Thread: Little project

Welcome to the forum.

Happy Australia Day

That's a cute little boat. The first thing to do is stabilize the boat so you can remove any distortions in the hull and block it up safely, so you can walk around inside and out, without breaking stuff.

This usually means blocking her up, along the centerline, which will likely be dead straight in the last half of the boat. You'll also need to support the bilges, so she doesn't roll off the blocking. Yes, this means removing the engine (it has to come off anyway) and it's best if she's on the hard, not the trailer. With the engine out of her, four well fed friends can easily lift her off and place her in a cradle.

You have a lot of shot wood there. Areas of the planking, decking and the whole transom need to be cut out and replaced. Metal isn't the best choice, wood is. The transom should be made of two layers of 3/4" (19 mm) plywood, glued and screwed together. Conversely, if you want to make her stronger, for not much more work, 3 layers of 1/2" (13 mm) plywood, glued and screwed together is better.

You need to figure out what type of build she is. It's obviously a molded build, but is it Ashcroft (one of my favorites), double diagonal, etc. Next the planking type (solid wood veneer or plywood). With this information in hand you can approach the repairs with some security.

This boat looks like it needs a lot of love and new materials. At some point you may want to really access the project for it's unlikely you'll recover your efforts on a resale. It's a lot of work, even if just patched as cheaply as you can.

To get started, strip the boat of all the bolt on stuff, like the engine, it's controls and the steering gear. These things will likely need to be disassembled and cleaned/lubed up anyway, which is easier on a work bench, than in the boat. Label everything and take lots of pictures, so you can figure out how it goes back together. Once you have all the hardware off, take a pressure washer to her and knock of the loose paint. Don't get aggressive with this as you can easily remove wood too, which is what you want to avoid.

Now, she's clean (ish) and you can see better what's really going on. The areas where it's obviously rotten need to be cut out. Think of this as cancer, you have to get it all, so cut and grind back, until you know you're into good wood. Often it's this stage of the project where you realize just how bad things are and the decision to toss in the towel needs to be considered. It doesn't take a lot of effort or money to get to this stage, so get started and let us know what you find.

Welcome to the forum Jarrod.

Thanks for the quick reply and the warm welcome.

your information has been great but I was hoping you would say just put a bit of wood over it and chuck it in the water, ha ha ha ha ohhh well I have fallen in love with the repair so I'm keen as to keep going, I started the other day stripping it back and sanding it up to "see where i stand". I will keep the forum posted as to where I'm up to, no doubt so you can help. Ha ha thanks again.

Also in the last picture there was a deck over it but I had already thrown that away.