my restoration project: 1969 larson 18.5' + merc 140 stern drive

339dream I just dug up my notes just to give you a feel for your project.

I got the boat for helava cheap eh! $1,500.00 I budgeted around $5,000 and 400 hours for the refit.

My actual costs for the basic refit were $13,372.00 and the hours were 1260.

The survey value was $25,000. My time was worth $8.03 per hour for highly skilled labor. That is damn good.

I have since spent a additional $10,000 and an additional 300 hours on upgrades. The boat is now worth about $33,000. Subtract an additonal $2000 off my wage and recompute using 300 additional hours or $5.21 per hour. That is below minimum wage in Ohiya for a 26' boat that is highly desirable.

 

I'll give you 1500.00 cash plus my boats in trade

just kidding- that's a really cool little ship you have there. The pilot house picture is my favorite- I love real wood used in boats.

I don't have any set budget in mind but I am trying to be realistic and prioritize at the same time. for instance I bought a 30 some dollar ball/bar for my hitch and the boat isn't going anywhere yet

 

It is Saturday morning and I'm feeling like working on a boat!!! Just need to decide what to work on and have me some coffee first Update with pics of something later today.

 

lunch break update: pulled the first layer of wood up on one side to find a wetter, older layer of plywood under it. pulled it up and found the channel filled with wet foam. I also found a beautiful colored frog, alive and well.

I expected to find that foam in there soaked, but I found 2 things that concern me:

1- there are aprrox. 3"x3" squares of wood fiberglassed in a sloppy manner to the fiberglass hull every so often- the glass on them is hard but some that have exposed edges are rotten. what is the purpose of these?

2- in front of the two channels that support the deck some bonehead fiberglassed stacked sheets of insulating foam over everything so now I found another problem area.

It's in the low 90's out there- I'm sweating and swearing at this rotten old thing. I just want to pull out all the water logged, rotten BS and let the hull dry out and start rebuilding.

 

haha- went back out there and got rained out about an hour later.

anyway what do you guys think about options for replacing that foam? Should I even bother it? I'd hate to put new wood and screws in only to have to do it again in a year or two.

I am planning on removing some of it for sure near the front and going to pull out the layered insulation- I want to make a cargo area and a spot for one of my fuel tanks to keep as much room as possible free above deck. This will involve cutting the inner wall part of each channel out and building a wooden frame to support the deck in a similar manner yet free up some space.

here's the deck support channels: the one on the right is down to the foam, the left is not taken apart yet.


a shot of the beast:

 

common sense tells me that foam must go. gonna talk with the local boat shop on suitable replacement foam. I searched the forum and found that everyone replaces wet old foam.. but with what???