New Boat Project!

This little boat started it's life as a combination sail & row boat. Somewhere along the way it became a motorboat. This is what I am going to use it for after it is finished. This requires fabricating new supports for the hull and the transom, while at the same time keeping it a light as possible.

I didn't shoot any photos from the very beginning of this project, so what you are seeing here is about 40 hours into the job. Yes, 40 Hours!

How can you spend so much time on a boat and have it look like this. Ask the people who spent the last 20+ years screwing stuff onto the boat.

I spent a the better part of a day just washing it of 10+ years of sitting in the open, dirt, and grime off, and out of it.

Then I remove all the crumbly, water logged, flotation foam, and washed it out again.

I also took out various water rotted, wood supports.

I spent at least two days removing old cruddy, broken, rusty stuff, and a small, but very long, crooked mounted, homemade splash shield. Tools needed for this work: a hammer, a metal chisel, and a drill with grinder bit.

Then I started sanding what I think was swimming pool paint off the hull.

It always looks real good at the end of the day after working on it, and then the next morning you find a long list of new things to be addressed.

I am now in the process of, repairing, filling, and sanding all those holes were the rusty stuff was mounted, and a couple of holes in the hull were the previous owners attacked, under- and above-water pointy things. The old bench seating has been removed and new ones cut to fit. A new custom motor mount with extended stress bars has been made of steel and is now painted and waiting in my living room to be added to the boat later. It looks great!

I also reshaped the bow of the boat. It had a off centered, square, blunt nose. It now has a centered, rounded pointed nose. I think the original manufacture must have built this one on a Monday, after a very long “Oktoberfest” party weekend.

Enough for now. Here are some photos.

P.S. I forgot to mention I am doing all this at a 20 degree angle, in a hydraulic piggy back garage, were the head room is about a foot and a half less than I am tall. Needless to say after a afternoon in there, my back is killing me.