1973 Pearson Portsmouth 43

I have a new to me 1973 Pearson Portsmouth 43 foot motor-yacht. Grace is no Arctic Explorer and we intend to use her as she was designed as a summer home and some small jaunts into Barnegat Bay and maybe a few miles offshore for a swim and back home to her berth in fresh water at the head of Forked River. She is a big girl and we brought her back from Annapolis to Rock Hall in December and from Rock Hall to Forked River in June in gale conditions. We're sailors and sail another one of Bill Shaw's designs a Pearson 323 berthed a few slips down from Grace.

I've worked on boats for over 50 years starting with wooden runabouts and have had my share of Git-Rot and heartbreak. That said, Grace has pretty good bones and was refit in 1993 with some good craftsmanship and new Crusaders that run very well.

My concern is the "partitions" in the bilge. I wouldn't call them bulkheads since I believe they are built pretty light for a boat of this size. They have been monkeyed with over her fifty years and they take a beating when the boat is hauled in the smaller travel lifts that we have in the Bay neighborhood where she now lives.

Grace's hull-deck joint is covered with a lousy PVC rub rail and rainwater (and seawater last month!) comes into the bilges where the toe rail has gaps for the water to escape over the side but the rub rail channels the water inside, down the hull, onto the deck beams and their tabbed in support longitudinal 6" below the hull deck joint from stem to stern inside. THis has to be rectified first.

I am glassing together the hull deck joint to stop all water ingress and that project is going well but will not be complete until the layover this Winter. The approach with biaxel and West System works well and there was no issues with the repairs on our voyage home in rough conditions Grace will never likely see again from that delivery.

My question is: how do I reinforce or replace the interior partitions with stronger bulkheads that will support the crushing loads of travel lift straps so Grace is strong and doesn't look like a wreck below decks when my wife tries to sell her.

I'm limited on the size of material I can get into the bilges and also limited in access to the three "basement" below decks bilge areas.

I'm open to:

Reinforcing existing bulkheads with roving tabbed over cardboard half-tube stiffeners like the waterline reinforcements on many Pearson yachts.

Refinishing partitions and fabricating metal reinforcements of aluminum, steel, angle, channel, tube or black pipe that can be assembled below decks and bolted to existing reinforced partitions to shore up the squeeze loads.

Ripping out partitions and building new ones from diagonal strip plank, many scarfs of plywood, or in a wild thought in the middle of the night- Ferro-cement (or bricks).

The existing partitions create three below decks spaces: the engine space aft with vee drive engines and batteries, a middle space with fuel, waste and fresh water tankage and a front space that is storage in Grace’s design where an optional grandkids cabin was an option- ours is unfinished and used for storage although I’d like to relocate both HVAC units there for sound control.


All honest comments are welcome- This doesn't have to be the most economical or conventional repair just a ship shape one. I’ll be working alone so that is a consideration as well. Grace has so much to offer I'd like to set her straight.

 

A belated welcome to the Forum G 69.

There appears to be various sisterships currently advertised for sale on the internet - although the ones I have found invariably only contain pretty pictures of the accommodation, and no photos of the more interesting (for us) stuff like the bilges and hull structure.

Re how your partitions (they would be partial bulkheads if they are from bilge to the underside of the floor above, and full bulkheads if they are the full width of the bilge) are 'taking a beating' when the boat is hauled out - can you elaborate a bit more about this?
Are they noticeably deforming, or is the tabbing securing them to the hull sides and bottom shearing / delaminating?
Is this happening above the cabin sole as well as in the bilges?
Can you post some more photos (if possible) showing the areas of concern?
As the saying goes, 'a photo is worth a thousand words'.

 

The forward partial bulkhead has been partially sistered with plywood and I can see how to finish that and make it satisfactory. It is structurally strong but the old tabbing needs to be updated- (no photo)

The engine room partial bulkhead needs to be reinforced or replaced as it was buckling when we were in gale conditions and getting a beating.
Watching it pant and it having 1973 copper gasoline fuel lines and obsolete fuel flow transducers and tank valve manifold valves and all of their ancient flare fittings mounted to the lively bulkhead was disconcerting. When Grace comes out for winter storage I'll streamline the fuel lines.

Most of the tabbing has let go and its been patched a number of times poorly. Access is through a 24" X 24" hatch and that limits the sheet goods I'd be able to use.

What I'd like to learn is alternative methods of building a sister bulkhead that would go against the old one and then maybe remove the old one and tab from both sides a new water resistant bulkhead that would take up the compression loads of haul out straps and of course the sea.

You can see rainwater is channeled into the bilge from the toe rail. That will be fixed over the winter and that needs to be addressed before this project.

I know Grace isn't an Arctic Explorer and I do not want to try and make her one.

I just want to make her the best houseboat/coastal cruise she can be.

Thank you Bajan sailor.