A restoration tale (with pics)

Shane Slv

well if you feel that it will help then go for it.
just be careful when buying. Their are a lot of cheep nasty ones out their. Altough usually lidl are fairly good for quallity.

ScabbyLeg

Take a look at this 'ere ad, it looks like morealess the same model as yours. You should fire off an email to the owner, maybe you'll get some more pics for inspiration.

17ft Cabin Cruiser

harry21

Hi dnme,

I lost track of this tread for the last three-four weeks.:( I've been following your progress since your thread when you were looking to cover the boat originally. I and only realised the other day that I never posted here!!

Your doing a great job in fairness.The work your doing now can only be complete by someone with a passion for it.

Although I don't know too much about boats (I'm the recipocal of you and Fergal), I might post more often in future when your looking for laymans advice:D

12 element

Well done dnme I check your thread everyday, great progress!

dnme

ScabbyLeg wrote: »

Take a look at this 'ere ad, it looks like morealess the same model as yours. You should fire off an email to the owner, maybe you'll get some more pics for inspiration.

17ft Cabin Cruiser

Scabby, that's a Callumcraft, a different boat, similar though and well spotted.

ScabbyLeg

dnme wrote: »

Scabby, that's a Callumcraft, a different boat, similar though and well spotted.

Ah how do you tell the difference? Is it the side window layout?
I also found the eBay ad for Fergal's Goldfish boat, the owner posted a few pics on another forum too. The genius that is Google image search

If anything at all, your thread has produced a bunch of people who otherwise can't tell you the first thing about boating but can spot the difference between a 17ft Norman and a Callumcraft and know how to reattach a keel

Slig

Dont reckon you got much done today, I know I didnt, I have accepted that the lawn will not be mowed again until approx 2012 when I will need a forestry licence to tackle it.

It was great to finally call round and see yourself and the boat. It was brilliant to see the shear amount, and standard, of work that has gone into it. For those out there, like me, following this thread from net pics only the thing that cant be grasped from the pictures is the size of the boat.

The pictures make it look like a small, managable sized little cabin cruiser (It doesnt help that the man standing beside it with the grinder is about 7ft tall:D) In reality, its bloody huge, the cabin alone is massive, (our 21 ft cruiser cabin is a matchbox compared to it!)

dnme

Slig wrote: »

Dont reckon you got much done today, I know I didnt, I have accepted that the lawn will not be mowed again until approx 2012 when I will need a forestry licence to tackle it.

It was great to finally call round and see yourself and the boat. It was brilliant to see the shear amount, and standard, of work that has gone into it. For those out there, like me, following this thread from net pics only the thing that cant be grasped from the pictures is the size of the boat.

The pictures make it look like a small, managable sized little cabin cruiser (It doesnt help that the man standing beside it with the grinder is about 7ft tall:D) In reality, its bloody huge, the cabin alone is massive, (our 21 ft cruiser cabin is a matchbox compared to it!)

Jeez Slig it's not that big, nor am I:D
The old retro cabin has great height though. It's the only boat I looked at that gave me head clearence when seated. Plus it's nearly a 2/3 cabin so yea, for a small 17' boat, the cabin is very generous. It was great to see the two of you also, the dog fell in love with your missus:D Might of had something to do with the fact that she arrived bearing that chocolate cake (ke ke ke ke ke).

Well today is a wash out. I went down to Lough Key forest park tonight with Honey for a walk. I was chatting to some of the tourists there moored up in their cabin cruisers, they are all very depressed sitting out the endless rain and the dark grey. We got soaked but still, I had to get out of the house.

So I was thinking, what's next.......
I was talking to Slig and reckon I want to cut out access panels in the cabin seat tops. I'll cut out two side seat panels, and one triangular panel in the bow seat. Gotta figure out how I'm gonna do that cos the grp there is corrugated and had old support timbers glaseed in underneath.

