The "NANCY G" a surfboat /lifeboat to motorsailer conversion build in progress

Discussion in 'Boatbuilding' started by viking north, Feb 11, 2011.

  1. viking north
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    viking north VINLAND

    Design Doodling

    There has been a delay in obtaining the hull lines from the designers computer output so I thought I might throw in my doodling overview on what the conversion will roughly look like upon completion. I welcome any and all input or questions. Tnx. Geo.

    A yacht is not defined by the vessel but by the care and love of her ownwer
     

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  2. viking north
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    viking north VINLAND

    PREPING THE HULL (Stripping out the unwanted)

    Since the hull lines and specs from the designer are not yet completed I have decided to proceed with presenting some of the prep. work and post the designers info prior to installing the keel and ballast over this summer.
    Prior to starting my prep. work I did a series of hull measurements and scetched out a few rough design drawings of the interior and exterior layouts of which one was previously posted. While these drawings don't have to be pretty they should be scaled accurately in order not to cut out important parts of the existing hull that can be structurally used in the build. A photo example is shown on the 26ft. traditional aluminium lifeboat to motorsailer conversion I did some years back. Note how only parts of the bulkheads are cut away saving structural supports for the settees. While not visible the same idea was followed in the V berth area, with the existing bulkhead webbs cut down to act a support for the V berth ply. base. It is very important you do good planning and rough design drawings help out alot here. Having done several of these conversions of different styles of hulls, I'm always amazed how much of the existing structure is still useable. In the next post I will get further into stripping out on my present build.--Geo.

    A yacht is not defined by the vessel but by the care and love of her owner.
     

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  3. viking north
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    viking north VINLAND

    PREPING THE HULL(stripping out)

    To save work I hired a local sandblaster with his mobile unit and had him SODA blast off all the interior layers and layers of paint accumulated over the years, applied by" keeping the crew busy" ships captains.(see photos) Planning ahead I also purchased a second heavy duty shop dust collector dedicated to this build. These units are far superior to a shop vac in that they have multiple uses ( vacuum spent sand and soda ash and blasted paint) (vacuum dust, dirt, up to 2in. sq. foam bits)( fume and dust extractor when sanding, glassing, epoxying, or welding). I have been making multible use of my regular shop dust collection system for years and learned by experimenting with an air intake hose widely seperated from the vacuum hose how well fumes and dust are removed in confined areas.(see photo)--- next post continuing on the hull prep.--Geo

    A yacht is not defined by the vessel but by the care and love of her owner
     

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  4. viking north
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    viking north VINLAND

    PREPING THE HULL(removing the unwanted)

    When stripping out the origional hull I Initally get at the most ovious items that will not be needed. This gives one time to ponder and plan while hands on the project. In my case some of the first items removed were the heavy lifting mechanisims. The attachment hardware for the motherships lifting cables and hooks that moved the lifeboats in and out of the water. The other item removed was the prop cage. Removing these reduced the bare hulls weight by some 350lbs. ---Geo.

    Next post more stripping out.

    A yacht is not defined by the vessel but by the care and love of her owner
     

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  5. viking north
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    viking north VINLAND

    PREPING THE HULL (removing the unwanted)

    To gain access to the bottom area of the hull and modify the existing FRP formed floor framing supports into floor timbers I cut out the FRP floor and removed alot of wet foam. I then cut down the existing FRP supports as a first step in building in the floor timbers which will accomidate the keel bolts attaching the new full ballast keel. Note the similarity to the method I used in the alum. lifeboat conversion in the prev. post # 17 which will act as future framing attachment for the seatees. The other modifiction I made to the existing hull was to cut out part of a heavy watertight bulkhead that origionally contained a hatch that seperated the cargo and the engine compartment. With modification this bulkhead will serve as a watertight entry between the wheelhouse and the main cabin of the new build. Removal of this unwanted material reduced the weight of the bare hull by a further 100 lbs.-- Next several posts will show more unwanted material removed and modifying the existing cut down floor supports into the floor timbers.---Geo.

