Restoring marine ply Yacht. Materials?? Please Help!

Sikaflex...

An update to position.
My local marine supplier has given me some advice.
He says that if I cannot get the boat out of the water and dry it out completely then any fix that I do will just be a temporary fix.

In this case, because I do not want to slip it again this year,
He recommends just using Sikaflex to reseal the deck and cabin, then a repaint, to tie it over untill next year when I can do a complete job on it.
The thing is that if I epoxy, and the wood is not COMPLETELY dry, then he says it will lift and leak. And down the track it will be a lot harder to remove epoxy, than Sikiflex.

My other problem, one that should be well known to anyone who has been to this city at the bottom of the world, is that we have rain forecast for this whole weekend when I was going to work on it. And the guy wants me to get it off his mooring....

Bugger.

Anyone use this Sikaflex?
any review, in relation to my position?
Hans.

 

maybe you could invite him down for a cold beer ,,,,be surprised what you might learn about the boat. im talking about the previous owner.

 

If you use the sikafex marine (291 or 391, don't recall now) on bare wood, use the right primer from Sikaflex. It's easy to use and helps the bonding of the kit.

You can use different colors, from white to brown. it helps using the right color for your paint job ;-)

 

Thanks Sander.
I hadn't heard of that yet, and will be sure to get that primer.

Longliner, the old guy I bought it from is bending a little. He will let me have it there a bit longer, but as he pays Au$500 a month for the pen I am using (and as he only bought and resold the boat for the pen) , he is obviously keen to move me on.
The older guy that the old guy bought it from (am I confusing you yet), or in other words- the original owner who has had it for the last forty years, is going to meet me at the boat on Saturday to go over everything with me, and hopefully let me pick his brains..
this does however mean, that I am going to hold off doing some of the work/painting untill after he shows me round. Aside from the rain, I don't want to offend him by ripping out seals and or wood, and repainting. I don't want to change his baby before he shows me round..

More news to follow..

 

Its a Seahorse!!

Hello to those that have followed.
I have met the old owner today, and found out that the boat I have bought is a Van De Stadt Seahorse. (as apposed to an unknown "Herrod")
Knowing this, upon the same marina I then found another two sister ships. One in the water with a completely different cabin and rig, and one very similar that is dried out and being worked on. This gave me the advantage of being able to see the whole form and underside of my boat. Lovely!
I got heaps of info. Though he couldn't yet take me for a sail.
The boat has quite a racing history, and is very well known in the area. all sorts of old guys were coming up and telling us about the numerous times that Altair had beaten them.
One thing is that the boat is really set up for racing, and racing is not exactly what I plan to do. so some alterations may need to be done.

I would like to move the traveller forward from the aft of the cockpit up ontop of the cabin. also i will have to build a bigger canopy. etc,,,
in the mean time,
I have bought a new 3.4m dingy, I have got the two pack epoxy and filler ready, the two pack wood treater, and the sikaflex. Tommorrow morning I will get the paint- now that I know what he has been using, and with the weather clearing up, tommorrow the work is on.

Any one have an opinion on this boat? (30 ft Van De Stadt Plywood Seahorse)
Or any info that might be usefull.
Hans.

 

Seahorse thread:

Please see my reply in your Seahorse thread about the pedigree of your boat.

http://boatdesign.net/forums/showpost.php?p=82731&postcount=2

 

peel of a bit of paint and what do you find?

well, in this case, I have found a little more rot than I had hoped.
My optimistic plans of not ripping out wood until next year have been scrapped.
I have four patches so far, that I am definately ripping out on the deck, and a few patches that need some reinforced support from bellow.
See the problem is, this boat has specifically been looked after for racing.
For the hull, this has been good news, it is perfect.
For the Cabin and the deck, unfortunately, these have not been deemed as vital as the hull, the rigging and the sails. The old guy had just got a bit sick of it all, and had just gaffa taped up cracking seals surrounding the cockpit.
So, water has seeped in and through, and nature has followed its course.
Having dragged my good freind into the fixing effort, with promises for upcoming fishing trips in the schnapper season, we have attacked the worst of it all, the cockpit.
The promissed good weather failed to materialise, of course, so there we were working under tarps and the odd splatter of rain.
Tommorrow it will be clear skies and warmer weather, and tommorrow the new wood is going in. We will epoxy treat the wood, fill the gaps and undercoat.
Or at least that is the plan.
I don't think that there can be any more serious problems that will appear again from under lifting paint, but, that would probably be an unsafe assumption. At least there is not much more lifting paint.

The question is if all this special wood treater epoxy and filler will work if the wood is not completly dry.
am I just wasteing my time?
Some people have said yes some no.

Well I guess time will tell.
Unless plans take another more serious turn, there is no way that I am going to dry her out right now.
Wish me luck.
more to follow.
Hans.

