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After 15 years of being without a boat I have made the jump back into the water with what I had always had my eye on. I would rather not have the 40 Johnson (1998) with a separate oil tank (to much weight) but there it is and the boat absolutely flies, almost scary fast. Being a piddler there are several things that I would like to change. A biggee for me is the fuel tank. I would rather have a tank underneath one of the seats and am looking for a good recommendation/source for one. In the image I placed the portable in front of the rear seat for weight distribution. Also there are quite a few fine cracks in the gel coat that (until next winter when I plan on refinishing the hull) I am wondering whether or not it would be worth it to fill in/polish the cracks. Being 35+ years old I think the boat is in remarkedly good shape with a world of piddling to bring it into pristine shape.

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OFD, nice boat!!

I too have a 1978 13' Sport and know of the cracks you mention. I talked to a fiberglass man who spent 30 years at Nauset Marine and he said it's next to impossible to fix the cracks. He stated they will ultimately reappear. He said the only way to fix them is to re-gelcoat the boat and that is beyond my budget. He said I could paint it but did not recommend doing so.

He advised me to just look at the boat as an almost 40 year old classic and overlook them. I took his advice.

I see where the forward hatch on your boat is a little different than mine. My boat has a piece of mahogany that is about 2.5' long and maybe 10" wide.

One piece of advice,,,If you run your boat at night, get a new anchor light. I bit the bullet and purchased a new anchor light assembly from Sue at Twin Cities and that sucker is about 3' tall but will hopefully keep me from getting run over in case we are out late.

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Thanks for the advice on the gel-coating, to have it redone is out of my $$ range as well. The front hatch is a trapezoid and is made out of "plastic" of the same thickness of what would have been the mahogany original. I intend to replace it as soon as I manage to get enough mahogany (or teak) to do so. That bit of wood working is within my meager abilities.

The weight distribution & clutter is what bothers me hence the desire toplace a fuel tank under a bench seat and place some sort of storage under the other. Does anybody have suggestion(s) on either point?

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I'd recommend contacting Moeller and see if they can recommend a tank to fit under the seat. http://moellermarine.com/contact-us/ontact-us/. I contacted them a couple months ago about a tank and they got back to be in less than a day.

Back in the day they made a bench seat that had storage in the back rest. You might be able to find a replacement online.

If you wanted to have some really sharp storage to match the wood, talk to a local wood shop. It will cost more than the traditional plastic stuff they sell but it would look sharp.