Thread: 1960's seacraft restoration

Hey justin I had a look and can't find Just Wood on the site? i was thinking more along the lines of a classic girl's name =)

I have been working on my plywood speedboat on and off for about three years - I am thinking of calling it "Whenyagonnafinishthatthing" because that is what most people say when they see it !

Haha that's a good one bagman, what kind of boat do you have? Any pics?

Gooday Ricochet - my boat is a bit like taking in a stray dog off the street - no idea of age, parentage or temperament. I suspect the boat is well over 30 years old as I have found square copper nails in it's construction and lead paint (yuk) all over it. I think it was professionally made as the joinery is excellent.
I was initially attracted by a newspaper ad for a 14ft plywood runabout for $350 and found a beamy, open boat with a very short foredeck, three full width backless bench seats and a pleasing hull shape. The owner (a house painter) had discovered it had been sitting for 16 years under a house he was painting and took it as part payment. He did a great job of restoring it as a three bedroom weatherboard house - silicon in all the joints, covering up the cracks and the rot with polyfilla and giving it a few quick coats of enamel. I think he realised it would eventually sink like a stone when it hit the water so he unloaded it onto me.
I saw it as a challenge and have since taken out a square foot of rot from the transom and strengthened and increased it to take a 20'' long shaft outboard. The keel has had a section of rot removed (that was created by seepage from an impact and crack just under the bow ) and the rest of the keel has been strengthened and extra ribs have been added to take a slatted removable floor I have made. The two rear seats were widened and full width backrests have been added to form an outboard well and front and rear passenger compartments. The small front seat now has a support running through it for the new large foredeck with dashboard that I have framed and side decks have been formed. I am trying to make it look something like an outboard powered gentleman's runabout.
It's been an interesting journey which is coming to an end as I have finished my full paint removal and preparation and have started epoxy and paint. The other name I had for the boat was "isthatthesamepieceofshityoustartedwith" because I've heard that a few times too.
I think the best thing though about any restoration is the knowledge that your hands have been over every square inch of a wooden boat that is now as good as, if not better, than when it was new and it will last for many more years. I will try and post some pics when I get organised (but work will take me overseas ro the next six weeks).
Good luck with your project - I will be watching.

Originally Posted by Ricochet

I was actually thinking of re naming her.. Is this bad luck or anything? =P

Legend has it that King Neptune keeps a ledger of all boat names and he is not pleased if anyone messes with it without notice .There are some really good ceromonies to preform to facilitate a name change all of them involve alcohol.

I preformed my own name change ceromony half way across Bass Stait when I renamed my 26ft steal yacht from Tahiala to "Dunno" I think the goods agreed that the name was right as they let me finish my cruise unharmed.

I have since seen the light and bought back my timber motor sailer.

Good luck with your present project Richochet. The effort you are making should be well rewarded. Unfortunately with my limited experance all I can offer is encouragment.

Sounds like a great project Bagman! I'm looking forward to seeing some photos, thanks for the encouragement! Hey Wave, thankyou also for the interest =) Do you have any photos of your motor sailer? I've done a few *crossing the line* (equator) ceremonies and am quite familiar with King Neptune haha... hence my superstitions with re naming =) I think i'll wait until i get her back in the water and find a creative way to appease the gods!

Chris

Hi Cris, sounds like you may be familiar with the Grey Funnell Line.
There is one pic of Wavedancer in my building an Auk thread and heaps more on our cruising club sight. also a couple of stories about my adventuer down to Tassy.

http://www.sycc.net.au

enter photo gallery and select relay race. Flinders island leg off my trip south is in the feb edition of the main sheet. I have been told by more than one person that it a good read. Dunno is the smallest boat in the 15 boat raft up on the front page

Ian L

Yeah very familiar wavedancer haha. Thats a very nice looking vessel you have! Maybe I can find a boat club once i get my old girl finished. Looks like fun!

Chris

nice f100

Cheers Gaza. Everything I have is a constant work in progress =P

Hi Ricochet, Happened to come accross this forum and wanted to see if your'e interested in some history as my family is the original owners and builders of the boat you are restoring. Sadly it doesn't look anything like the beautiful old girl that I reluctantly sold. If your'e interested I'll post some photos up shortly.

Original Owner- talk about a strange coincedence! Its been a while since I posted on here, i've been busy with plenty of other things, but I tried looking for my thread yesterday on the wrong forum *embarrassment* I made a post on woodenboat forums asking if anyone had seen my thread haha... and I happened to check my email and bang- there was a message from you and the link to my old thread!

