SONICJK

Last year I refinished the teak (Iroko actually) platform on my 23V and it came out OK but the wood was starting to rot a bit and the color was darker than I wanted. After riding behind Allfab's boat and talking with him about his platform I decided to make another one. I've always been a fan of wood platforms, I wish they still put them on new boats. IMO it adds a classy nostalgic touch that fiberglass doesn't have. It's modeled after the 24VE platform and is a good bit bigger than the stock one. Counter intuitive for surfing it seems but his works really well, it actually helps shape the wave rather than just ride above it. You can see the shape and size difference here I ordered about 50bdft of 5/4 Mahogany from my lumber supplier and planed it down. Straight lined the pieces (you can use a router jig, a track saw, or a joiner to do this as well) Then sanded them smooth (bot not too smooth, I stick with 80 grit and below so they aren't slippery in the water) I put a 1/4" roundover down the length of each board but forgot to take pictures of that. Then lay it out and mark out your cuts Once your satisfied with the layout screw it all together, taking care to keep screws out of where you're going to cut. From there just cut it out. I used the old platform to trace the curve from the boat, and the plywood platform template from @Allfab to to rough out the shape. I went a little more geometric than the curves he has which will probably be a hindrance to my wave lol but I like the look. And then you roundover the edges, and sand the cuts and oil the sucker. Mohogany is an oily tropical hardwood so it doesn't take much oil. Start to finish roughly 3-4 hours.

I've been meaning to make this for a while but finally got to it yesterday. I Started with 2 mandrel bent stainless 90's (available on amazon, or summit etc) and 1 12" section of 3" Stainless tube (i had it in the shop, but also available at amazon or summit etc) Oddly enough the mandrels were a Perfect fit even before any trimming so all I had to do was square the ends and weld them together. Once welded I notched the tube for the downpipe and marked where it would go. Cut that out with a plasma and then used a die grinder to clean it up. This could also easily be done with a dremel. For the downpipe I slash cut it and then put it in a vise to taper the end to hopefully avoid as much spray as possible. Then it was welded up and test fit: From there I cut some stainless flanges: The original plan was to do it without any couplers, just bolt it on. However once I started that process it's damn near impossible to get the screw holes aligned and the angles correct so I caved and just sliced the ends off and put couplers on. I can't fit my boat in my shop and I was too lazy to drag a welder out into the driveway, otherwise I would have just put it together and tacked it on the boat to fit. This picture is before cleanup and squaring etc. I decided to have to tubes extend into the factory exhaust as it's a tight fit and I think it will add some support and take some stress off the screw holes. Now I just need to add a support to the swim deck mount and I'll be good to go! That will pull the angle up a bit, as it sits it's sagging a bit under it's own weight in the silicone couplers. Added a mount to the swim deck this afternoon and cleaned everything up a bit. Total cost ~100 + roughly 2 hours of my time.