The 30 year refurb continues

[geoffr]

Hi again:

Just thought I'd give you an update on how my boat's refurb is progressing.

When I bought my boat in November it was in 'original' condition, and I knew it needed some work. Basically, I'm doing the 30 year maintenance and, if I do it right, that should last for about another 30 years. At least, that's how I'm justifying the cost (in money and time) to my wife (the accountant: knows the cost of everything).

I've have ended up stripping my boat completely back to its bare shell, removing all stanchions, pushpits, pulpits and other deck fittings. I've also stripped the interior, to allow me to paint it out and fill the many holes drilled here and there over the past three decades.

On the deck I've been repairing the many cracks radiating out from the base of each fitting, generally caused by stress and/or minor collisions or other accidents. Some parts have cracked under weight - such as cracks in the pop-top and slide top.

I've also scrapped off the enamel paint on the wooden gunwale strips, and sanded and filled these again ready for painting with clear marine varnish. If I had more money and energy, I'd replace both strips with new strips - but for the time being I'm just fixing up what's there: cutting out rot and backfilling with plastic wood compounds, etc. There are some great products on the market now for such work, and nothing beats the look of real wood somewhere on a boat's exterior.

I'm also preparing the deck for repainting - but only in the textured areas that were previously light blue when I got the boat. I plan to wet and dry scrub the white sections of deck gelcoat, then polish these to bring back their lustre. Ditto with the hull, which is in good nick but a little stained.

One of the more major alterations I've done inside has been to lengthen the port berth by about 12cm (4 inches), to allow me to fully stretch out if I decide to sleep overnight. The berths as manufactured are exactly 6 feet (183 cm) long and, since I'm 6 feet one inches (186cm) it was just too tight for comfort. Maybe people were shorter in the 1970s when this boat was designed? Anyway, I've drilled and cut through the port side aft end of the berth (plywood - so easy enough), constructed a small plywood box, and glassed that over the hole to extend the sleeping area into the aft port stowage locker in the cockpit, It works a treat!

I'm also wiring my boat for the first time ever, and installing new interior lighting, radios, speakers, fuse box and master battery switch. It's fiddly and time consuming, and anything with stainless steel involved seems more expensive than platinum. But I figure if I do it right this time, I wont have to worry about it again in my lifetime.

I attach a few pics and will post more as I go.

Cheers for now,

Geoff

[kevwr400]

It's looking great Geoff, see you have gained another 4" in the quater berths, you are obviosley over 6” like me! Keep us up to date with pic’s, cheers Kevin

[geoffr]

Hi again everyone:

I've been a bit tardy in keeping you up to date with work on my boat, so here's a quick overview of where I'm at, together with some pics below.

I've ended up stripped everything out and off my boat, in order to refit it completely with new sealant and new mounts inside the hull and cabin where every bolt goes through. The previous original backing plates (made of marine ply) had either rotted away over the past 30-odd years, or were non-existent anyway. So I've replaced all of these with cut up thick pieces of white plastic chopping board, glued to the underside of the hull and cabin areas using fibreglass resin (held in place with gaffer tape while the resin cures).

On the deck, I've taken off the pushpit and pulpit and stanchions, so that I could drill out the hairline stress cracks and fractures radiating out from just about every hole. These are tiny, but every one of them potentially allows water to seep down into the laminate, so I was keen to reseal them all for another 30 years.

To do this, I used a tiny drill bit and terminated every fracture line with a hole; I then used my Dremel tool (fitted with a thin grinding disc -- see pic below) to cut out along every hairline fracture. Then after cleaning with acetone, I packed white hull resin back into every crack, smoothed it down, then cut it back with a fine circular sanding disc, then wet and dry.

The holes are now waiting to be re-drilled, and the deck fittings reinstalled into clean, unfractured holes, with new white silicon sealant.

It's taken a lot of work, but I figure I will only do this once, so I may as well do it right.

At the same time, I've also used paint stripper to take off the plum coloured paint on the wooden rubbing rails, to reveal the original wood beneath. It's in reasonable shape for its age, though has had a few crashes against piers and bollards; there was also a fair amount of rot to cut out. I did the cut out, then repacked with flexible wood plastic filler, and cut in some new wood where needed. After that, I painted five coats of marine varnish, sanding off inbetween each coat.

It may work; though I'm resolved to having to replace both rubbing strips sooner rather than later.

More soon.

Cheers for now, Geoff

[geoffr]

Hi again:

Another weekend, and more time spent on the boat.

