Bristol 29 Restructuring

Hi I'm 25 and i have just bought a 1976 bristol 29 in tough shape(extensive water water damage to bulkheads, hull to deck joint). I worked in fiberglass boatbuilding for three years, and am currently working as a carpenter. I have decided to gut the interior back to the companion way. I have already pulled the head liner and i plan to cut out the floor liner as well. Pretty much gutting the boat to bare hull and laying the interior out differently, In a way more suitable to singlehanded liveaboard cruising.
The new layout will include:
Head relocated forward, facing astern
Bunk forms two water tight compartments, nav sataion/ cabinent for circuit breaker mounted inside the companion way
Over sized chainplate bulkheads
Stainless steel compression post bolted through deck to mast step
Glass hull to deck joint
Bow roller/ mooring bitt
Watertight crash bulkheads for and aft
New electrical system including 1000 watt inverter, 330 Ah battery bank,
new distribution panel and all new circuits, central bonding system for corrosion and lightning protection (I already have purchased and read Charlie Wing's Illustrated Boatowner's Electrical Handbook)
Small work bench(formed by fore and aft chainplate bulkheads)
If anyone out there knows these boats or has any general comments on my project i would really appreciate some feedback. I am trying to build this into an offshore capable boat.

 

Your Bristol 29

Hello,

I am rebuilding a Bristol 29 also. My website is www.bristol29.com and you are must welcome to visit anytime. As to your project, my comments follow:

The year is wrong on your boat if it is a B29. They were only build up until 1969 and none of the B29 models have hull identification numbers--required of all boats starting in 1972. If your Bristol was indeed build in 76 it is a 29.9, also a Herreshoff boat, but wider with a skeg rudder and different stern.

I would encourage you not to removed the main bulkhead if you haven't already. Sturcturally it is needed for the boat to hold her shape. If you remove everything at once, floor, bulkheads, tabbed cabinets and bunks, you will distort the hull and have no real way of returning her to her proper shape. In orther words, remove just enough to redo an area and then redo it before tearing out more.

I have great respect for older Bristol, they are well-designed, sea kindly boats. The one's designed by Halsey Herreshoff are damn near perfect sailing boats. An important weakness in these old boats is both the open masthead--which allows rain water down into the mast which can rot away part of the mast step, and the cast aluminum spreader sockets. The sockets will eventually explode under pressure from tension on the windward shroud, and dump your rig. If you are planning to sail offshore, have the sockets replaced with stainless steel sockets. Metalmast Marine in Connecticut knows the early Bristol spars and can make them (sockets and a closed masthead unit)for you for a reasonable cost.

Good luck with your project,

David Browne
www.bristol29.com
Maitland, Florida