2 Cool Fishing Forum banner

Boat Restoration...Jupiter 15 (the original Mako)

4K views 13 replies 9 participants last post by  texcajun 
#1 ·
Welcome to a thread about restoring my old, old original center console boat. I hope you enjoy the thread and will follow along through to completion which won't be until next spring 2017.

The boat was built about 1970 and was called the Jupiter 15. The boat form was bought out by Mako in Florida soon thereafter and became the first Mako's ever made and sold. It was built as a competitor to the Boston Whaler and later graduated up to the 17 ft size (mine actually is 16 ft) that became common on our coast.

Some of you may remember "Burnet & Dumas" in Pasadena who brought some of the very first center console boats to the Upper Texas Coast. They carried the Jupiter/Mako and the Whaler. I choose the Jupiter over the Whaler largely because of the layout...with more open space. Never regretted that decision and never parted with the boat.

Now, approaching 50 years later, the boat needs some work in the overall finish, the rear floor section and the transom. For the final re-finish, the boat will be painted with Interlux yacht paint over an epoxy primer. The rear floor section will be re-enforced with Seacast and the original skin covering put back in place. The transom, which was really in bad shape, will be re-built with Seacast after scraping all the old rotted wood out.

You can't find the original decals and fixtures now so I'll be trying to restore what I can of the old ones and make new ones where necessary. All the original teak wood is still amazingly good and will be retained as is.

This boat has seen the best and worst of Texas coastal fishing over the last half century. It has spent the majority of its time in the waters of Galveston Bay, Trinity Bay, and West Galveston Bay. The boat has seen the Buccaneer rigs and landed many king fish between the Jetties and the rigs drawing many incredulous stares from unbelieving boaters in much larger crafts.

It has been all the way from the tip of Key West to the tip of the Laguna Madre with many trips to the land cut and King Ranch shoreline. It was in "Tarpon Alley" long before that stretch of water was immortalized by Mike Williams and has seen 200 pound class Tarpon pulled over the sides as well as days of jumping over 50 Tarpon.

In its "retirement" years, it has served as an outstanding striped bass and white bass river boat having been on just about every nook and cranny of the Sabine and Trinity rivers as well as most of the lakes in Texas.

The boat has special meaning to me...some much so that I half seriously asked my wife to bury me in that boat. The problem with that is the boat is unsinkable and virtually indestructible. Some people like to restore Corvettes, but my old Corvette can't hold a candle to the sentimental value I attach to this boat.

Rather than be a "casket", I have decided to restore it and one day give it to my grandson...assuming he proves he will take proper care of it...but that is hopefully way in the future and the big white bass on the Sabine will be calling soon and the Jupiter needs to answer the call.

Check in, on occasion over the next three months, for updates on the progress of this project. Comments and questions welcomed.
 

Attachments

See less See more
5
#2 · (Edited)
Stripping it down

We started with the rear section of the floor, removing it and now are trying to remove all the old wood from that flooring "skin". The "skin" will be re-used and as mentioned, Seacast liquid transom will be poored into the inner hull to re-inforce the floor. It will be as good or better than new when this is done.

The transom was really in bad shape, worse than I had imagined. In fact, it was probably in danger of failing completely soon. The wood in the transom was rotted all across the load bearing sections and was only a matter of time until it gave out completely. Seacast liquid transom will be poured into that cavity when its totally cleaned out and dried.

From the looks today, its going to be at least a couple of weeks drying/cleaning before the next steps. Stay tuned.

p.s. if you look close you can see the remains of a rat and the home it made under the floor...perhaps the first "casket" use of the boat, LOL.
 

Attachments

#6 ·
Well it took much longer than expected, but the restoration is complete.

This boat spent its first 25 years chasing Tarpon, Kings, Specs and Reds in saltwaters of Texas and Florida, the second 25 years after Stripers and Crappie in lakes of Texas and Arkansas, and is targeted to spend its remaining years in the creeks, rivers, and backwaters all across the South.

Credit to David Proctor @ Lighthouse Marine for outstanding fiberglass work and rigging.

Its basically as good as new...actually much better with the electronics and the added storage. Boats just aren't built today like this one and others back in the 70s.

See you on the water...
 

Attachments

#11 ·
Meadowlark, that turned out very nice, and thank you for posting an update though it took some time...they always do! Also, thank you for the history about the Jupiter and Mako relationship as I learned something new.

I've had/restored a couple 70's-80's boats over the years...79 Potter built SeaCraft, 84 Boston Whalers, and a current 79 Mako. I'll share a little with you about the Mako since you seem to know and like them. It's a Mako Backcountry that they only made about 50...mine is hull #9. The production was expensive given the 15 hatches of the boat. They later modified this hull in the early 90's and cut out the center portion which helped in reducing the number of hatches. However, basically Mako took the classic 17' you described, cut down the gunnels, and then added sponsons to the stern for the 18 Backcountry. The guy that owned this boat most all of it's life down in Laguna Madre, had the boat modified in the early 90's by raising the transom 5" and adding a pocket tunnel...I could probably run a 175hp on this thing the way they laid up and tied in the heavy mat. I wonder if your boat and this one have run across each other back in the day as he too was well known to run areas of the Land Cut where many could not...his name was Mr. K Wright and has passed.

I bought the hull back about the time you started this thread in 2016 and started doing a restoration such that it would be around for many more years. It took me a bit to put everything back together since I bought just the hull...no motor, no trailer, nothing but the bare hull. I have been fishing and learning the hull for 2 summers now logging about 50 hours on it. She's not a fast hull but she cuts the chop well to keep you dry, and runs really skinny!

I think it's great that you have owned that boat its entire life and decided to restore it like you did. Did you decide to put wood or composite back into the transom?
 

Attachments

#12 ·
Meadowlark, that turned out very nice, and thank you for posting an update though it took some time...they always do! Also, thank you for the history about the Jupiter and Mako relationship as I learned something new.

...I wonder if your boat and this one have run across each other back in the day as he too was well known to run areas of the Land Cut where many could not...his name was Mr. K Wright and has passed.

Did you decide to put wood or composite back into the transom?
Fantastic reply bw. Thanks so much.

1) I've seen old pictures of the exact same boat as my Jupiter 15 under the name of Mako. Gemini Marine was the manufacturer of my Jupiter and my understanding is that Mako bought them out about 1970 and produced the same boat for years in the early 70s. Thank you for that info on the Backcountry...very interesting to me.

2. I'm 100% sure I've seen that boat but unfortunately can't recall Mr. K Wright. I would very much loved to have met him. Many times me and my buddies were run off King Ranch shoreline and once actually arrested, lol, but those are other stories. We were always careful to respect the property and only slept on the "beach" but those cowboys just didn't understand us old salts.

3. I went in with "Seacast Liquid Transom" after painstakingly removing all the old wood. I swear that new transom is now virtually indestructible. Highly recommend it.

I was down in Jupiter last spring for the Astros and Cardinals and Nats spring training. Got to sniff around a little and there is a reverence for those old Gemini Marine manufactured boats....but mine will stay with me forever.

Thanks again for your superb additions to this thread!
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top