we put a 190hp mercruiser in it!! handled the power very  easily!! bout i would recommend about 120hp would make it fly!

deffinately look forward to seeing the before and after pics. Barons were a great sea boat ive heard.

I have a baron seaprince 5.2 which looks similar but has more of a flared out bow, it has a black max 135 on a pod and can push 40knts in good conditions.A great handling little boat and has been in some pretty nasty seas before.(actually many a times) and got me home.

I own a Baron that I rebuilt over the last few years, it has a 225hp Merc out on a pod. You will find pics of the boat on the sight, if u need any info, will send more pics and info on changes

Seen a few Barons with 90HP motors, mine has a 130 Hp Yamaha and it goes very well. I think a good size is about 120-130Hp from what I've seen attached to other Barons. Your boat certainly looks different though. Cant comment on the name.

these are after polishing the top half

if you look between the ladder i missed a bit

Good stuff.  Looks heaps better already.  I've been following this thread.  My Dad use to own a Baron Sportsman and I'm pretty keen to hunt one down when I can get enough funds together.  I've set my sights to get one before the end of next year but a lot can happen in that time.  I think it would spin him right out if I could get one and maybe give it a bit of a refurb.  From all accounts, the Barons are good strong boats.  I'd love to have a good look at Kingfisher's Baron one day.  Looks like he spent a fair bit of time and money getting his looking so good.  Good luck with your Cobra Gregrobo.

thanks wazzbat, yep a lot of time, energy, research and coin spent on the boat, if anybody wants any info just message. Love my boat, scares the sh..t out of jetski ppl. travels well and is very stable. Dont think I would want anything else in its size

Basically, if your boat can cruise at 20 knots your engine power is fine. You should be able to determine with the current engine what hp would suit.

As for the hull it looks I believe it would handle well and you will have no dramas. Once you put a decent donk on it you will have a very good boat.

great post and boat!

Looking at the Mercury, it could be a 1978 model, maybe evenmade ,under licence, in Dandanong, Victoria.

They love fuel and lots of care plus want to run between 4800 and 5300rpm, where they sing!

Trolling at almost idle speed is not what they want to do.

Give it regular maintenance, keep the carbs and ignition in sink and they will reward you for the price of lotsa fuel with a blistering performance and a great sound!

If it is still running good, one needs to use it an awfull lot to justify buying a new eggbeater @ lot$a $$, just to save on fuel!  

yeah the motor goes well just cant keep gearboxes in it spat a input shaft the weekend before we never got it off the boat ramp going to repower it before next summer with a 115 merc 2 stroke

So we have owned our baron for a year or so and we decided to repower it with a 115 hpdi merc and in the process build a pod and modify the rear of the hull by removing the seat wells and engine well

e

also had windows west do the glass for us before christmas last year top notch job and good guys to deal with also

Going to be interested about how it performs on the water. You,ve built an interesting pod there, Normally pods tend to have a step up where the pod and keel meet. Also you have alot of extra floatation there, which will incidently increase the registered length of your boat by the length of floatation.

Of coarse there are pods (or brackets) that do follow the hull contour, but the stepped ones are by far the most common. I am interested as I have a Baron which I think is tail heavy, and a pod such as yours may well counter this.

Just one other point, I saw a boat with a pod on it which came close to sinking. It was only a few hours out from new. The plastic screw on hatch they used for access to the pod had broken away all around the thread, and the boat submerged withinn minutes. my thoughts on the cause of this was that the underneath surface of the pod flexed and the internal air pressure caused the hatch to flex up and down because of this. eventually fatigeing and the lid breaking away. I wouldn,t use el cheapo hatches after seeing that.

good point iana on the extra floatation we have already allowed for it. we are also installing a 150 liter belly tank and like you said it was tail heavy before hand

Hi what brand polish did you use as mine boat is dull like yours was and want to bring it back to shine thanks 

 3m marine finness but be carefull with it as it has silica in it which will mess your lungs up wear a mask when using it

hey iana we had it down of woodman point and it sits alot more level in the water now even at speed where before it was bow up and also because we deleted the outboard well the slop problem has been eliminated and it handles very well had it to 27 knots in choppy conditions and the other reason other pods have a setp in them is for ease of fabrication and welding.

 Looks very similar to the pod I have on my Baron, works a treat, have225hp on the back and runs like a scolded cat, loves the swell, love your work, look forward to seeing more posts

Hi im in the process of a resto on my Baron Sporstman , im wanting to put a pod on the back and a larger fuel tank , I want to remove the whole transon / rear seat area  and fit a full height transon then box out for live bait tank and battery stroage ect . Also make the in floor section wider to accomidate a larger fuel tank arount 250 - 300 L  ANY  Help / advice would be greatly appreciated as im across in Vic and not many Barons over this way thanks   

 Sounds like what you want to do to your Barron is what I did several years ago, check out my pics or send me inbox info

Didn't pick up your reply until late. Good to read the trim is looking good.
Just a few comments about pods, I did a fair amount or research on the web, while there is little to be learned about design etc., what I understood was that the outboard bracket (Australian Pod) was a bolt on unit that allowed an outboard to be mounted out back of the transom.
The advantage apparently is getting the prop out of the pressure wave created by the transom, and running in less turbulent water. So in this case the pod is not in contact with the water when under way.
Then there is what is termed a "Hull extension" also hull extension pod, and is what you have engineered. Doing exactly as it says extending the hull, and increasing bouyancy.
There is now a third type of bracket being made, which is a hydraulic unit, that lifts the motor vertically up or down, and still shifts the outboard back, but allows prop height to be adjusted. Its manufactured as a complete bolt on assembly.

Jesus it frightens me to read about all the cutting and shutting you're about to do. Just remember it won't make your 1980's boat into a 2013 boat when it comes to putting it on the market. For all the money and time, I would just save my bickies and buy a newer boat.
My thoughts on what you propose, I would suggest installing two or three separate fuel tanks, rather than one. Fuel in one long fuel tank may or will upset the trim when half empty. The fuel gauge will be useless (I wouldn't bother with one), as it will read according to the angle of the tank. With multipule tanks you can use the rear tank going out until empty, and still know you have 2/3 fuel left. By not filling the rear tank unless required, you will be able to have fresher fuel in the other two or one, and the boat will have better trim.

Hi Iana if i had between $50 @ $70k i would buy a great offshore boat but we all have to live within a budget , the boat doesnt owe me alot and the transoms soft so needs to be repaced , as for cutting out the rear seats i only fish and dont need 2 rear seats that take up what can be extra fish dek. Would much rather live bait tanks and storage area that 2 un used seats . 

As for the fuel tank not to may 19ft boats i know of run 3 tanks and trying to have switching between all 3 what a nightmare easier to run 1 big tank some days we do up to 300km depending where were fishing so rather have extra fuel than not enough. Most other boats all run 1 tank so think i will do the same and depending where im fishing dont need to fill it everytime we go out .  

Will post some pics of the process hope to end up with a transom something like Kingfisher549

Once its done it will also have a hardtop with glassscreen and sliding side windows. 

Price a solid 19ft boat with hardtop ,250l + fuel tank, live bait tank ect and at least i know what i have as its all like new and wouldnt need to sell it as to buy the same in a new boat would be out of my price range and no where near as solid    

Thanks for your in put

iana has a valid point about the amount of work and you do have to weigh up weather or not its worth it or not we live 400km inland and only get to use our boat when time permits so a 50 to 70 thousand dollar boat was out of the question.  we picked up our boat for 3500 used it as it was for three years all the time reasearching and planning our mods at the moment it owes us 25000k and that includes all our labour

 looking fwd to seeing blood on the decks!