1972 Keel Up Restoration

Your grandchildren will enjoy that boat. It will be a very strong and light one. Good work.

jim

 

Yes my son-in-law will enjoy the boat as he is the primary helper and has contributed enough to this project that he will be the sole beneficiary of the boat when I pass - the rest of the estate will be divided equally amongst all the kids minus the boat. My grandkids will enjoy this boat for another 40 years. It is still light enough that I can lift the stern off the trailer by myself. Projecting forward when it is complete I think I could still lift it. Right now the key is to ensure the core is totally sealed so the boat does not gain weight. There are a couple of small areas that water could get in and I will seal those up next time I get up to work on it.

I think it is time to tell any prospective restorers what this kind of project costs in $'s and materials. I did not keep exact records because I dont care but I did keep rough records.

$1450 - largest expense for 7 Bluewater 26 Coosa boards 1/2" x 4 x 8'. Transom and stringers have eaten 3+ sheets. The 3+ left should be enough to do the floor.

$460 - 6 1" thick Divinycell H80 core material 4' x 32".

$250 - ATC 72 core adhesive. I had to buy a 5 gallon bucket which is double what I needed but I have some creative uses for leftovers such as bonding the floor to the stringers.

15 gallons of polyester resin. I can get the stuff for $20/gal (plus shipping) and I have just shy of 3 gallons left. I will need probably 3 more to finish.

10 yards of 17oz 45-45 biax cloth for $90. All used and I will buy another 10 yards shortly.

I also bought fiberglas matt (more than I need) and fiberglass tape for tabbing (more than I need). There was alot of small buys of materials which I have kept a rough track of.

Bottom line at this point is that I have $3600 into this boat and a hell of alot of work. I think that another $500 will finish it. Then I have to send it to the local boatbuilder to have it Gel-coated (dont know what that will cost) and then fitted with steering, fuel tanks, instruments, and controls all of which I will do. And seats and carpet and a ski pole. I hope to give my local boatbuilder my leftover materials for a price reduction on the gel-coat job.

This project is really getting fun!

 

I have a question for twin riggers - how important is it to keep both motors on a separate circuit? My plan is/was to basically have 2 motors wired as if they were on separate boats but my fuel tank quandry is kicking my ass. Bottom line here - can I combine the ground wires from both motors to hook up to both batteries and one fuel tank? I want to put in 2 fuel tanks but am having trouble finding 2 that will fit under the deck and I have priced custom tanks and they are about double what an off the shelf tank costs. I could put in 2 small stock tanks (12 gallons or so) but I want more capacity than that.

 

In my twin straight 6 merc rig, I ran everything together. Single 18 gallon tank, one battery, etc. One engine alternator is disconnected. Both alternators together overcharge the battery. For me it was about keeping it simple.

 

I had basically the same job you are doing on your 18 done by John at the Dyna-Ski facility in Iola Wi. on my 18 twin project.

He pulled the deck..replaced all the flooring and stringers..installed a new 3" thick transom ( for twin rigging it)
made up 300 lbs. of ballast and installed it in the frt. end...all new carpeting...and installed all new rub rail.

The bottom line is actually close to where you are. It cost me $ 4,500.00 plus the price of the bare hull.

 

Bob - did John do it with wood or composits? They have a big time swap meet/old car show in Iola every year.

In hindsight I wish I would have made the transom one more 1/2" ply of Coosa board thicker. I wonder if it is possible to add another 1/2" coosa to the rear of the transom?

 

John used wood on the rebuild. I believe he used an epoxy topcoat on all the exposed wood surfaces.

The transom was 3" before the rebuild. He just duplicated it.

 

I think another 1/2" sheet of Coosa on the outside of the transom is in order. As far as the bottom of the hull goes I think a simple tab-in with tabbing tape would work and leave a very small hook as the tabbing tape is very thin. The sides are where the stress would be and I have lots of 17oz bi-ax for that. The more I think of this the better I like it. I originally was duplicating the industry standard 2" transom but boats made for twins and triples like Dynaski's have transomes up to 3".

Old boat to modern standards = one really cool rig.

 

I have talked to 2 boatbuilders (Pete at Dynaski and the guy that has given me all the glass/core advice) and both say the transom as is is fine. Tabbing and maybe some flooring this weekend!

 

Got the stringers tabbed in and the 1st iteration of the knee tabs in.
I found that cutting the cloth into smaller pieces made installation easier as opposed to a very long piece. The old stringers were also tabbed in with smaller pieces so I relearned what they knew back in '72.
Stringers complete - knee time. I installed a piece of plywood under the drivers "bubble" on the deck. The underside (top in pic) will be used to mount Smartcraft junction boxes and the topside will be a perfect place to mount a GPS antenna.