Now I am very interested in anything you have to say! I am a little confused/excited, your family are the original owners and builders on my boat.. but it doesn't look like the boat you reluctantly sold.. Is that to say your family were "Seacraft"? And my boat, "Ricochet" is your old boat? If so, thats %*&!@# amazing! And I would love to know anything you can tell me! Some information for you, I bought the boat on the 11th july this year, registered, from a nice bloke here in Perth. I think he had it for a year or 2 maybe, and had the intentions of fixing her up, but never got around to it with many other projects.

I'm not sure if you've read this whole thread and have seen what stage i'm up to? I've had her sitting upside down, completely stripped, with the hull exterior and interior bilge area from chine to chine back to bare ply for the last few months. I bought a 1962 Cadillac a few months ago, and have been busy with that and my F100 and Bronco along with work etc. I wanted to let her sit and dry out properly before i began doing any epoxy or glass work. The weather is now great here in Perth, so over the next few weeks I am going to be buying some glass and epoxy and begin working on the hull again. My plan is to seal the hull exterior with epoxy, and sheath the bottom from chine to chine in woven glass cloth. I'll then be painting the glassed bottom in a maroon or white, and am going to attempt to stain the ply from the chines up, then epoxy/varnish. Will also be varnishing the deck but have yet to really look into the condition of the ply, may have to replace some sections.

Look forward to your reply original owner, this is very uncanny but I cannot wait to hear some history about Ricochet!

Chris

Hi Ricochet,

Good to hear from you. I wasn't sure if you still visited the forum or not seeing as your last post was some time ago. Ricochet was built by a good friend of the family off a set of plans that were purchased from Seacraft. That gentleman was one of those meticulous guys that could built anything at anytime. he built a number of boats and then a coulple of light planes as well. My mother commissioned him to built the boat for my father as an anniversary gift and he built a sister boat as well called "Spoiler". As far as I know they are the only two that were made although that may not be correct - if not I would love to know if there were others. The boat was originally white with a stained deck and gold hammertex paint inside. This was overlayed by a silver hammertex on the floorboards and altogether made for a very attractive styled boat. We have always ran a 186 Red motor and although set for triple webbers I can't recall ever putting them on. The standard Stromberg was the most reliable and delivered enough punch for us to slalom and barefoot behind. It has gone through a few red motors and the last I slightly bored out and fitted a lumpy cam. Other than that it was a stock standard and extremely reliable set up. The only issue we used to have was chewing out the manifold in brackish water due to it being direct cooled. (My new boat is fitted with a heat exchanger which is fantastic) It did used to have an old EH??( will have to ask dad) steering wheel and full set of guages but judging by your photos it appears all these have been ripped out. The boat has definately had a few adventures over the years some of which include: housing a tiger snake in the bow, being a maternity ward for several litters of kittens, being sunk end over end whilst parasailing, nearly tipping the trailer due to a failed bearing and losing the tyre and some others that I will mention at a later date. However all in all we had countless hours of fun learning to ski and competing behind that boat. As I said before when I get back from work (away at moment) I'll chuck some photos up and hit the old man up for some more history.

Cheers (PS what stage are you up to now?)

Wow what a story! Roughly what year was she built, and when did you sell her? The gold hammertex paint is (was) still covering the internal surfaces of the hull, along with a lot of other types of paint that have been applied over the years. Did you have a windscreen when you owned her? It has been fitted with an aluminium extrusion/perspex setup. And a nasty plastic steering wheel and cheap guages, the helm was in a very bad way, with some dodgy welding on the steering shaft, cable ties supporting the end of the shaft haha. Very glad to hear from you, and look forward to the photos and more info!

Right now I am looking at sourcing some epoxy and woven glass cloth. The hull is completely stripped, upside down and has been drying out for the last few months. She was full of water and oil and a few months ago, i scraped all the paint off her bottom (inside and out) from chine to chine, then sweated out what i could with a heat gun. Over the next month or so, i plan to start epoxying the hull exteriore and laying a woven glass sheath from chine to chine.

For the people in the know- I have rough prices of $550 for 30 litres of bote cote epoxy, or $590 for 24 litres of West epoxy and hardner from suppliers here in Perth. Any preferences on which epoxy is better for my application? Also i have found 2 grades of woven cloth- 175 gm for $8 a square metre, and 285 gm for $16. Which would be better for sheathing purposes on Ricochet?

Cheers,

Chris