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Bodged Budget Boat Project


brandenjg

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Hello all, for those who use the forums Facebook page may remember a few months ago I posted a picture of a small boat my brother in law had purchased.

I've been waiting till we made some progress before deciding to start a project topic for the boat.

The boat looks alright in the first photos from when he purchased the boat, but once it arrived in the garden everything fell to bits. The only solid part is the fibreglass. All the wood was rotted and pulled out, the paint came off in the rain, The windows.... Fell out. The trailer... Welds snapped.

 The budget is low, all the wood going into the boat is scraps and offcuts. The B.I.L (brother in-law) has till 1st April to get it done so I'll update this topic as and when I get photos. I have some on laptop that I'll upload when I can.

Branden 

Photos from day of purchase before towing home.

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Well the boat was stripped internally, washed down and ready for the wood to go in. 9D613063A97B49089B53752643439DEC.jpg.7986469513d9bb82a8436e75316db6ea.jpgBB0162909A954096A1A3ECB8EDAD9BC1.jpg.0d966c978205fa178556b70726ded244.jpgE23D63634C1841EFAB46F46A472E1469.jpg.ade6551916ad89046a2604fb4d6e4b5a.jpgThe wood rubbing strake came to bits once the towing straps were removed. It was held in place with loads of wooden blocks and around 100 rounded screws :(CE72343F430C4FE3B625EDF649C9AA35.jpg.727b176ac4ada691b637f4ffa214b231.jpg2E8852FC9B99437C8092C9ADF06BF488.jpg.82870458614ead52bdee69ebb09036c3.jpgSo far the wood consists of homebase sin bin beams, a broken drop leaf table and some sheets of wood dumped near the river down the road. Total spend so far, £3 for screws.

 

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Tanalised timber from a builders merchant may not be Yacht Quality but it's durable, often cheap, it does the job. As far as the rubbing streak is concerned, does the boat need wood ones? Flexible hose of various types can be got for very little, instant fend-offs too! Don't be afraid to soak soft wood in preservative.

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Difficult to tell from photos but I think that rubbing strake with its wooden blocks, is (or was) holding the cabin and deck moulding on to the hull. You need to look into strength, in this area.

Fibreglass moulds have no structural rigidity and they get this, from the bulkheads and the furniture, that you put in them when fitting out the boat. So don't think loose fitting furniture - think "structure".

Also make sure that the "sandwich" in the cabin top, foredeck and side decks is still in good condition and has not gone rotten. If it has, now is the time to do something about it.

 

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14 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

Difficult to tell from photos but I think that rubbing strake with its wooden blocks, is (or was) holding the cabin and deck moulding on to the hull. You need to look into strength, in this area.

Fibreglass moulds have no structural rigidity and they get this, from the bulkheads and the furniture, that you put in them when fitting out the boat. So don't think loose fitting furniture - think "structure".

Also make sure that the "sandwich" in the cabin top, foredeck and side decks is still in good condition and has not gone rotten. If it has, now is the time to do something about it.

 

Sound advice is that. As far as the rubbing streak is concerned it appears to be plywood on the outside which gave rise to my comment. I have seen good boats ruined by over enthusiastic removal of 'walls' in the name of open planning. Regretfully often done whilst the boat is afloat , the structural damage only emerging when the boat is lifted from the water and, for example, the prop shaft no longer aligns with the engine. In this case the boat is on the trailer, hopefully sitting as she was designed. Branden, is the boat in Norwich?

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As usual alot of great advice. Unfortunately I get no say In the materials as it's B.I.L's boat. I've advised him the best I can on what materials will and won't work and roughly how long theyll last. All the wood should work except the floor as it's osb which won't last long atall.

The first wood to go in was the wooden beams across the floor. Some of which came with the boat and the rest were treated wood from sin bin.

 The next job was replacing and improving the structural wood surrounding the cabin. Fortunately the roof and sides were still solid so this gave us something to screw the beams to.

Once in place it gave us a chance to get some planks down for a seat. Still need some "legs" and cross beams to spread the weight of the seat  across the hull then screwing together.DSC_0218.thumb.JPG.627738055997114e76c46231177435f0.JPG

More to come, the next update will be when the drop leaf table wood gets fitted and some shiny bits go on.

Branden

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There's actually a funny story behind why the budgets so low. B.I.L had some money saved from when we were going to go in together on a 23ft Norman but decided neither of us would have the time to do the project so I spent my money on a new outboard and he got this project boat. The first things he bought were battery, switch panel, helm and wheel. Next he got a call to say a mooring 2 spaces down from mine was available if he wanted it. We went to Brundall that day and he paid for the mooring to make sure no one else got it.

 Unfortunately the mooring blew his entire budget :facepalm:

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33 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

I've got some spare fenders going free if that will help the BIL. Maybe not smart but plenty of life left in them.

