New to me Boat!

I started working on the roof this week. If you remember the boat had a fly bridge and the first picture is what it looked like after the fly bridge and vinyl floor came off...

I spent a few hours on the orbital sander and got all the glue off but now I’m wondering what to do? The gel coat is chipped and cracked in a lot of spots. My initial thought was to grind out all the cracks ant then fill and fair with a resin mixture before prime and paint. The only other option is grinding all the gel coat off and that’s not a job I really want to tackle.

What ever I decide it’s going to have to wait as I’m headed up to caamano sound/ Hecate straight to fish for 10 days Friday after work!

5E7F273E-CC52-4A0E-8647-986CD9A3368E.jpeg B9F4FCB5-20F8-4A13-ADA2-E34078530BEA.jpeg C5C53C7B-41AB-4C54-BD86-47CCE8069022.jpeg
 
Line-ex?
 
Back from my trip and this was waiting for me in the garage! My wife and kids picked it up from Victoria for me while I was away.

I have been working on the toilet situation and am going to have to make a decision before I can proceed any further. I have removed the jabsco pump out toilet and ball valves. Because there is no holding tank I am leaning toward the option of glassing in the thru hulls and installing a porta potty with a casset.

I have read most of the marine toilet web sites and blogs but would like to here some real world thoughts before I pull the plug... what ever we decide it will be better then the bucket we had in the old boat.

95D1E02E-AA35-470F-B917-637E695053EF.jpeg
 
I have a porta potty, so easy to use and I don’t have any thru hulls in my boat to worry about
 
Porta Potty is idea. You can pressurize the water and flush them like the real thing. Clean it out whenever you want as long as you use proper treatment. Pro tip, in the winter take out ALL water or they freeze and crack.
 
Thanks guys.

I cut some bigger holes in the glass tonight right tight to the transom and the stingers appear fine there as well. Once I get this yammy off the back I will open the floor up on the back 18” to get a better look as well as to remove the rotten transom.
late reply, too late ,I did much the same same boat. another builder in the same yard came over , and helped me with his cobbled together system of a vac pump at one end and resin pumped in via caulking guns , eventually the resin was pulled through.. he'd done a warranty work on those boats in the early eighties .
 
I got the second coat of gel on and sanded down to 600 grit. It’s still a little thin it spots but I have decided to leave it as it’s going to be painted over anyways... I just wanted to give it a try and see why it costs so much to have a boat re gelled, I now know why as it’s a lot of work!

Good thing I didn’t go back out on Sunday! The boat was acting up a bit, when I would try to adjust the trim the motor would bog down. I opened it up and found one of the magnets on the fly wheel came loose and burned out the stator... I got the new fly wheel and stator installed today and will take it for a test burn/fish tomorrow after work.

I have arranged for the boat to go to the pod guy and for the fuel tank to be dropped off June 30 so that’s a big step in the right direction! Then it’s off to telegraph cove for a week to relax...

View attachment 38484 View attachment 38483
did you have any problems with re-gel coat ?

As it is a major toss and turn at night for me, seriously considering a project like this in early spring this coming yr. We did it yrs ago on a 38' sailboat hull of my brothers and modded a fibermold canopy for a truck . The sailboat worked out fine though combined prep time was about 50-60 hrs including some deeper repairs to FG that and Through Hull work..
The canopy was the most problematic, we had what looked like air bubbles appearing , not sure what was the cause , as eventually after much sanding , even grinding ,we reapplied only for the same thing to happen.. contaminated somehow or other.. in the end , just used a marine hull paint could have used auto ..
 
Last edited:
did you have any problems with re-gel coat ?

As it is a major toss and turn at night for me, seriously considering a project like this in early spring this coming yr. We did it yrs ago on a 38' sailboat hull of my brothers and modded a fibermold canopy for a truck . The sailboat worked out fine though combined prep time was about 50-60 hrs including some deeper repairs to FG that and Through Hull work..
The canopy was the most problematic, we had what looked like air bubbles appearing , not sure what was the cause , as eventually after much sanding , even grinding ,we reapplied only for the same thing to happen.. contaminated somehow or other.. in the end , just used a marine hull paint could have used auto ..


Gel coat went fine. Other then having to apply 3 coats and lots of sanding... I would not want to attempt a whole boat with this method.
 