 

peel of a bit of paint and what do you find?

well, in this case, I have found a little more rot than I had hoped.
My optimistic plans of not ripping out wood until next year have been scrapped.
I have four patches so far, that I am definately ripping out on the deck, and a few patches that need some reinforced support from bellow.
See the problem is, this boat has specifically been looked after for racing.
For the hull, this has been good news, it is perfect.
For the Cabin and the deck, unfortunately, these have not been deemed as vital as the hull, the rigging and the sails. The old guy had just got a bit sick of it all, and had just gaffa taped up cracking seals surrounding the cockpit.
So, water has seeped in and through, and nature has followed its course.
Having dragged my good freind into the fixing effort, with promises for upcoming fishing trips in the schnapper season, we have attacked the worst of it all, the cockpit.
The promissed good weather failed to materialise, of course, so there we were working under tarps and the odd splatter of rain.
Tommorrow it will be clear skies and warmer weather, and tommorrow the new wood is going in. We will epoxy treat the wood, fill the gaps and undercoat.
Or at least that is the plan.
I don't think that there can be any more serious problems that will appear again from under lifting paint, but, that would probably be an unsafe assumption. At least there is not much more lifting paint.

The question is if all this special wood treater epoxy and filler will work if the wood is not completly dry. It is all pretty damp under there.
am I just wasteing my time?
Some people have said yes some no.

Well I guess time will tell.
Unless plans take another more serious turn, there is no way that I am going to dry her out right now.
Just to remind us all, there was also no way that I was going to start ripping out wood.
The saga has begun
Wish me luck.
more to follow.
Hans.

 

Did I say there was no way I was going to dry her out now???

Well.
So what?
I can change my mind...
(or have my mind changed.)
(P.s Sorry about the double post, that old edit button didn't seem to work so well.)

Because of the exorbitant price it costs to rent a guest pen, we have realised this evening that it will almost be cheaper to get the boat lifted out, dried out for up to 21 days and worked on. Soo-much easier too.
Now we just have to see if we can get into the que quick enough.


Tonight I have chosen not to say what I will definatly not do.
Too many backflips so far. So, just maybe, I will take out the mast, tie it up in a big tree, and build a new boat around it.

So, to bed now.
Tommorrow, back to trying to fill the that hole with money.
(B)reak (O)ut (A)nother (T)housand.
Hans.

 

old guys in wisdom.

Hey, seriously,
I mean no offence by reffering to these people as 'old guys'.
In my stating their age, I am primarily reffering to their priceless wisdom and knowledge- as well as the notches on their belt.
For me, of the little remaining youth that I may possibly claim in terms of notches on the belt, in nautical terms, I am but a swaddling babe in arms- and sorry for the disturbing image- but do you know who it is that that swaddles this little babe?
Thats right, (sorry mum)
it is an an old salty man of the sea- suckling me from the fountain of his irreplacable knowledge.
Now I said that might be disturbing,
and I think that I may have been right.

enough...

So, today, out came Altair.
The day started off rather well.
Not long after we walked up to the boat, after an exhausted sleep in, and begun to take off the tarps, the orriginal owner Stuart came up and started chatting with us.
I was sort of worried that he was going to be horrified with what we had done to his boat. The rusty pushpit pulled and snapped off, the stanchions removed all the way to the bow, paint stripped in patches and peeled back to bare wood, bare wood with holes in it- you get the picture.
However, he couldn't have been happier.
He had already checked it out, peeking under the tarps before we had got there, and came up grinning, saying he was so proud of us. He was so happy that we doing a big job on it, so happy that it had gone to someone who was going to love it, and so happy that the 'stink boat' owner that I had bought it from couldn't get it over the bar into a creek were he had another mooring where it undoubtably would have ended its days.
Then he heard that I had already booked it in to be pulled out of the water that day, and if possible he got happier, and being on his way to have a drink with the yard boss, came back minutes later to motor us around himself and pull it out of the water. So out against the howling hot dry northerly we powered, round the marina wall, the old stuart turner putting away like a dream, masterfully manouvering into the crane pen with the wind pushing us strongly from behind into the wall, then directing the yard boys and boss exactly where he wanted the straps etc.
It was great.
This weekend he is bringing in a tin of antifoul for us, his other leftover paint, a fitted foam bed, possibly a couple more PFD's, and best of all-
a big roll of the original paper plans from when the boat was built.
He has been in the ear of the yard boys, getting them to look after us, and it seems to be working. They have given me the discounted members prices, less than half what a non member would pay. So, after pulling it out (and putting it back) for $150, it is going to cost me $7 a day to keep it in the yards. This is apposed to costing me $30 a day to keep it in a guest pen.
So, out she is, and now the real work will begin. Next door to us is the local woodenboat builder/repairer who is doing the final touches to a virtual sistership to ours, a Van De Stadt Dogger. And a couple of boats up, the lovely guy that informed me how cheap it could be to lift her out. Stuart himself appologetically informed us that he would be "hassling and bothering" us constantly over the next few weeks with his advice, answers, knowledge and charming pressence. Not to mention freebies.
In other words, lots of 'old guys' around to get advice and help from. We couldn't be happier.
So here are some pics.

