Looking for some advice please

[Emmenel]

Hi All

First post! I’m new to the forum and the proud new (joint) owner of an old William Osborne motor boat (she’s a 30ft ex Metropolitan Police launch built back in 1940), bought as a project to keep us busy over the next few years which I’m sure she will…!

My partner and I are really looking forward to bringing her back up to scratch but as my carpentry skills are fairly rudimentary I would be very appreciative of any advice I could get from the more experienced guys out there.

She is of all wood construction double diag mahogany hull and marine ply side decks and superstructure

At the moment there are a few issues we have to deal with which are, part of window frame on the bridge which has gotten very wet and will need repairing, parts of the side decks which have rotted out and need replacing, an outer hull plank above the waterline needs replacing and some other soft spots here and there, nothing major; can post some pics if anyone is interested?!?

One thing that was a slight cause for concern was when we stripped the loose paint off the cabin roof the ply underneath actually seemed wet to the touch although the timber itself seemed sound – not sure why that would be?

The first job I want to tackle is the window frame so I wanted to ask if anyone could suggest the best way to repair this and what material is going to be best to seal it all in?…I’m going to go for a combination of replacing the rotted timber and filling any gaps with an epoxy filler – can anyone suggest a suitable product?

Also the rub-rail is original and is now showing its age, looking very grey and weathered out. I wanted to re-varnish this but I thought it would be good to use some sort of treatment to clean it up before applying the varnish so any suggestions on how to do this and what products to use would be very helpful.

We also have to replace some sections of the Side Decks which are ply but I’m hoping that this will be one of the easier jobs – there I’ve tempted fate now haven’t I?

Any advice received will be really appreciated.

All the best

Emmenel

[alan white]

Quite a project. Have you had the vessel professionally surveyed? It's not too late to get this done. A survey would at best tell you where to start because you'd know the extent of the deck rot, and also where other problems might have been overlooked.
At worst, well...
So that's my advice unless you've already done this.

Alan

[Emmenel]

Hi Alan

Thanks for your reply. I have not had the boat professionally surveyed, but I do have a knowledgeable friend who checked the boat out for us and we are sure that she is basically sound. The ex-owner seems very trustworthy and has told us about a few problems that he is aware of and these are the things we are looking at doing now. I know it sounds like we might have got ourselves into a whole lot of trouble, but I'm pretty confident that she is in pretty good nick for her age and really in need of some fairly light remedial work. My problem is that what limited carpentry experience I do have is not on boats, and I know that it's a different ball game to a large extent. I am only going to take on tasks that I feel I am capable of doing - anything that requires specialised knowledge I will have to hand over to an expert. Hopefully between us we'll get her back up to scratch - watch this space for further developments!

[Manie B]

There are a LOT OF GUYS on this forum that could help with years of experience, please post pictures it will help much more than you could imagine.

[Emmenel]

Hi Manie

That's great to know! I am going down to the boat this weekend and I will take plenty of pics which I'll gladly post when I get back. In the meantime, I'm attaching the one pic that I have of her now - incidentally the rotten frame is marked; please let me know what you think...

Cheers

Mick

[PAR]

As a rule you want to deal with wet wood issues from the top down. Gravity is handy in this fashion, it always pulls in the same direction, which is very possibly the problem with your ports (windows), deck and other areas.

Honest owners are a rare breed and friends that can perform sufficient surveys more rare. If the boat will accept a substantial investment (it sounds like it might) then do yourself a big favor and have a qualified surveyor give her the once over. Would you by a used car without your mechanic looking her over, how about an old house without an inspection? Same deal here, it just happens to float.

Fix the roof first, followed by the side decks, which should go a long way to seal her up from "sweet" water, which is the primary cause for wood rot. Then work on the ports, which will likely have to be rebuilt (not that much of a big deal really).

The topside exterior veneers can be a real bastard to repair on a double planked boat. Don't discount this element as it is one of the more difficult building methods to repair.