Once I get those cut, I 'll have a go at removing all the old floor paint under them, then I'll assess th etwo old bow starboard patches. If they are of the standard that I expect they are, out they'll come and I'll repair them from scratch.

Then, I think, I'm gonna go with a complete deck floor. By that I mean I'll floor th eentire deck from side to side rather than building all the deck furniture and then flooring the remaining space. A big flat floor will make my life so easy and give me a lovely reference and platform to build my deck seating and storage off of.

Then maybe start to build cabin furniture. I might do the opposide in there. Furniture first and then fill in the remaining floor.

The biggest problem outstanding right now is the front windows. I'm gonna contact that plastics fabricator in Ballina that I visited before, and see if he can form the windows using the moulds I made.

There's a ton of work left in this thing, even as I sit here typing, I feel overwhelmed all over again. jesus for a small little tub, it's an endless job.

thehippychippy

Hi there dnme, your doing a great job on that lady. Truly inspirational!! Have to admit I've a vested interest in how your getting along as I bought a boat in somewhat similar condition a few months back, thinking I'd be on the water in a couple of months!!!! Can't complain though as work has me too busy to do much boat work. Just wanted to let you know there's gazebos on done deal for bout €140 for a 10ft X 30ft! Might be big enough for your boat and your work bench!! There's also a company I got some epoxy and cloth from called AS-composites, their Irish and have free delivery on CSM and some resins! I'm a chippy so if I can be of any help just let me know, I'm Meath based but am in Carrick a good bit lately.

dnme

thehippychippy wrote: »

Hi there dnme, your doing a great job on that lady. Truly inspirational!! Have to admit I've a vested interest in how your getting along as I bought a boat in somewhat similar condition a few months back, thinking I'd be on the water in a couple of months!!!! Can't complain though as work has me too busy to do much boat work. Just wanted to let you know there's gazebos on done deal for bout €140 for a 10ft X 30ft! Might be big enough for your boat and your work bench!! There's also a company I got some epoxy and cloth from called AS-composites, their Irish and have free delivery on CSM and some resins! I'm a chippy so if I can be of any help just let me know, I'm Meath based but am in Carrick a good bit lately.

Many thanks chippy. What boat did you buy? I'd love to see a few images of it if you ever get the chance to post em.

blindsider

dnme,

The work you're doing is nothing short of inspirational. Like the majority here, I stumbled across the thread, read it in one go, and now it's one of my daily 'must views'.

The posts are entertaining, informative and up-lifting. The video clips are a welcome change and show things in a different light.

You've got a lot to do, but you've come such a long way! You also have an army (Navy?) of interested Boardies willing you on.

People like Fergal and Slig offer great advice, unfortuately my input is purely moral support.

Please do keep up the sterling work, and keep posting the updates. (Is there a book/article etc in it? Seriously!)

I'm a long way from Carrick unfortunately, but you have mu support nonetheless!

Keep it up!

B.

dnme

blindsider wrote: »

dnme,

The work you're doing is nothing short of inspirational. Like the majority here, I stumbled across the thread, read it in one go, and now it's one of my daily 'must views'.

The posts are entertaining, informative and up-lifting. The video clips are a welcome change and show things in a different light.

You've got a lot to do, but you've come such a long way! You also have an army (Navy?) of interested Boardies willing you on.

People like Fergal and Slig offer great advice, unfortuately my input is purely moral support.

Please do keep up the sterling work, and keep posting the updates. (Is there a book/article etc in it? Seriously!)

I'm a long way from Carrick unfortunately, but you have mu support nonetheless!

Keep it up!

B.

Many many thanks B and everyone for the fantastic posts. I love logging onto boards, firing up my subscribed posts list and seeing a restoration tale there in bold, lifts my heart to see people posting here.

Amylou26

It was great to see the two of you also, the dog fell in love with your missus:D Might of had something to do with the fact that she arrived bearing that chocolate cake (ke ke ke ke ke).

