Boat project: Wilker Galaxie 17

[Octavius Brine]

Thanks guys. Haha @Old Cut LongPointer ask me again in winter and you might like the answer, but now the time is here to get outside and enjoy. I am not a park it in the driveway and wax it kind of guy… that’s as good as it’ll ever look. I literally bought the first ever tin of wax I’ve owned and it’s probably a lifetime supply

I had that thought too @anonymoose. Spinning by hand, the gearbox and shifting all move smoothly. The lower unit lube I drained out was obviously replaced last year, so only the last guy would have seen any metal bits. It did accidentally pop into gear when I was running it in a bucket and at higher RPM than it should have. Prop may have even been touching the side, because I didn’t mean to put it in gear!

I will probably disassemble the whole lower unit to be sure nothing weird happened in there. That said, the shear pin is 1/4” stainless (which seems to be original from pics, unless the original part is aluminum?). It is much bigger than on my previous 35 HP motor (smaller brass pin) and seems you would trash the prop or stall the motor long before that size of pin sheared.

And yeah… the perch… the kids are probably telling the story of Skeeter the Perch at school right now

 

[FrankTheTank]

Beautiful job on the boat nothing bettef then getting to build it to your own style i have a 16' bare bones tinner i got bought from the joho compound last year i am going to build this winter i was hoping to do it thru the summer but with the overhaul on the house and having 2 running boats it might get bumped to the winter
What is the floor you put in your boat it looks great and im not a huge fan of carpet in the boats and i would like to check out what you used
Luckly i bought the double back fold out seats last year at princess auto because this year there 50$ more each while on sale now i just have keep an eye out for a 20-30hp long shaft with the controls thanks and good luck with your new boat

 

[Octavius Brine]

Beautiful job on the boat nothing bettef then getting to build it to your own style i have a 16' bare bones tinner i got bought from the joho compound last year i am going to build this winter i was hoping to do it thru the summer but with the overhaul on the house and having 2 running boats it might get bumped to the winter
What is the floor you put in your boat it looks great and im not a huge fan of carpet in the boats and i would like to check out what you used
Luckly i bought the double back fold out seats last year at princess auto because this year there 50$ more each while on sale now i just have keep an eye out for a 20-30hp long shaft with the controls thanks and good luck with your new boat

So true Frank, when you do it yourself you do it your way!

The flooring material I used was called "Nautolex" and I had good experience from this vendor:

Nautolex Marine Vinyl Flooring | JT'S Outdoor Fabrics Canada

I am happy with the grip and it was pretty easy to install. If you are planning to stick it to the aluminum you will need to use solvent contact cement, the Lepage blue can one from any hardware store works fine. But if you put a plywood deck down first you can stick it right to plywood with latex based vinyl floor adhesive that just trowels on quick and easy (JT's sells that stuff too, and tons of other great items).

 

[FrankTheTank]

Thank you i will be putting a wooden floor in i want to build it to a full boat seats console and such in a year or two i will try for a windsheild and roof thank you for the tip on the store will have to check it out when i get going

 

[Red Hering]

Ok last update on here- I got my boat Dave out on the water this weekend! I will continue some small jobs, like installing my 68 sticker, but that’s pretty well it.

Lately I had a problem with my kicker (see the square shaft is twisted off?). No clue how… but it’s an old motor I bought on Facebook. That’s how it goes sometimes…

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But I borrowed a friends Mariner 8 to troll with or as back up for now til parts arrive.

I did a little polishing with rubbing compound and waxed the hull (still want to do the white deck/gunwales). See before and after:

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And we had a blast fishing the inner bay Friday and Saturday, and camping at the provincial park. Everything ran really well, except when I tried to start the motor cold on year old gas (lol I know better). And we caught a few perch and a pike for the pan, and a fat smallmouth to release to spawn.

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And that new flooring was amazing! Everything wiped right off and made me glad I replaced the carpet. It saw drips of gas, anchor mud, dog barf and even this- I swung a perch over the gunwales and it had a “happy ending” all over the place. But he ended up covered in fish crisp, so…

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Oh and I have a trailer bearing to replace. Took the backroads home and was glad to have a two axle trailer.

All in all, a great project that is almost done but not quite.

It was nice to have met you @Octavius Brine last Friday,May12,2023,at the Long Point Provincial Park boat ramp,and again,thanks for coming over to me to introduce yourself,while I was launching my canoe that morning,to do some pike fishing. Your boat looked fantastic in the water that morning,especially with the colour “RED!” lol . I wish that I had seen the factory where they used to build the Wilker boat’s,in Hyde Park,Ontario. I might of have bought one back then,especially for fishing on our Great Lakes,because of their design,such as the bow,which would handle some good size waves! Enjoy your boat,and the 68 sticker for Dave,and perhaps we will meet up again somewhere on the water. Tight lines to you and your kids,etc.,to the rest of the year.

 

[Octavius Brine]

Yes it was great to meet you too @Red Hering ! And thanks for the photos and sticker. I am sure I’ll see you around again, especially when the walleye action heats up in the coming months.

Yeah, it would have been cool to see more about Wilker. This brand is fairly popular and well liked around the Great Lakes but since they closed up shop it seems there is not much history or old literature easy to find. I’ll see if I can find it, but I have a stack of “vintage” Ontario out of doors magazines and I saw the ad from a Salmon derby in the 90’s - top prize was a Wilker Galaxie!