of the throttles results in a punch of power at exactly the wrong moment from many of the boats currently being fitted with huge horsepower. It might make you the glamour at the boat ramp, but trust me, others look back and shake their heads!