Advice for a complete amateur please - looking to repair Merlin Rocket

Complete newbie here who has inherited a 1965 Merlin Rocket boat. The boat is beautiful - or no doubt will be once fully varnished up. It looks in pretty good shape from the inside - but there is rot on the wooden strip along the bottom. It needs to be replaced. I've attached a few pics. I wanted to understand a bunch of probably very basic things and am hoping some of you experts can start me along the right path!


1) Is this is a part that can be easily replaced?

2) Is it a critical part of the boat or does it just form protection?

3) Does it need to be replaced with wood or are there other easier options? (sorry if this is sacrilege to people to ask)

4) The part fron the dagger board to the front is still in very good condition. Would I be able to use a piece of wood to fill in from there to the back and epoxy it into place?


While I would love to fully and faithfully restore it I don't have woodworking skills so am looking for options that I may be able to take on. Any thought or suggestions would be very gratefully accepted!


Thanks so much in advance,


Chris

 

Can you post a close up of the transom,where the piece lands on it? There are two possibilities and one would be a straightforward repair if you are lucky-the other would be rather complicated for even a professional.

 

Thanks for your reply.... Is this the bit you were looking for an image of?

 

It helps.From that it would appear that the external keel is applied onto a flat that has been planed across the two garboards.Much less of an endeavour than having to replace a rebated keel.You will still need enough woodworking ability to cut a scarph on the end of the sound portion of the keel and the replacement part and to give the new piece the correct bevels.Do you feel up to it?

 

You don't need woodworking skills to fix this.
It would help, but you don't need skills.

You are going to have to fully understand what you need to do however,
before you commence.

Is the hull soft anywhere?
If you tap it does it make a thud or a tick?
Ticks are good, thuds are bad.

 

I don't think there will be too much risk of rot in the planking.Merlins of that vintage would have been built with a good grade of marine ply and the glue would have been Cascamite or Aerolite as epoxy was about ten years into the future when the boat was built.The main builders (Chippendale,Hoare,Rowsell,Wyche and Coppock and Rigden) would have been turning out boats that were very nicely built and at some point this boat has been neglected.The deterioration in the external keel section my well be attributable to a period of sitting on damp grass,or if you are really unlucky,water will have sat in the boat and seeped through from the inside.The external keel isn't that great a feat-if you can cut clean bevels with a sharp chisel and plane.It the hog and the sides of the centreboard case are in the same poor shape then the difficulty increases by a couple of orders of magnitude.It can be done but needs a pretty competent woodworker and a source of good wood.Locating mahogany of the quality that the original builder would have easily found has become much more difficult,not impossible and not cheap,but it can be done.The admission by the OP that he doesn't have woodworking skills might be a warning sign if the damage is really extensive.A new external keel section is a less daunting and less expensive project for a professional to deal with.Even so,it could cost more than the boat's sale value and rule itself out unless the boat has a lot of sentimental value.Looking for somebody to undertake the work in the London area won't bring the cost down,but maybe a few miles outside the metropolis it would become more feasible.

 

Gotta keep water out now.

Remove the keel carefully after measuring the length or determining the point it starts forward.

Inspect hull for damage, start with fingernail and probe for soft wood.