Hi DNME, it was great to finally visit you with Slig the other eve. Hope Honey didnt eat the rest of the cake on you. She is a dote but she covered me in so much slobber & muck that I had to put all my clothes & my jacket in the wash after
And Clara was not happy with me when I went home, she spent ages sniffing me! (She was not impressed that I had made friends with another dog!)
Anyway keep up the good work, I cant wait to see the boat when its finished. It will be amazing. We will drop in the carpet & glue asap.

gardoyle27

hey dnme,

glad to see you've hit this milestone, as like many others, i eagerly await the updates to see how your progressing.

out of interst will you be doing the elecs in this? something i am very interested in but can't seem to get my head around, (seperating the engine battery from the leisure battery)

thanks
Gar

dnme

Lovely to hear from you Amy, definately drop in that carpet if you get a chance. I'd be very grateful.

Gar, yea I intend to do the electrics myself. Like everything, it's a small learning curve. I'll keep it simple. I'll use dedicated star circuits to lights etc. I'll juyst keep an eye on the power rating requirement of each layer and line and cable accordingly. I'll do a bit of research no doubt and try and cable as much as possible while the boat is still a shell.

fergal.b

gardoyle27 wrote: »

hey dnme,

glad to see you've hit this milestone, as like many others, i eagerly await the updates to see how your progressing.

out of interst will you be doing the elecs in this? something i am very interested in but can't seem to get my head around, (seperating the engine battery from the leisure battery)

thanks
Gar

If you wan't to start another post on it in a bit more detail we can all try and help you out.:)

gardoyle27

thats cool, make sure to take loads of pics of it all, it boggles me a bit!

on the talk of carpet, i served my time as a carpet/lino fitter so if ya need a hand is a shout, i know it'll be a further down the line

gardoyle27

fergal.b wrote: »

If you wan't to start another post on it in a bit more detail we can all try and help you out.:)

all of it!!! lol, not so much on a boat but in a trailer, it's all 12v and the same principle but i won't be doing anything on it till probably early next year so there is no panic.

dnme

gardoyle27 wrote: »

thats cool, make sure to take loads of pics of it all, it boggles me a bit!

on the talk of carpet, i served my time as a carpet/lino fitter so if ya need a hand is a shout, i know it'll be a further down the line

Jeez I might take you up on that. The carpet I am talking about is that thin auto lining stuff. I am going to carpet the interior of the cabin, so it might be a bitch to stick carpet to that roof as it's a retro rounded shape.

gardoyle27

shouldn't be too bad, but like i say, the offer is there.

just give me 4 weeks to get out of this fcuking cast!!! lol

Slig

I rewired our boat in '09 after I got laid off. I think I started a thread here on it, basically but in 2 batteries with a battery switch. It means I can use the altenator in the outboard to charge up both batteries/use one dedicated for electrics and one for starting the engine or use both to start the engine if they are low.

Anyway it hasnt gone on fire yet, everything works and I got rid of all the redundant cabling, put in fuses and removed any of the kettle lead/domestic wiring that the previous owner decided to use.

In my mind it was a success. A proper electrician would probably vacate the water if they seen it though:D

sunflower27

I was directed to this thread by another poster ( you know who you are) and I just want to say I have loved reading it and seeing the progress.

Keep up the inspiring work. I'd love to have a project like this to get my teeth into!

All the best with it.

dnme

Day 41


A Restoration Tale! Tonights Episode: Dial K for Knee (A Quinn Martin production).

Viewers are advised that tonights edition contains nudity, sorry kids.

Act I
The wet can get to ya! I’m so sick and tired of being wet. I forced myself out to the boat today. Even before I started , I put on my old clothes that were still damp from yesterday. The old runners felt cold and wet as they strangled my toes. The old resin caked jeans cold, wet and shocking to the thighs and then the old paint covered shirt with its wet collar, a mixture of rain water and old sweat. So even walking out to the boat, I felt miserable.

