Thanks to AAB for helping!

[dseng]

Thanks to the many contributors and years of knowledge and experience shared by AAB's members - your information was an incredibly valuable resource during our search for our new boat. We bought her from a small independent builder located in Bellingham - Dockside Machine Boats - built almost completely single-handed by the owner, Larry Hilty. His website is http://www.alaska27.com. We shipped her from Bellingham to Juneau on the ferry and we took delivery of her on July 1, 2013. 27', 9'2" beam, 315hp Yanmar diesel, 200 gals fuel, 45 gals fresh water, 9.9HT kicker. She's built like the proverbial brick outhouse. She's hull number 5 - he builds these as a hobby.

[JETTYWOLF]

Dang, now don't get all upset, because it's my "saying around here",

but "damn, those rich Alaskans."

Between Miami and Alaska, that's where its at when it comes to boats, for sure...except Alaska boats don't have blowers sticking up outa the stern with 1200HP.
[BBvideo 560,340]http://youtu.be/l6zUWQSRVRw[/BBvideo]

OR:


What happened to the stern? Its not there.

And your kicker is only a 9.9? I guess my little boat wouldn't need more than the cheapy Tohutsu 8.9, then.

Whats' that "silver box" in front of the kicker.....a continuation of the engine box?

That's one massive engine compartment. Guess ya have working space.

It looks like that since and cabin is aluminum, if so I often wondered about that. Some boats have cabinets and a sink as a seperate brought in unit?

NEXT pics:

Dead fish? filleted and cooked.

[dseng]

No worries, Jettywolf - I've been around long enough to know better than to get all butt hurt over a joke And trust me - we are in the category of "don't have much money, but we're richer than anyone could ever hope to be because we live in a wilderness paradise" Alaskans. It's a pretty common malady up here.

That "silver box" is the fuel tank for the kicker. Plenty of room for me to drop right down into the engine compartment - it's nice when you have to get something done on the engine.

Yep - the sink and cabinets were custom fabbed by the builder - he made everything aluminum - including the combination paper towel holder/aft fish finder screen and the cup holders that have a 150 lb weight rating (just kidding, but they ARE the stoutest cupholders I've ever seen). He hired a cabinet maker for the drawers and other teak work.

That Yamaha 9.9 high thrust does a fine job of pushing her along at 6 knots and is great for trolling. Putting a bigger kicker back there would just be a waste of horsepower until you put something back there big enough to get all 9500 lbs of her on step.

The "open" cockpit design didn't really appeal to me the first time I saw her in the photos, but the first time on the water convinced me (plus it makes it easy for the guys to pee). It's really nice to not be all closed in like a conventional cockpit. Rigging up a fish cleaning table may end up being a little more of a challenge, but I'll figure something out.

We've already boated enough fish since July to take care of us for the year - but here's my fishing partner's "First Blood" - Not a bad way to start and we've been stacking up the salmon and halibut since then!

[JETTYWOLF]

I'm one of those dumb azz southerners that thinks of Alaska as that place where everyone has a log cabin in the woods, fishes for a living (which means you make no real $$), and the local boat ramp is just a gravel road that ends in the water.

But, after seeing the alaska video's and what Spoiled one has to do to put his boat in the water at some 5-star looking marina.

I've been educated. And amazed.

So you'll have to excuse me. I revert every once in awhile.

I'm in S. Georgia's largest city with a Florida zip code, and there's not a damn thing going on here, worth a shet.

[Sabs28]

Very Nice Boat Congrats.

[welder]

NICE, she is sweet.
I would do a cleaning table [ quick disconnect type ] over the engine cover big enough to work from both sides and a shoot with a fence up top [ so you don't lose fillets or shrimp] to slide scraps out the back. The cleaning table could also be used for partying.

[Chaps]

Wow, looks like a mini-Nordhaven with that bow. Lots of nice little features everywhere one looks . . . fold-away kicker and pot davit for instance . . . he builds these for a hobby? Does he have an open slot in his schedule?

[goatram]

I like it as well. Need more Pictures of the kicker bracket. Close ups of it stowed and extended ready to run. The tank on the back is sweet as well

[dseng]

He's building a new one right now, Chaps. Call him, he'll be happy to talk about his latest creation. Each one improves on the prior one. A friend here in Juneau owns the one he built before ours - they're very similar, but there are slight improvements in ours.
I'll see what I can come up with for pics of the kicker bracket. We really like it, very nice to be able to get it out of the way when running.

[Chaps]

I added his site (Dockside Machine) to the master builder list Aluminum Boat Builders

The site shows many detail pics of your boat including the fold away kicker bracket

Interesting that it has a Yanmar outdrive

BTW, what is this thing?

thing.jpg (27.52 KiB) Viewed 8631 times

[dseng]

That's the sea strainer. The yellow "knobs" hold the heads of the bolts that secure the cover. I'd never seen one like that before, there's no brand name on it and the builder said that he can no longer get them. It's a nice design though - easy to see in without taking the cover off.

I REALLY like the Yanmar outdrive! It's a beefy, well built unit and overbuilt for our engine. It has a hydraulic clutch that makes shifting silky smooth - no clunking. Coupled with the Glenndinning electronic engine control it's a slick setup.

[gulfislander]

very cool boat! definatly like the fold away pot puller! your builder seems like an interesting guy! what speed do you cruze at?
Cheers!

[dseng]

LOL! The builder is a very cool guy - builds and repairs commercial fishing boats by day and builds these Alaska27 alloy boats for a hobby. Great guy to talk to - very knowledgable, friendly and truly loves his craft.

Cruising speed is 20 knots (23mph). That's at 3200rpm - she tops out at 3800ish rpm and 30 knots (34+ mph). We're usually pretty happy cruising along at 19-20 knots - have to keep an eye peeled for floating logs all the time. Running much faster than that really reduces your reaction time when you suddenly see an outdrive killer looming close.

It's tough to get into too much of a hurry around here - as soon as we're out of the tiny, sparsely populated harbor where we keep her we're looking at islands, mountains, glaciers, Dalls Porpoise, sea lions, humpbacks, etc. :-) It's tough, but somebody has to do it!

We had a visit from this gal the other day - it's very rare to see a Pacific White-sided Dolphin in our Inside Passage waters, but this one hung out playing on our bow for nearly 30 minutes. On the second jump in the video her head was about 11 feet out of the water. It was one of the coolest things I've experienced. Talking with one of the state's marine mammal biologists the other day and he said that it could have well been a once in a lifetime experience. The ADF&G is going to use the video on their web page describing the Pacific White-sided Dolphin. (click on the picture for the video)


Dave

[gulfislander]

I love the pacific white sided dolfins. So playfull. We would have pods of them playing in the boat wakes where i grew up. In fact a few weeks ago when i was home visiting we had 50 of them come into the bay and stick around for 2 days! charging and jumping the whole time! pretty increadible creatures! very cool that you got one all the way up in alaska!