Restoring 16' wooden sailboat - will need help & advice

Water from above the LWL usually does a lot more damage than below. On trailered boats, it's standing water that does the most damage, either on the deck or after it's found a way below. The West System calculation works pretty well, though, once you gain some skill, that formula will over produce a bit.

The choice to strip it back of fill and fair can be a tough one, but it's simply a judgment call and only you can make it. At some point you have to figure out how much time it'll take to fair the partially stripped areas, compared to just going for broke (full strip), which of course means a full boat fair too. At least you'll be starting with a level playing field, in terms of sheathing and hull fairness (you can hide a lot of sins). If it was me, I'm inclined to rip stuff off, simply because I trust my from scratch skills better then matching someone's work. One of the more difficult things I find is "building to the work", which means don't make it any prettier or uglier than it already is. Many times I can't lower my self to these standards and just rip it off and start over. It's not the cheapest way of doing things, but (again) sometimes, I can't bring myself to do a mediocre job, just so it matches the rest of the boat. There's nothing worse than a repair, that way over or under shines the rest of the boat, so you "build to the work", for it to look right. When making this decision I ask myself how much time and materials in both processes and will I save much (time and materials) if I take one over the other. Usually one answer stands out and it's often the one that sucks the most too.

 

he keeps saying that its only a $225 boat, but I think the epoxy and glass retailers are going to make that much again out of the project.

 

The cheapest way of doing things is to smear some Bondo on the current imperfections and use Wal-Mart house paint on the rest of the boat. Of course this will be pretty much an annual/every couple of years routine, but it's cheap.

 

PAR, thank you for your thoughtful response.

You are absolutely correct: Leaky deck fittings and standing water have been the cause of 90% of all the work I have had to do thus far. When the time comes to install fittings and seal chain plates 4200 & 5200 are going to be my best friends, and the boat will go on the dolly and into the garage during the off-season and covered otherwise. Also, I will know what to look for on any future boat(s) I might consider.

Just for reference, the deck FG has cracks around almost the entire circumference due to the sharp edge between the hull and deck. So, I will need to strip that back and round the edge with a router or block plane. Also, there are a couple of places where something was dropped and has split the FG near the motor mount. Luckily, there are no splits, stains or deformations on the underside of the deck ply anywhere that I can see on the boat. Also, there are no less than 5 or 6 different layers of paint, however, some exploratory sanding reveals a solid layer of gelcoat on most of the deck under it all.

So, I guess I will take an incremental approach; sand down to the gelcoat, remove the damaged areas and reassess at that point. PAR, I had to laugh out loud at your last comment because I have hit that once or twice, already; some dogs I simply cannot let lie. As my skills & confidence increase I am less tolerant of things that I let slide before (I am actually pretty demanding of the quality of my work - I built airliners for 15-years). I very much appreciate your thoughtful advice.

I do have about 20-yards of 2" and 4" glass tape, as well as several yards of 6-oz cloth, along with a little under a gallon of FG resin and a half gallon of epoxy. So, R.W., I am already well past the original price of the boat I do happen to have some Duraglass, but I am more than willing to do the hard work of fill & sand & fill & sand (and fill & sand) for the finish. As for final paint, $150/gal Imron might be out of the question for me, but there must be something between that and semi-gloss latex that will fit my budget...

Thanks, all!

Curtis