School for the next few days, and then I have a week off for easter, in which I will undoubtably be living down at the yards.
More to come..
Hans.

 

Gourmet stuff

Hi Hans,

As far as I could find out, only thing that realy helps against fungus is ventilation and keeping things as dry as possible. If your wood is dry enough, you can inpregnate the wood with epoxy.
So far, plus a pucture of my little friend ;-)

 

Champignon is not my problem.

Thanks Sander.
That little friend of yours looks like it belongs in a misty old forest valley somewhere. I certainly don't have anything like that growing. I think my problem was just simple wet rot fromt the rain leaking in.
Now that I have it out of the water, and now that we are going to strip all of the paint on the deck back to bare wood, drying out should not be a problem. In fact, now I am worried about drying her out too much. Next time I go there, in two days, I am going to tip a bucket of salty water or two into the bilges.
The two mid sized tins of wood preserving epoxy I bought, 500ml each, shall be taken back and supersized for two litres at least.

Does anyone know if you can thin down this sort of two pack wood preserving epoxy, in order to spread it, and or penetrate the wood a litte easier?

The old paint is about 6mm thick! About 3mm of this is the bottom layer which seems to be a mix of paint and powdered cork mix, which aside from having sealed and sponged in the water, conveniently has the constitution of leather, thus making it a bit easier to peel off.
Once I get all the real rot out, get all the paint off and dry out the wood, I will mould kill the wood, then saturate the whole deck in wood preserver epoxy. Then I am going to epoxy fiberglass fill the holes, and with supports underneath, overlay two new matching marine ply peices covering the whole mid-deck section. This has been a weakish spot in the design anyway, or at least in its wear, so this can only improve things in the long run. On the aft section behind the cockpit I am going to do the same.

Somehow I have to find or get made cheaply a new stainless pushpit.
Has anyone had experience with or heard of the new welding rods that will weld stainless with a normal welder?
We are tempted to try to weld and bend one up ourselves.
Unless of course anyone knows of a wreckers in Melbourne Australia where I could find one to fit, or some other way. Funds are rapidly drying up, and a new one at this point is simply not an option.

More to come. Inevitably.
Hans.

 

hey hans lighten up on yourself,,,,,just kidding ya ,,,,really neet hull design you have there ,tell me how she rides ,be careful and most important ,,,,,,,,,,have fun ,longliner

 

How to paint a Mast?

Update.

Rain again today. So here I am sitting by the window watching the clouds and storms blow past, wasting the only precious week that I will have off for the next few months. Altair is tarpped up, and waiting, but apparantly we will get good weather tommorrow.. even this afternoon we might make it down for a couple of hours.

So far we have stripped over half of the paint off the deck back to wood. the wood rot has been dug out and cut out, awaiting now the epoxy wood preserver, filler and new wood panels.

I have figured out what the main problem was. At some point someone has filled with silicon all the drainage holes across the features on the cabin and deck, even the holes in the gunnwales were practically blocked from the years of layers of paint. This mean that in many places, the water simply had no where to go and just sat in pools against the joints. So all these holes, that the designer had deemed necessary, have been opened up, and hopefully this will stop this from occuring again.
A new pushpit is proving very problematic, money being the main problem, as there are lots of guys available who will weld one up, for a stinging price. There are a few promising connections where a used one might be available. Fingers crossed.
But as this is turning into a complete job, rather than just a patch up, the next nagging desire is to do something to the wooden mast.
Inside the cabin it is beautifull lacquered wood, but above the deck it has been painted a mission brown(????), which is rather old and dry and in need of something done to it both asthetically and practically.
Ideally we would like to strip it back to wood and lacquer, but we want to avoid removing the mast if we can. So we have considered sending my rather small girlfreind up on a harness to paint it from top down.
Is this done?
With the proper climbing gear, would this be safe? (she has done a bit of rockclimbing)
I wouldn't push this on her, but she has vollunteered numerous times now, and we need to do something.
I just have some terrified feeling that if we remove all the stays and pull off the mast, then we will be here forever. Maybe I am overreacting...
But as of this point, I will return to my previously failed policy of swearing what I will no do.
I WILL NOT TAKE OFF THE BLOODY MAST!!!

Any suggestions?
Hans.