How Bad can an old Steel Boat be!

I noticed a lot of threads in this section regarding survey and inspection and restore of steel boats. My wife and I were novices and got stuck pretty hard by a crooked surveyer and vendors... so whats new... The thing is we did manage to fix her up better than she ever was despite no experience welding etc, and now have some wisdom to share.

I did a web page on our journey of discovery, despair and repair...

see http://www.thecoastalpassage.com/rust.html

If you just bought an old steely... recomend taking a valium before viewing.

Cheers

Bob

www.thecoastalpassage.com

 

Bob,

The two most unprofessional "professionals" I ever dealt with were brokers representing steel boats.

One wasted trip of 850 miles & one of 1500 miles.

Looking forward to viewing your site when time permits.

Take care.

TGoz

 

greetings timgoz

Yeah, I've gotten pretty cynical about the boat selling industry. We are currently preparing to build. reason 1, I want to know for sure whats under me when we go sailing. 2, We can't afford to buy the boat we want. 3, when I did weaken and decided to have a look at a boat in Moreton bay near brisbane, I drove 1400 kms each way for nothing because the vendor was a lying sob... sound familiar? That was a couple months ago. today I'm working on input to Bob Oram who is drawing our next boat... Time to stop wasting time..

Speaking of time.. better have a wad of it available when you cruise through TCP.com... I'm about to use up my allowted space at my host!
Cheers
Bob

 

Good work Bob.
Got some work to do on my boat, mind if I borrow Kay for a couple of weekends.

Poida

 

Greetings Poida

Yeah, she's pretty game. When we rebuilt the boat we were working on a trawler wharf. The only yachties there. The fact we didn't walk away from the project after the first couple weeks and the way Kay worked right beside me, well, we made freinds with the mob there. A very rough mob. Me they put up with cause I was handy to have around, always a welder on hand but Kay was treated quite the lady. The fishermen were in awe of Kay.

Cheers

Bob

www.thecoastalpassage.com

 

I had almost the exact same experience! Survey was almost verbatim. Ive been able to keep our boat floating with no problems, and found that parts of it had been "overplated" in the past, but I would like to properly replate the bad sections as you have. You and Kay obviously have done a great job, and seeing what you've accomplished has given me the confidence to repair my hull.
I do have some light welding experience. What kind of welder did you use?

 

I spent a good deal of time in a lengthy reply to this and it went away when I tried to post... GGRRR

Suffice to say, I started with a cheap mig welder (lightweight 150 amp) and in the process got another machine of higher quality. (heavy copper wound coils on 200 amp machine) I got good enough with the light machine to do everything except the heavy overhead stuff.

We learned a lot in the project and are willing to share the knowledge if it is useful to you. Feel free to contact us through the forum or site or whatever for info as you go.

Good on you for showing spine, it's all too easy to just say "too hard." and try to find another sucker.

also see http://www.yun-khan.tk/

Cheers

Bob

www.thecoastalpassage.com

 

Hey Bob,
I really enjoyed looking over your site and photos.
Good work.

Just a note on posting and loosing replies (which I have done too many times).
Especially if you are going to the trouble to post a long detailed one start by pressing the post reply blue button on the left under the last post (rather than typing it into the quick reply box on this page).
That way if you accidently click on a link or something you can navigate back to the page and your writing will still be there. It is very easy to loose it from the quick reply.

Good luck.
Hans.

 

greetings hans

Yeah, I did use the button but still took too much time I think. Should have selected all and copied just before hitting the "submit" button... just in case!

Probably OK anyway, I do get carried away when it comes to talking about the repair of an old steel boat. it was a big job but the boat did turn out so well. It's this legacy thing. It feels good to know that many years from now she will be out there.

Cheers

Bob

www.thecoastalpassage.com