Yesterday, I went out to see how she was holding up after a week of torrential rain. The boat had a floor full of water. A good opportunity to test my new floor plumbing. There was good and bad news. The god news is that my through stringer drainage is working. The bad news is that the drain plug at the transom is not. It was too dam high by about 10mm.

I can’t live with that dammit. I am not so much a perfectionist as an obsessive compulsive. I know that from here on in; that drain will never work properly unless the boat is raised almost upright. It has to go. So yeah I’m almost ashamed to say, I spent yesterday hacking away at set Sikaflex and a piece of ply. If you want to know how strong Sikaflex is, well I can now tell you definitively. It took me serious time and energy hacking, prizing, scraping etc to remove the old assembly. That stuff is so strong. Out with the old and then a quick sand, acetone, a new mix of clotted cream and the old holes were filled in and allowed to setup overnight.

Act II
Back to today. I’m so depressed by the weather. The last thing I want to do is go back out into the grey and the wet. But I do! Don’t ask me how; “That 70’s Show” was on for the afternoon and I was getting so comfortable in by the fire. But no, not for me…..dam conscience!

A new hole drilled, and a new system for fitting the drain. I am not going to screw into ply. It’s too messy and the fact that the new hole is about 10-15mm lower than the old means there is a lack of clearance. I have a bag of 316 stainless steel bolts. They are countersink alan key types. I run these through and meet them inside with a rubber washer, a ss washer and a ss nut. Jobs a goodun. I go easy on the Sikaflex this time, bonding only the assembly because I intend to get to work on the knee and will use leftover epoxy to finish the job off.

Act III
I’m told there’s quite a few women reading this thread. That doesn’t surprise me. They are drawn by the sheer sexual tension that underlies and drives this entire saga. Well for you lot I’m going to explain to you what a knee is. In marine terms, a knee is a brace that butts up (see what I mean about sexual tension?) against the transom (back wall) of the boat. I ripped out the old knee a while back because it was badly fitted and soaking. So I’ve been waiting for ages to get this new one in. Well sod ya rain, you’ve held me back long enough. Today’s the day rain or no rain. Boy did it rain!!

I dowelled the remaining few inches of stringer to the knee that I fabricated by laminating 3 pieces of ply together with epoxy some time back. Then a quick sand and clean of all mating surfaces. I then mixed up a small batch of epoxy and painted it on to all said surfaces and then made up a nice big batch of my beloved clotted cream. I layed it on thick where it mattered and then offered up the knee / stringer. Then I filleted these in with the squeeze out (see I’m telling ya, loaded with sexual tension this is).

I let it all go tacky while I went in and had me dinner. If anyone is wondering, roast spuds, a carrot / turnip mash with pepper and a drop of olive oil and a nice juicy lamb burger. Throw on a drop of reggae reggae sauce, a nice big glass of the special and by god my mood changed for the good.

Epilog
Back out for the evening. Between showers I had to pull the tarp over myself in the boat leaving me in a very dark space. There were a lot of showers and I got soaked. I was lying in water, kneeling in water. The ground all-round the boat is soaked and mucky and that means that I traipse muck in all over the place which in turn gets mixed with epoxy and then stains the floor permanently. Working in at the knee is bloody awful. It’s the most awkward place, trying to stick and wet out cloth in there, under the engine well. I cursed the be-jesus out of it. But anyhow, I managed to get some sort of a job done. I’ll let it set up and next day I’ll trim the overhanging cloth off the drain reveal.

I’m in for the night now and first thing that came up on the tele was BBC Proms 2011. The conductor and the orchestra (band J) were playing a pretentious comedy piece. Some members of the audience were in histerics laughing. Pretentious tossers! They are the same idiots that go to 300 year old comedy operas and laugh at the hilarity as a way of saying “I get this and you don’t!” hurrah ha ha ha. No opera was ever funny!!! ok bitches? And that BBC 2011 proms was inherently unfunny. We have gone from that to a hot shower to Miriam O’ Callaghan, god help us all. (Jesus where did that last paragraph come from, teenage angst? Oh wait, I’m old.


