[Jim in CT]

I used to do 5-6 charter trips a year with a guide in Mystic CT who had a 24 foot Privateer center console. I've seen most of the boats in this size, and I have been on a lot of them. I have never been on a hull that I liked more than this one for the kind of fishing I do, which could be called "inshore light tackle casting of eels and plugs".

I have been casually following the used market for years, and you see them very rarely (they don't make a lot of boats, many are for the commercial crabbing industry on the Chesepeake).

So recently I found a professional builder in NC, this guy usually builds "custom carolina" boats. Because of teh slowing economy, he is doing smaller re-builds, and he sort of specializes in re-building older Privateers because he is near the factory.

This guy has a great reputation, has been written about many times in The National Fisherman. And he's rebuilding a 1990 Privateer 24 center console. The neat thing is, he is designing the re-build around all of the things that I want. For example, I like the idea of a closed transom with the engine on a full bracket, with a tuna door leading to the bracket...I get to choose exactly which type of console, which type of leaning post, what kind of livewell, what kind of cleats, everything. At my request, he'll put a MASSIVE casting deck/sunpad in the bow, a place where the women can lay out in the summer. And with a bow dodger, it's a place where the little ones can get out of the sun.

He is rebuilding everything up from the hull with composite, and the cost will be much less than a new "stock" boat from the factory. And I just really like the idea of picking all the little (and some not-so-little) things that will make the boat "mine".

What do you guys think?