    A yacht is not defined by the vessel but by the care and love of her owner.
     

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  6. viking north
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    viking north VINLAND

    PREPING THE HULL (removing the unwanted)

    Continuing stripping out I removed the old damaged stainless fuel tanks. They were well glassed in and located just ahead of the origional flotation chambers/seats which will be cleared of foam and used for storage and the new cockpit seats. The other stripping out item was the steel keel shoe screw fastened to a white oak base that in turn is bolted to the hulls keelson. The white oak will remain in place for now as a fastening base for the new keels male mould. It will be removed prior to fastening the new keel's shell to the hull. I don't like glassing over wood below the waterline if at all possible. If the wood for any reason becomes wet, in this case from bilge water, it will freeze and expand breaking the fiberglassed skin of the new kwwl shell. --Next post finally, into puttin back in, Construction of the floor timbers, --Geo.
    Note, the materials removed on this post weighed 175lbs. The reason I keep track is to sub. this from the origional hull weight of 4500lbs. to provide an accurate weight to the designer which in turn will give me a more accurate working waterline.

    A yacht is not defined by the vessel but by the care and love of her owner
     

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  7. viking north
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    Floor timber prep work

    Prior to starting the floor timbers I did a trial fit of the engine hoping it would fit into the traditional space partially under the cockpit with it's front exposed just under the wheelhouse entrance steps. I also did a trial fit of #1 fuel tank which i planned to install under the wheelhouse floor. Both proved out to be ok. The reason for doing this in advance was to give me the info i needed to design the dimensions and locations of the floor timbers, tank and engine supports in this area. Note the use of a piece of pipe to fill in for the shaft and the origional monster engine mounting bolts. Next post more prep work for the floor timbers/keel bolts.
     

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  8. viking north
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    Floor Timber Prep Work

    I ran into some problems with keel bolt installation from stations 13 to 16. The problem being that I wanted to keep an existing small bulkhead which was a fastening point for the transmission to shaft coupling.(see first and second photo) This along with the existing shaft tube being glassed in and over, barred my access to installing typical floor timbers in this area.(see last photo) Two factors in my favour for keel bolts on stations 13 and 14 were #1 the existing keel bottom thickness is approx 3/4 inches and #2 this is the cutout area on the new keel. For strenght and load carrying I installed a 3/8 stainless plate bedded in epoxy.(see photos three, four and five) I have a couple of options for stations # 15 and 16 which i will get to and post during the new keel installation process. Next post continuing on Floor timber work.

    A yacht is not defined by the vessel but by the care and love of her owner
     

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    Last edited: Mar 30, 2011
  9. Scunthorp
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    Scunthorp Hull Tech

    Good comprehensive explanations George you are making it easy for people like me mate. John
     
  10. viking north
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    viking north VINLAND

    Thankyou John, That was my hope to encourage other financially challenged dreamers of the sea(myself included here) that it is feasible to convert or complete that low cash outlay abandon hull over a period of time and get out on the water. One can dream of 60 ft. schooners and around the world sailing but in reality very very few ever get there, however it's not really all it's cracket up to be in todays world.I never did find those topless Tahiti women but i did discover rafting up with good food, good music and good friends within 100 miles of home port was just as rewarding. Thanks again for the input. Geo.

    A yacht is not defined by the vessel but by the care and love of her owner.
     
  11. Nurb
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    Nurb Junior Member

    Thoroughly Enjoy following this thread.
     