1. Redoing the drain plug to lower it 10-15mm. Much better job.



2. Dowling the knee to the stringer. Glue up with epoxy, nice!



3. Installing the knee/stringer assembly on a bed of glasy clotted cream. Just did it by eye. Level enough I hope.



4. A three layer biaxial patch wetted and squeegeed out, and laid down over the stringer.



5. Mitred a piece of aluminium pipe each side to accomodate drainage.



5. Back filling the stringer bridge with clotted cream.



6. Back filling the stringer bridge, a tab of cloth.


7. Drainage complete, jobs a goodun I hope



8. Glassing in the knee



9. For much of the evening, I was working under the tarp, very dark and wet. This sh1t better be worth it.



10. Knee glassed in. I'll trim the overhang at the drainage reveal next day.



11. For the ladies. This is another knee, mine infact photographed earlier and not to be confused with a boat's knee. Note the subtle differences and the fact that they come in pairs. (ke ke ke ke ke) Careful now!

harry21

Nice knee, the wooden type....

You must be chuffed with the relocated drain plug, the whole thing will be a great job now.

dnme

harry21 wrote: »

Nice knee, the wooden type....

You must be chuffed with the relocated drain plug, the whole thing will be a great job now.

Thanks Harry, I knee'ded that !

tin79

Any chance you fancy adding a second one to your collection

http://www.donedeal.ie/for-sale/boats/2436863

How many hours have you clocked up on the project now?

I just sold a small Dory and got a fletcher Bravo which needed minor work (paint touch up, fit aux mount, fit GPS, fit fish finder, replace mud guards, fit bimini top etc nothing major) and I put 36 hours into it since friday so I have a lot of respect for what you are doing!

Stiff today though!

Still enjoying the thread thanks!

See you at the launch!

dnme

tin79 wrote: »

Any chance you fancy adding a second one to your collection

http://www.donedeal.ie/for-sale/boats/2436863

Many thanks tin, boy that was some wheel house they built, and the front seems to be closed in completely, looks like a whale. A boat that I feel genuine sadness for. If I had the time (as in summer all over again) and a few quid, I'd buy it just out of pity alone.

Talking about stiff and sore, over the past few days, my neck is gone. I suffer from a bad back and neck. I am back to pain and cervical vertigo. A lot of light headedness and this morning the dizzyness started again. Could be a quiet week!

tin79

dnme wrote: »

A boat that I feel genuine sadness for. If I had the time (as in summer all over again) and a few quid, I'd buy it just out of pity alone

Yes if only those old hulls could talk they would have some tales to tell. There is a rusted old hulk beached on a slipway down beside the pier in Dingle that always makes me think that.

TopTec

dnme wrote: »

Talking about stiff and sore, over the past few days, my neck is gone. I suffer from a bad back and neck. I am back to pain and cervical vertigo. A lot of light headedness and this morning the dizzyness started again. Could be a quiet week!

Know how you feel Dnme. I'm refurbing a cottage over near Ballina. Wrenched my neck and back last week carrying plasterboards. It's taking ages to repair, my body that is, mainly due to the almost constant dampness in the air!

Heatpads and Tigerbalm are part of my normal waking routine at present!

Thought today might be warmer and dryer today. Nah. It started raining here at midday.

Bah Humbug!!:(:(

dnme

Well I decided to go in to the doctor. She went berzerk as in prescribing me 5 different drugs. She also meant to prescribe me a patch but she forgot. When I got home, I was so confused - I had to phone her again. She gave me a weeks course of anti-inflams, steroids, night-time pain killers (drowsy, mmm can't wait). A tablet for my stomach and a muscle relaxant on top of the anti-inflams. As she was chatting to me, she was writing away and I wasn't paying too much attention to her. Ironically I was telling her all about the boat (she's a good ol girl - my doc).
All became clear in the chemists when even the pharmacist commented on the cocktail that I had been prescribed.


So for the next five days or so, let the good times roll :cool: