From a lemon to a peach

[Boshk]

Hi All,

This might be a lengthy post

Let me begin by saying that i'm the biggest fool when it comes to buying a boat, I have the tendency that my eye attracts the biggest scrap floating around the interwebs...but keep in mind that I didn't have a large budget to begin with so finding a descent boat at a small price is like hens teeth.

So after my first failed attempt at buying a budget boat ( that didn't even float ) i decided to purchase a Hull only as I had already pumped so much money into my first boats outboard motor and it still runs well for it's age.
So I had come across a Hull and trailer only that was advertised by a reputable boat shop in the West rand at a "too good to be true" price @10k.. So I had spoken to the Owner at the boat shop numerous times regarding the Hull and was assured that the Hull only needed slight cosmetic tlc. everything was still in good working order ( transom/floor ) it was only the trailer that needed a new lick of paint.

So as per usual, without viewing the Hull in person i jump right at it and transferred the 10k and paid for the Hull in full. so after collecting the Hull my mate and I had run over the boat and noticed that the carpet needed replacing and there were a couple chips and spider cracks in the Gel-coat which I wasn't too concerned about that as that was cosmetic issues I could tackle in my spare time. So my mate and I decided that we will begin with installing my existing motor and from there our thought was to launch the boat, rush back to his workshop and sandblast the old rust / paint off and give it a good couple coats.

Below is the outboard swap.

 

[Boshk]

The weekend after installing the Outboard, we decided to give the trailer a good sandblast and couple layers of paint.

 

[Boshk]

So.... now in my mind it was almost time to hit the water and test the new Hull out after I renew the COF and obtain a new Buoyancy cert as the boat shop where I purchased the Hull from didn't have a certificate?

But then I started to panic as there wasn't an inspection hatch installed on the deck so my first thought was there wasn't any buoyancy installed. So I called around ( prior to inspecting ) for pricing on installing new buoyancy foam and let me tell you I still get pains in my chest just thinking about the prices I was quoted..

So I decided to put the buoyancy on hold and thought about fixing the small chips and spider cracks on the keel first. So I did some research on repairing Gel-coat and I just didn't have the confidence to tackle that task with my limited knowledge on boats.. So i searched around for companies / privateers that repair Hulls and I came across this absolute Legend called Cephas Caviro who used to build boats back in the day in Zim....So I called him out for a free quotation and within 2 minutes he had picked up a couple issues with the gel coat chips and spider cracks etc. etc. that were just above my pay grade to fix myself. So i decided if i would pay someone, he might as well do a full cosmetic refurb, so later that day he came back with a quote to :

Strip the outboard off.
Sand down the Gel-coat to bare fiber.
repair all cracks with fiber glass.
Respray the bottom of the hull with Poly top coat.
Respray the top and inside with 2k
Remove the old carpet and lay down Pool coat with grit.

The quote to do all the above was roughly R10k

So without hesitation I told him to DO IT!!


Cephas had collected the boat the Monday morning and by the afternoon he had sent photos of an already stripped boat of all accessories and outboard and started sanding the top of the boat.
It was the next day when he called and gave me the news no one wants to hear.... the floor was completely rotten under the carpet and the transom was absolutely toast

these are the pics of the floor and transom.

 

[Boshk]

The transom.

 

[Boshk]

I had absolutely no choice but to repair the floor and transom... or just cut my losses and trash the boat?? because all the reading i've been doing i knew I was in for +/- 30k to replace the transom and floor at best??

So I asked him to quote on a new floor and transom and he had given me two options ( which I appreciate )
R15k for him to do all OR R6k labor to replace transom and floor and I buy the materials so i had gone with the option to purchase the materials. So in my opinion that was a very good price and fortunately I work in a very close radius of composite / resin manufacturers.. So I had given him the go-ahead on to continue with the floor and transom stripping while I shopped around for the bet prices on :

50l of Isophthalic resin with cat
450 chop strand
450 woven
2 x 16mm sheets of Marine ply
2 x 12mm sheets of ply for the deck
8l of white pool coat
5l of gray pool coat

All in all the materials had cost me roughly R7k.

 

[Boshk]

Thankfully once he had stripped the deck - there was PU foam installed ( overkill if you ask me ) all the stringer compartments were filled ( not sure what the correct term is for the stringer compartments )

So from here it would save me loads not having to install new foam as he had tested each section and they were still bone dry.

 

[Limpopoking]

Hahahaha... The old definition of a boat... A hole in the water into which money is poured

It reminds me of a cartoon I saw many years ago... I've searched for it all over but never managed to find it again... It's a bloke staring at a manky old scrap yacht on the hard supported with stays and covered in gulls and the guy says to his wife... "pass me my rose coloured glasses". Story of my life

But yeah... Been there, done all of that. And had fun along the way. There's no right and wrong way of messing about with boats, there's only YOUR WAY and that's cool.

You'd be surprised at how easy gelcoat and glass work really is. YouTube is an incredible learning resource. It's just time consuming. But keep us posted.

 

[Boshk]

Transom in place.

 

[Boshk]

New deck glassed in, just needed a couple layers of glass on top, and new inspection hatch drilled.

 

[Boshk]

So after the transom and deck were glassed in Cephas began with the priming, it was at this stage when we agreed that I might as well respray the outboard too. So I had purchased metallic automotive paint for the outboard and new stripes on the hull.

 

[Boshk]

Underside sprayed with two small stripes to break the white.

 

[Boshk]

Top of the hull, we also added a stripe to break the white a little.

 

[Boshk]

Cephas got cracking on the outboard respray.

 

[Boshk]

The colour i chose for the outboard and stripes on the hull was a little darker than seemed on the little colour sash at the panel beaters, but once it's in the light it works pretty well

 

[Boshk]

Cephas laid down the flow coat - we went with white on the borders and inside the small hatches and then gray with grit for non-slip..

I chose flow coat opposed to carpet as this with be used mainly for fishing so just seems easier to clean after a day on the water.

 

[Boshk]

front hatches.

 

[Boshk]

Outboard motor installed and all the loose ends put back on the boat.

 

[Boshk]

Last Wednesday we got the stickers put on, it makes a world of difference! super keen to hit the water next weekend!

 

[Boshk]

Named her after my daughter

 

[Snack]

Congrats on your 'new' boat.

I bought a boat without inspecting it either and had similar problems.

So far, i have rebuilt and galvanized the trailer and then removed the rotten deck and stringers, topped up the foam and put a new deck in. Lesson learnt, but i also have piece of mind that my trailer is 100% and going to last and that the deck is solid and i know exactly what is hiding below