PolarKraft MV 1751

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maintenanceguy

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 12, 2018
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Location
South Jersey
I bought an old (late 80's or early 90's) PolarKraft Modified V 1751 Jon boat a year ago, last October. I had planned to get it in the water a couple of times last fall and then spend the winter fixing it up. As soon as I bought the boat, the weather turned cold and I never got it into the water.

I wanted to strip everything off of the hull and re-paint. I managed to get the hull stripped but had to wait until warmer weather to paint so it sat all last winter with no progress. Finally, spring came and I was able to start my project.

This is what I bought. It was in good shape but a bit worn. Carpeted floors needed replacing. It had a couple of spray-can re-paint jobs that needed re-doing. Lots of hanging and frayed wiring all over the boat that I wanted to replace.

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I stripped the side console, motor, throttle cables, all wiring, seat, and floor off the hull.

The previous owner had added aluminum angle to level the bottom so he could add a plywood floor. I drilled out those rivets and removed those too.

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I used Bondo on some nicks and minor dents. I built a small pedestal out of PVC for a new front navigation light.

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That PVC box is glued together with 5400 marine caulk and nailed with stainless steel nails. Attached to the deck with stainless screws. I went through a lot of stainless nuts, bolts, and screws on this job. Fortunately, there's a place near me that sells loose stainless fasteners in bins. You can mix and match and scoop them into bags for $7 per lb.
 
Finally, spring came and I could paint the hull.

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Since it already had a coat of factory paint, I used that as my primer. It was ugly but solid. I sanded every inch of the boat with 80 grit sanding pads. The sticky vinyl got acetone to remove the stickers and a flap wheel on a grinder to remove the residue. For paint, I bought 2 gallons of flat camo paint from Kush Paints. As far as I can tell, their paint is almost the same as the oil based "epoxy" paint that Rustoleum sells. I wanted a custom color and that's not available from Rustoleum so I ordered a custom color from Kush.

I picked out my paint color at my local hardware store, gave the color number and name to Kush and they shipped the paint to me. 2 gallons was exactly enough. I was getting nervous near the end. I have about 1/4 inch left in the can for touchups.
 
I also wanted to strengthen the transom. The transom seemed to be absolutely fine but the knee brace that anchored the transom to the boat floor had several cracks around rivets. I considered fabricating a larger knee brace but didn't like the idea of drilling into the hull below the water line so I settled on something different. This is a piece of 2" x 3" stainless rectangular tube installed right behind the rear bench seat. I welded a stainless bracket to each end and bolted it to the side of the boat. Two 3/8" rods connect the transom to this piece of tube. It's rock solid now.

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You can see that I also tapped and drilled the tube for a cleat on each end and for my VHF antenna mount.

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Here's the finished pedestal for the front navigation light

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Lots of other work was done that doesn't show up on the pictures. Every time I started some part of the project, I discovered 3 other things to add to the list. The work took a lot longer than expected, but every project does.

Everything was re-wired with marine grade wire. New fuse box, new switches, volt meter, a power port and cell USB charger. There's also a power port in the bow to run a DIY ice cooler/live well. I also fabricated a removable spotlight with 2 off-road LED lights that mounts on the bow. I use this boat on salt marshes and hope to use it to duck hunt this winter. Our trip in will be before sunrise so I wanted so some bright headlights. The salt marshes can be very disorienting. Everything looks alike and the channels meander everywhere.

I made some rod holders out of 1-1/4" PVC pipe.

The trailer got re-wired with new lights. Rollers were replaced with bunks. Bearings were re-packed.

Here's the front power port mounted on one of the storage lockers. There's also an LED light for lighting the inside of the deck at night. There are 4 of these deck lights. Two to light the deck and two to light the area behind the rear seat so I can see the battery, gas, and outboard motor. All are controlled by the switches on the side console.

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Here's a photo of the side console. The original steering wheel was at about knee height. I added 7" of aluminum to raise the console to a more comfortable height.

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There's also an LED deck light on the side console, in addition to the one on the front storage locker. These two lights are below the gunnel so nobody else will see them and they provide enough light to work in the boat if it's dark. All wiring was done inside PVC electrical conduit bent to fit the curves of the boat.

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I changed the impeller on the old Mariner 40hp outboard and gave it a good look over. Using a snake camera, I found a big piece of rubber lodged in the top of the tube from the water pump to the power head. Took me about an hour with pieces of wire to finally get that out.

Motor had great compression (130#) on both cylinders but was running rough at idle. I removed and cleaned the carbs and it smoothed out.

On our maiden voyage, the motor died about 200 yds from the ramp. Oh No! It would run, but not at idle. The remote shifter/throttle won't let you shift unless you are at idle. I could run the motor but I couldn't slow it down enough to shift into gear. I finally got it to shift - once!. After watching the ramp drift farther and farther away, I was able to limp back to the ramp. I came in way too fast because I had no throttle control but managed to get between the ramp and bulkhead without doing any damage. Fortunately, nobody was at the ramp or they would hve been running for their lives. My wife looked less than pleased when I gave her the thumbs up after our Hollywood-adventure-film docking.

We towed it home for repairs.

I bought one replacement carburetor and completely disassembled and cleaned the other. Everything from the fuel tank to the carbs was also replaced including all hoses, fuel pump, water separator, and fuel filter.

Our second voyage was thankfully, much less eventful.
 
Still nervous about being lost at sea with a dead motor, I found a used Nissan 5hp outboard on Craigslist. I added that as a kicker motor/ emergency-get-me-home motor. The little 5hp motor will push us along at 5 - 6 mph. It might take me a couple of hours to get back but it beats swimming back. The main 40hp motor will push us along at 24 mph - fast enough for me in the salt marshes. Had a close call with another boat when we met coming around a bend in the creek last weekend. 24 mph is defininately fast enough.

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I still have a couple of things to work out.

1. There's a lot of weight in the back. 40hp outboard, 5hp outboard, 6 gallons of gas, battery, and chubby me. The bow will rise a lot if someone isn't sitting in the bow facing backwards.
2. I'm formulating a plan for some sort of floor. I have an idea but I'm trying to refine it. I have all winter to get it figured out again.
 
Since it took me a large part of this past summer to get it seaworthy, we've only had it out on the water half a dozen times. But, we've explored miles and miles of salt marsh. We've crabbed (you can see our crab pots in the background in some of the pictures), fished, and had a great time. I'm sad that the weather is getting cold again.

I was hoping to get one last trip this weekend but the tides in the marshes are in charge of the schedule and they weren't cooperating. I will try one more time next weekend if the weather cooperates. Then, it will be packed away for the winter.
 
TinBassinVA said:
Nice job! I don't see many PolarKraft's talked about on here. I love my MV 1475.

Thank you. 1475 is a wide boat. I didn't know anyone made one. Mine is a 17' and it only has a 72" beam.
 
maintenanceguy said:
Thank you. 1475 is a wide boat. I didn't know anyone made one. Mine is a 17' and it only has a 72" beam.

Yes it is. I was surprised to find it actually. It's super stable for sure.
 
Great looking boat. could you move the console forward and install a seat on the top of the live well for the drivers seat?

Looking at that console I can see there is quite a bit of stuff going on.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

 
I considered moving the side console more forward but in front of the storage locker is further forward than I would want it. Truth is, the console gives me a place to mount the chart plotter, radio, and electrical switches. If it wasn't for those things, I'd be perfectly happy with a tiller motor instead of a steering wheel, which would give me more space to walk around in the boat.
 

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