Hard Core
Active member
Over the holidays, I started a large winter project to renew my 2007 Parker 2510 XLD “Hard Core”. I rigged her myself in Oregon, and then had it in Puerto Vallarta for 5 years catching huge tuna and marlin. I even won entry into the Bisbee’s on her, and ended up winning the Bisbee’s in 2010 with a 540lb marlin. That said, it was time a few years ago to depart Mexico and sell the house.
I had twin 150s on the boat, it did okay, but I had a bad mechanic work on them last year, and I lost all confidence in them after six on the water problems last halibut season off of Oregon (1250 hours each). For those of you who don’t know, fishing the PNW is not a place to come in with unreliable power, we have river bars that are gnarly and you cannot be underpowered as they are standing waves and you have to go up the faces at high power levels. I always felt the boat was a little underpowered and over-propped for the 150s, mainly because I run very heavy (full fuel, 4 guys, two bait tanks, 400lbs of ice, 700lbs of fish, ocean crab pots, etc.). We fish primarily for salmon, halibut, lingcod, crab, and albacore. I was always running well into 80-85% power levels and my mileage is 1.2nm/g or so fully trimmed down, which is the norm up here due to snotty sea conditions.
I considered twin 200s, and heard great things, but as they say, there is no replacement for displacement moving to the 4.3l 250s, and the weight difference was in the noise so I went that route and I can get the boat moving on one engine the way I decided to prop it.
I have a long history at this boat, and she still looks new (full covers in Mexico), so I decided to repower and refit her. I took a massive rogue wave in the middle of the night 50 miles offshore in Mexico in a gale. We keeled over so hard the starboard side rail was in the water, I was pegged to the wall with my buddy on top of me, and we lost two rods out of the launcher. The boat came right back. I have beaten the hell out of this hull, hit turtles and logs at speed in the night, and it is just one hell of a solid boat that I wanted to have fresh power to do another 8 years or so
.
I decided to do all the work myself as I built a huge shop for boat my boats (granted unheated, that made it tough this winter)! I didn’t want some idiot mechanic screwing up this stuff, and no one I have found does work I can trust.
I started ripping and tearing in the boat and ended up growing the project in scope as follows:
Repower to Yamaha F250 4.2l with electronic controls and LCD instrumentation
All new hydraulics, new larger helm, wheel, AP pump, and dual hoses to twin new SeaStar 5345 cylinders
New SIMRAD AP24 autopilot with RPU160 pump
Dash re-glassed to accommodate above modifications
New Raymarine A128 12” touchscreen for FLIR with positioning, CHIRP and FLIR (I like to go out at night and we have tsunami debris) – backup system to my Furuno Navnet
New 1.5kW inverter
New stereo and 500W AMP
Added fresh water washdown using waste tank as source (head never used it is disabled and hence waste tank was never used)
Salt water replumbing to remove thru hull in front of port engine causing cavitation (this was done by factory, a huge mistake). I glassed it over, and feed all salt water off of 1.5” through hull centerline.
Biggest and baddest 12V high pressure washdown (38A with relay)
3 way manifold for bait tank options: two 32 gallon swim deck mounted Kodiak bait tanks and there is a 3 third output inside the boat for a small portable live well for crab or whatever
4 plugs with solid state breaker for electric butt reels, crab puller, and downriggers.
New 10 micron racors for the new engines. I don't like the Yamaha because there is no drain for letting water out or for replacing filters so they are a mess. These should be much better
Added Icom 2m radio covers VHF frequencies (2nd VHF) and a whole lot more. It is not weather resistant so I spent awhile thinking about locations including an overhead box above, but decided on tucked right inside the cabin next to helm. It's loud and very audible there, mic is easily accessible and I can see the display quite easily and use it no problem
Second digital antenna this is another digital but a 2m version with integral ground plane and very wide frequency range and SWR throughout, rated up to 150W, my system is 65W. Military specs and patent pending are good attributes
Built a tackle storage inside replacing dry rotted sink and unused stove cabinet with something more function albeit not too pretty. It takes two sizes of plano boxes, which I can swap out depending upon what we are fishing for.
On the props, I was RPM limited trimmed down with heavy load with the 150s, and the 250s have slightly less reduction, I don't care about top end want solid heavy cruise, that said, trimmed up I expect high 40 knots. I ended up taking my best guess at 14 ½” x 17” Reliance SS, and it tested out perfectly where I wanted it.
Removed old seat boxes with tanks (these were terrible use of spec and terrible bait tanks), I gutted the boat and reglass the non-skid.
Pompanette helm chairs with leaning bolsters. Other riders get Ocean Tamer Bean Bags with neck support. I may be telling others to drive...
New LED lighting everywhere (dome, nav, deck, spreader, etc.)
I have a bunch of photos of the work here:
https://goo.gl/photos/irYdsD3T5yuh9dqeA
I had twin 150s on the boat, it did okay, but I had a bad mechanic work on them last year, and I lost all confidence in them after six on the water problems last halibut season off of Oregon (1250 hours each). For those of you who don’t know, fishing the PNW is not a place to come in with unreliable power, we have river bars that are gnarly and you cannot be underpowered as they are standing waves and you have to go up the faces at high power levels. I always felt the boat was a little underpowered and over-propped for the 150s, mainly because I run very heavy (full fuel, 4 guys, two bait tanks, 400lbs of ice, 700lbs of fish, ocean crab pots, etc.). We fish primarily for salmon, halibut, lingcod, crab, and albacore. I was always running well into 80-85% power levels and my mileage is 1.2nm/g or so fully trimmed down, which is the norm up here due to snotty sea conditions.
I considered twin 200s, and heard great things, but as they say, there is no replacement for displacement moving to the 4.3l 250s, and the weight difference was in the noise so I went that route and I can get the boat moving on one engine the way I decided to prop it.
I have a long history at this boat, and she still looks new (full covers in Mexico), so I decided to repower and refit her. I took a massive rogue wave in the middle of the night 50 miles offshore in Mexico in a gale. We keeled over so hard the starboard side rail was in the water, I was pegged to the wall with my buddy on top of me, and we lost two rods out of the launcher. The boat came right back. I have beaten the hell out of this hull, hit turtles and logs at speed in the night, and it is just one hell of a solid boat that I wanted to have fresh power to do another 8 years or so
.I decided to do all the work myself as I built a huge shop for boat my boats (granted unheated, that made it tough this winter)! I didn’t want some idiot mechanic screwing up this stuff, and no one I have found does work I can trust.
I started ripping and tearing in the boat and ended up growing the project in scope as follows:
Repower to Yamaha F250 4.2l with electronic controls and LCD instrumentation
All new hydraulics, new larger helm, wheel, AP pump, and dual hoses to twin new SeaStar 5345 cylinders
New SIMRAD AP24 autopilot with RPU160 pump
Dash re-glassed to accommodate above modifications
New Raymarine A128 12” touchscreen for FLIR with positioning, CHIRP and FLIR (I like to go out at night and we have tsunami debris) – backup system to my Furuno Navnet
New 1.5kW inverter
New stereo and 500W AMP
Added fresh water washdown using waste tank as source (head never used it is disabled and hence waste tank was never used)
Salt water replumbing to remove thru hull in front of port engine causing cavitation (this was done by factory, a huge mistake). I glassed it over, and feed all salt water off of 1.5” through hull centerline.
Biggest and baddest 12V high pressure washdown (38A with relay)
3 way manifold for bait tank options: two 32 gallon swim deck mounted Kodiak bait tanks and there is a 3 third output inside the boat for a small portable live well for crab or whatever
4 plugs with solid state breaker for electric butt reels, crab puller, and downriggers.
New 10 micron racors for the new engines. I don't like the Yamaha because there is no drain for letting water out or for replacing filters so they are a mess. These should be much better
Added Icom 2m radio covers VHF frequencies (2nd VHF) and a whole lot more. It is not weather resistant so I spent awhile thinking about locations including an overhead box above, but decided on tucked right inside the cabin next to helm. It's loud and very audible there, mic is easily accessible and I can see the display quite easily and use it no problem
Second digital antenna this is another digital but a 2m version with integral ground plane and very wide frequency range and SWR throughout, rated up to 150W, my system is 65W. Military specs and patent pending are good attributes
Built a tackle storage inside replacing dry rotted sink and unused stove cabinet with something more function albeit not too pretty. It takes two sizes of plano boxes, which I can swap out depending upon what we are fishing for.
On the props, I was RPM limited trimmed down with heavy load with the 150s, and the 250s have slightly less reduction, I don't care about top end want solid heavy cruise, that said, trimmed up I expect high 40 knots. I ended up taking my best guess at 14 ½” x 17” Reliance SS, and it tested out perfectly where I wanted it.
Removed old seat boxes with tanks (these were terrible use of spec and terrible bait tanks), I gutted the boat and reglass the non-skid.
Pompanette helm chairs with leaning bolsters. Other riders get Ocean Tamer Bean Bags with neck support. I may be telling others to drive...
New LED lighting everywhere (dome, nav, deck, spreader, etc.)
I have a bunch of photos of the work here:
https://goo.gl/photos/irYdsD3T5yuh9dqeA