Man life is busy! Working a full time job and trying to raise a family I feel like there is not enough time in the day sometimes...I took a small break from the boat this week to help my wife with a project in the basement(happy wife happy life, right?) once that was done I had a couple hours this weekend to plug away on the boat. I glassed in the through hulls from the toilet, put the fuel tank in the boat and started building the frame work for the raised floor to convert boat to self bailing.

I had thought about framing it so I could remove the fuel tank easily but decided if I ever have to remove it it would be just as easy to pull up the entire floor. I will cover all the 2x4 in resin and then tab them in place cover them with 1/2” ply and then glass over the plywood.

A2B16051-75CA-4549-B6F0-7C9D7120CE3D.jpeg D81397C7-5CD0-4A54-941D-DCBD2E19DB4F.jpeg 3A853FE9-9B0D-43B1-A218-AC3809D3FB39.jpeg 110377E9-48F8-4B4A-9C11-6A926B466159.jpeg
 
Man life is busy! Working a full time job and trying to raise a family I feel like there is not enough time in the day sometimes...I took a small break from the boat this week to help my wife with a project in the basement(happy wife happy life, right?) once that was done I had a couple hours this weekend to plug away on the boat. I glassed in the through hulls from the toilet, put the fuel tank in the boat and started building the frame work for the raised floor to convert boat to self bailing.

I had thought about framing it so I could remove the fuel tank easily but decided if I ever have to remove it it would be just as easy to pull up the entire floor. I will cover all the 2x4 in resin and then tab them in place cover them with 1/2” ply and then glass over the plywood.

View attachment 39685 View attachment 39684 View attachment 39683 View attachment 39682
Buy the best fuel level sending unit money can buy. The tank will outlive that for sure. Nice work!!!
 
Looking good. Do those 2x4's give you enough elevation to achieve self bailing? Isn't that row of bolts the top of your pod? Are your scuppers going to be below the pod? Are you lifting the hardtop or are you short like me.
 
Looking good. Do those 2x4's give you enough elevation to achieve self bailing? Isn't that row of bolts the top of your pod? Are your scuppers going to be below the pod? Are you lifting the hardtop or are you short like me.

Thanks Brian.

Here’s hoping that the 2x4 with the 1/2” ply (4”) total will be enough lift to achieve self bailing... I was able to see another podded hourston(23’ sedan) and the top of the trim tab piston wasn’t in the water so that’s the mark I’m going for with my scuppers. Fingers crossed that’s high enough or I’ll be doing it again!
 
And yes the top row of bolts is the top of pod but I’m going with a 30” shaft outboard so the scuppers will be under the pod.
 
I decided to change up the framing for the raised floor a little bit and then glassed it all in. After that I dry fitted all the plywood for the floor, coated the bottom in resin and glued and screwed it all down.

9D915343-C54C-4FEB-821A-E6384205A719.jpeg 19C47DED-CD63-4F60-821D-4CFB492BFB41.jpeg 9618FDF6-19A8-4F3A-B5D0-C92B22B7871D.jpeg
 
Are you raising the roof in the cabin and leaving the back wall? And did you carry the for height of the back deck all the way in to the cabin?
 
Are you raising the roof in the cabin and leaving the back wall? And did you carry the for height of the back deck all the way in to the cabin?

The roof is going to stay the same height. I’m 6’2” and can stand up inside no problem I will be modifying the door and back panels to fit as they are staying as well. The floor in the cabin will also stay the same. I ripped up the back section to remove the rot as there was no drain.. I then installed two drain pipes on either side of the keel board that run under the fuel tank and into the bilge. I am thinking about adding a step to assist with getting into and out of the cabin but am not totally sure it’s needed.
 

Attachments

  • 770D8891-BAF0-4502-BB26-050F5BA60CD4.jpeg
    770D8891-BAF0-4502-BB26-050F5BA60CD4.jpeg
    170.1 KB · Views: 143
  • 361B72E2-1BA7-4E16-99A7-51D783B363ED.jpeg
    361B72E2-1BA7-4E16-99A7-51D783B363ED.jpeg
    292.2 KB · Views: 144
That was why I was asking. I'm also 6'2", I'm fine in or out it's just the in between that I hit my head sometimes. Lol. Looks good, keep up the good work
 
Back
Top