  12. viking north
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    Thanks Nurb. I will post more tonight. I am further ahead on the build than my posts to keep it flowing but I've been so busy with prep. work on our B&B for the oncoming season that work on the project has slowed so my posts most likely will catch up with to the work. My plan is to get the new keel installed this summer flip her over on a permanent cradle which will have wheels, roll her into the shop and skip my south going holiday again this winter and hopefully finish her for launching next June/July. I will post all work as it progresses right to launch including sea trials. My next associated project is to compile all the info into book form and publish it (not including any posts from forum members of course) Once again thank you for the interest and reply and I welcome any questions/input on the work as it progresses along. I do have some future engineering questions that I will post as a thread under "Boat Design" to keep this thread flowing on topic. ---Geo.

    A yacht is not determined by the vessel but by the care and love of her owner
     
  13. viking north
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    Floor Timber Prep. Work

    I use the term floor timber and the term floors to relate to the name given to these parts in a traditional wooden built vessel. They were installed in one of two methods, shaped to fit the curvature of the hull and fastened to the sides of the frames or shaped and fastened on top of the frames. Drilled to accept and serve as the top termination point of the keel bolts they are the strongbacks for fastening and carrying the load of the external keel and ballast. As such they have to be both load bearing and load spreading. In addition they also serve as the supports for the cabin floors commonly known as the sole. This is possibly where the term floor timbers came from. In light built fiberglass boats to strengthen and stiffen the hull, fiberglass formed frames and longitudionals are usually installed to replace their counterparts in the wooden built hull. Heavy built fiberglass boat hulls are so strong they require some but less of these stiffners moulded in. The skin essentially acts as one continious frame thru out.On this hull I have both a thick skin and moulded in frames and longitudionals, essentially overbuilt. In my last post(#23)I was working on solving the problem of a replacement for the traditional type of floor timber for stations 13 and 14. An existing small bulk head I wanted to keep in place prevented me from building in floor timbers for these two stations but a stainless steel plate solved the problem. Forward of station 13 at stations 12 to 8 i was able to build in the traditional style floor timbers. Once I measured out where these would be located I sanded off the gel coat to get maximun bonding when glassing in the new floors.(left top two photos) I then made up the patterns and cut their shapes from a sheet of 1/8 in. FRP panel which was then held in place by thickened resin ready for glassing in later.(top right and bottom photo)--- Next post continuing with the floors

    A yacht is not defined by the vessel but by the care and love of her owner.
     

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  14. viking north
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    viking north VINLAND

    Installing Floor Timbers

    Once I completed installing the floor timber form side pieces (see prev. post) I then drilled 1 in. waterways in each. Next i thru plugged these with foam rod(top cent. photo) prior to filling the bottom of each floor timber form with a polyester filler heavily mixed with glass fibers. This product is readily available pre mixed from most automotive supply stores.(top right photo) Each form is filled and leveled out about 1 in. above the waterway foam rod plugs.(bottom two photos) I do this to avoid any bare wood in the future white oak laminations getting wet from bilge water in the area of the waterway holes.. Next post installing the white oak laminations.

    A yacht is not defined by the vessel but by the care and love of her owner.
     

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  15. viking north
    Joined: Dec 2010
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    viking north VINLAND

    INSTALLING FLOOR TIMBERS(laminating)

    The first two photos show the white oak strips. These are sawn about 3/8 of an inch thick and left unplaned for better adhesion to the epoxy. They are cut about 1/8 in. or so, narrower than the fiberglass forms and cut to length to fit in flat with about 1/4 in. short of the hulls curvature on the ends.Measure each form for the number of strips required to laminate it to the required height. The epoxy resin is poured into the form about 1/2 in. deep and the individual lamination strips are brush coated both sides and layed in place and forced down to allow the epoxy to flow up over them. Pour in more epoxy as required. Once all the lamination strips are in place (less one) and the entire form well saturated with epoxy I simpliy drilled a hole transversely thru the form sides. inserted a nail and drove in wedges to clamp it all together. Remove any excess epoxy allowing just enough to coat the top of the last strip. I allowed two days for curing, removed the wedges and laminated on my last(top) strip nailing it in place.Once cured trim off the excess form walls along the top of the last lamination strip. Next post drilling the keel bolt holes.
     

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