Musling Ardent Angler Rebuild

[janesway]

Hey All,

I wanted to start a thread documenting my rebuild of a Musling Ardent Angler. I came across this boat abandoned in the sticks, and was immediately taken by its unique and (what appears to be) functional design. Because i'm a real sucker for a project, i looked past all the money, challenges, increasing costs of fuel, and roped in a partner. We're in the deep end now!

This forum, in particular a thread started by @albernifisher, was very helpful/persuasive in my decision to pull this boat out of the bushes, and give it second lease on life. Lots of good info and inspiration there, so thanks!

Over the next few months, I'll post photos of the rebuild, and maybe use the vast collective experience here about what works/doesn't with installation and equipment.



So to start things off...
The boat is a Musling Ardent Angler. To best of my knowledge (please jump in if you know otherwise), Its a Linge Design from Norway. Musling was a company based out of the lower mainland, and built a few of these boats in the late 80s/early 90s. They are known for their water ballast chamber in the deep part of the V that backfills from a big opening in the transom. It drains out when you get up on step. Aigular Lodge out in bamfield had 5 or 6 of these boats.
At some point there was some nice fabrication done on this unit, with a custom pod and center console built. A full wrap around aluminum rub rail was installed and through bolted too.

oh hey and If you know anything about these boats please pipe up!

 

[walleyes]

Should be interesting looking forward to this one.

Best of luck on the project.

 

[Rayvon]

Looks like a worthwile project,KMV boats had the same ballast idea.Seems to make sense but I've never had a look at one to see how they were built,I can't visualize how they sealed the floor underneath.If you can see how they did it ,I'd like to know,would make a great jigging/cut plug boat.

 

[janesway]

Looks like a worthwile project,KMV boats had the same ballast idea.Seems to make sense but I've never had a look at one to see how they were built,I can't visualize how they sealed the floor underneath.If you can see how they did it ,I'd like to know,would make a great jigging/cut plug boat.

Next step in early June is to seperate the hull/deck. it looks like it was already done at some in the boat's history, but im thinking it might shed some light on the layup technique.

 

[janesway]

Stripped boat of all gear, powerwashed it, removed the floor and fuel tank. Decided the best way to look at the hull was to lean it up against the carport. Using the winch on my truck and a redirect pulley, and a few tries to position, it worked pretty well!






Obviously there was a hundred screw holes without any sealant. I overdrilled them all, to facilitate drying and eventually filling. Even though the plywood core is saturated, its not delaminated, so plan is to epoxy inject, fill and fair.