I'm sure he'd be more than happy to have them. Transport is a bit of an issue but we'll be down Oulton way on the boats sometime in the coming months. 

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Well the table wood is all used up, unfortunately there wasn't enough left for a door so will be on the hunt for some more wood. Helm, wheel and engine controller fitted and floor roughly cut to shape.Screenshot_2017-02-21-17-53-27.thumb.jpg.a322d33b5aa8d79c03ad51bacbce8cd2.jpgScreenshot_2017-02-21-17-53-42.thumb.jpg.32aacfeb5ed84ed8d66da05db4aa48fc.jpgScreenshot_2017-02-21-17-54-01.thumb.jpg.02fb8ed698af7bcaa4de73c7c72fda35.jpg

Also B.I.L finally got a tape measure. Everything so far has been measured and cut by eye :shocked

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On 20/02/2017 at 5:43 PM, Vaughan said:

Difficult to tell from photos but I think that rubbing strake with its wooden blocks, is (or was) holding the cabin and deck moulding on to the hull. You need to look into strength, in this area

 

Hi Vaughan here's a pic from the outside of where the running strake was. Branden DSC_0276.thumb.JPG.8790c250f0da59ec62675df14e2960ae.JPG

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Again, I can't tell much from photos but it looks to me as though the deck moulding goes inside the hull, which is unusual. You need to be careful about water getting in here, or it might end up rotting your new woodwork inside!

Above all else, you have got to clean it all back to the original hull, and this also applies to the inside. Those bulkheads and bunk boards in your other photos have got to be glassed onto the hull, and GRP resin won't stick to old paint and crud. You need to spend an hour or two with a disc sander, or just a rotary pad fitting which can be attached to an electric drill, with coarse paper, around 80 or 60 grit, and roar off all that old mess of filler and paint, until you have a surface that you can work on.

 

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It might be that the hull has a lip that the deck sits over, The idea being that the vertical edge of the deck moulding sits over the lip, resting on the knuckle created by that lip in the hull and therefore is flush with the hull itself. It does, if I'm right, create a pretty tough gunwale. Without seeing it in person, and the photo is not entirely clear, I am guessing but it was not an unusual technique in 1960's/70's small boats. 

Vaughan's advice on glassing the bulkhead into the hull is absolutely sound. Word of warning though, sometimes new resin won't stick to 1960's old glass fibre. Some yards are very successfully using West System epoxy resin but that is very expensive. There are some pretty mean silicon/bitumen mastics that were developed for building bridges and those are used by some yards, Martham Boats for example, their boat-builders call it 'black-****'. I've used it, can't think of the trade name, and it's amazingly good, but not as good as epoxy. If you are rebuilding the boat then maybe expense is not a major factor but if you just want to get afloat, and longevity is not an overriding factor, then maybe structural grade sealants could be worth considering. 

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7 minutes ago, brandenjg said:

I wasn't sure if we could get away with only glassing in the wood which comes into direct contact with the hull. The bulkhead is attached to wood which is glassed in already.

I've always been pants at fibreglassing probably due to improper prep work.

Is that how the boat was built originally? 

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I am sitting 1000 miles away looking at photos, so I can only make general comments.

I can't see how you are going to make a good job of this without firmly fixing the bulkheads and furniture such as bunks and the galley to the hull, by glassing in or (possibly) using modern resin glue or mastic filler.

The glassing is also to seal the ends of your woodwork to prevent rot.

First thing to understand is that fibreglass matt will not go round sharp corners. you have to smooth it around gentle bends, as I have shown in the sketch. I apologise for my technical drawing, but I have seen whole boats fitted out using less design detail than this!

 

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If you need to glass over the end of the wood, as for making a battery box, you must sand the end off round first. 

When glassing a bulkhead, you seat it onto the hull with Isopon P40, which is like P38 but reinforced with chopped strand matt. You build this filler into a curve on either side, as shown, and leave it to go off.

If you want to make a pad, for a skin fitting (a sink drain perhaps) then you sand the top of the pad round, seat it onto the hull with P40 and then glass over the whole lot. You can then (and only then) drill through the pad and the hull to install the skin fitting.

Opinions differ, but I like to see the strip of GRP matt extend to 3 inches wide on either side of the joint. Wider if you like. You also need to thoroughly soak the matt in resin, starting with a coat of resin on the bare surfaces. I was always told you can never put on too much resin. Slap it about!

The final thing is that your surfaces must be sanded off clean. Resin won't stick to old paint, oil, or mud. If you are using a plastic faced plywood such as Formica, then the plastic must be ground off with a disc sander in the area where you are glassing.

By the way, you need to take out that glassed in bearer for the main bulk head, as it is as rotten as a pear in the bottom corner. That much, I can see from here!

Above all, enjoy the project!

 

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