I include some pics below of my repaint of the top deck non-slip areas.

I prepped these areas first by scoring them down a little using a wire brush attachment on the power drill, then masked around all areas with masking tape to ensure clean edges.

The paint went on fairly thickly in one coat, and has made the deck and panels/hatches look like brand new again.

A very cheap but effective way to give your boat a real facelift!

Cheers,

Geoff

[snoopebj]

Beautiful looking deck job Geoff - you have some clever innovations there with the mast support and extended berth.
Half the pleasure of this boat is seeing all the individual ideas put into practice.

[geoffr]

Thanks for your kind words Emrys!

I guess like many boat owners, half the fun is working on your boat; the other is having a good day's sail with it! So I'm spending just about every spare hour working on QUMBU, trying to get it back on the water.

I attach some more pics of recent work: this time featuring a new window I've cut and installed in the front opening hatch. The fibreglass was a lot easier to cut that I had feared, especially once I purchased a special fine tooth plastic cutting blade for my jigsaw. I had the piece of tinted plexiglas cut at a local supplier (for $7!), then traced and cut the rounded final shape using my jigsaw. Then I drilled and secured the plexiglas into place with SS self-tapers, with a foam rubber (adhesive on one side) bed for the plexiglas to squeeze into, and make a water-tight seal (I hope).

I also have a shed full of junk that I've carted around for years, and somehow it all comes in handy. For example, I wanted two SS springs to keep my jib-sheet blocks upright. I priced these at WW and they were pretty pricey for what you got. Then in the shed I found two old tap handle springs, both made from SS. With a bit of reshaping using the pliers, they now sit on the boat, doing exactly the same job. Price? Nothing! It's amazing what you can do with a bit of a scrounge.

My next task is to refit the interior of my stripped out boat with its new wiring. It looks pretty bare at the moment, but that's all about to change. I'll keep you all posted.

Cheers, Geoff

[Yara50]

Interesting observation. The single hinge on your forehatch indicates an earlier version of the I563. However, the lockers under your quarterberth bunks are large and rectangular. I 50 has a small rectangular and a round one in these locations. Have you changed them?

[geoffr]

Ian:
The hatches (etc) that you see in the pics were there when I bought QUMBU and look as if they have always been there. Certainly no evidence of a later refit. The previous owner had the boat for 17 years, and I know he did no major glass work on the interior.
There's no other indication of the boat's age. I think I read somewhere that a date may have been hidden under the Australian Design Award plate, but there was nothing under my plate (except unfaded white gelcoat).
Any guess on the age of this boat?
Cheers, Geoff

[geoffr]

Hi again everyone:

With my deck repairs and paint job complete, I've begun the reassembly stage. This involves redrilling all the holes to house all the deck fittings -- such as the pushpit, pulpit, stanchions, cleats, etc -- in fact, everything I had previously removed from the deck and cabin top in order to repair the hairline and (in some cases) structural cracking in the gelcoat.

Starting at the bow, today I've redrilled and refitted the forestay chainplate/attachment point, then the anchor rope cross bollard, and (just before the rain ended my work for the day) the mast step.

This has involved sealing all metalwork and holes with white marine silicone, spread evenly with an icy pole stick (which are invaluable for this sort of work, so I keep a bundle on hand in the workshop).

Then I cleaned the deck area with acetone, to remove any water and dirt before placing the metalwork (with its silicone coating beneath) back into place.

I also masked around each area with masking tape to make the clean-up of any sticky excess silicone much easier.

At this stage, I've only finger-tightened each piece back into place until the silicone dries -- because if tightening the nuts up tight just oozes all the silicone out again. Next weekend I'll go round again and screw down everything tight, and seal any remnant holes with a little more silicone, just in case.

Finally: you may note in the pic of the mast step that I've glued a dollar coin in the middle area. I'm not superstitious, but I love the old sailors' tale of always putting a coin under the mast for good luck.

Let's face it: I need all the luck I can get on this refurbishment, so there it is!

Cheers for now, Geoff

[geoffr]

Hi again:

In an earlier post I talked about how I had cut an oval hole in the front cabin hatch of my boat, then cut and screwed in a new piece of tinted plexiglas to create a new hatch window.

Last weekend I refitted this altered hatch back onto my boat, complete with new rubber edge strip around the hatch opening. This edge is really easy to fit (without glueing); you just put it into place and hammer it down with a rubber mallet. It then makes a water tight seal. You can get it at a common rubber franchise outlet (CR); it's about $10 a metre, so measure carefully!

Cheers, Geoff