Bought a Never splashed Colvic Countess 33 on eBay, Looking for infos

[shaunksb]

Re: VIDEO UPDATE. 005 the Lady itself.

I wasnt going to comment but will as this was my trade. It looks very much to me like a poor quality lay up with numerous voids caused by patches of dry mat.

I don’t want to put a downer on all this but could it be that this hull failed whatever quality checks Colvic had in place at the time and was rejected as a build.

It could have been chucked round the back of the factory and some time later snapped up by some unsuspecting punter when the whole operation turned turtle until it finally turned up here.

Just a thought as there doesn’t seem to be any history with it. Why would we have just a hull on its own?

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[PaulRainbow]

Re: VIDEO UPDATE. 005 the Lady itself.

I don’t want to put a downer on all this but could it be that this hull failed whatever quality checks Colvic had in place at the time and was rejected as a build.

It could have been chucked round the back of the factory and some time later snapped up by some unsuspecting punter when the whole operation turned turtle until it finally turned up here.

Just a thought as there doesn’t seem to be any history with it. Why would we have just a hull on its own?

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A lot of Colvics were bought as bare hulls for home/DIY completion.

 

[Steve_N]

Re: VIDEO UPDATE. 005 the Lady itself.

Second question, someone else may be able to tell us, Was the hull laid up with a chopper gun? (GRP spray gun)

From my own research at the time of buying my own 1983 Colvic. Hand lay-up without chopper gun but all CSM. A heavy lay-up with very substantial floors and stringers, but definitely more to workboat than yacht standards.

 

[shaunksb]

Re: VIDEO UPDATE. 005 the Lady itself.

A lot of Colvics were bought as bare hulls for home/DIY completion.

Absolutely bare, no mast, fittings engine, etc?

I understand the home completion thing but I thought it was home completion not home source your own parts.

That would have been a colossal undertaking and beyond any typical diy skills of the day.

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[Steve_N]

Re: VIDEO UPDATE. 005 the Lady itself.

Absolutely bare, no mast, fittings engine, etc?

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Yes, there's been a set of bare Colvic Countess 28 mouldings for sale on the Countess Owners website for about 15 years now. They do come with an engine but that was sourced later.

 

[GregOddity]

Re: VIDEO UPDATE. 005 the Lady itself.

I wasnt going to comment but will as this was my trade. It looks very much to me like a poor quality lay up with numerous voids caused by patches of dry mat. Some of these are waterlogged. First question, Have you run a good moisture meter over the hull to ascertain the moisture content??? If not you need to asap. Do it inside & out all over. This will give you an idea of how bad it is.
The hull was flooded probably for years, how high is a moot point as the water will have soaked into the plywood & gone much higher all over the place, this will cause localised patches of extreme wetness wherever there was a lump of wood.. Also a hull with a lot of water in it in a hot summer will send humidity levels off the clock making the inside akin to a turkish bath.
Sencond question, someone else may be able to tell us, Was the hull laid up with a chopper gun? (GRP spray gun) Big production moulders sometimes did this for speed of production, im not sure if Colvic did but would not be surprised. One clue would be the prescence of red tracer strands in the lay up. Chopper gun layups are often of poorer quality than hand laid.
You need someone that really knows GRP tp have a look at it.
My gut feeling is that even with the specialist vacumn equipment that you reckon you have that that hull is going to take many months to dry out & may well be scrap.

You make a very good point and very accurately describe where I am at with my thoughts. I have not yet taken any moisture readings, I can see how they will be high. I did try to see if I could see tracers but I thought they were dark grey in the 80’s. I think I will have to grind a window on the GRP to ascertain damage on the inside and outside. I did do something most will not, I did a compression test on the areas I thought would be most affected, all with good results and no movement of the hull There is only a small patch on the starboard side that I want to test a bit more. Hydrolysis on pre-90 boats is a must, I’m just a tad luckier than most on having no salt inside, if that was the case I would really consider this hull a bit too much work. The fluids on the blisters were a bit of a surprise, I was expecting more of a very dark honey colour and a very strong smell and these were very light in colour and odour, and very liquid not the slow oozing type I would expect to find.
It does seem to me that this hull was produced by a team that had a long lunch hour and a couple of beers between layer wetting. Some of the blisters are absolutely bone dry and the hull sounds very solid. I’m thinking of “cooking” the water out of the inside before I actually even bother to measure. There’s just moisture everywhere. Window seals and drains did a very good job at letting water inside. I’m thinking of getting the temp up to 110 on the inside. It’s 5 degrees higher then recommended so I’m still thinking.
No plan as of yet. Just thinking cap on.

 

[GregOddity]

Re: VIDEO UPDATE. 005 the Lady itself.

Colvic has something on their side. And that being the reason why I have a good opinion of them. They went for the strong build to guarantee a strong overall hull on many of the boats they made. Built like a workhorse. The beauty of that is that by having a somewhat thicker hull I have better chances at repairing damage. There’s many a myth going around on the marinas and pubs concerning GRP boats. The truth is they ALL have Hydrolysis to some extent. It’s not a reason for catastrophic failure of a hull unless not taken care off. I did not buy a modern build because I could not overcome my feelings on through hull keel bolts and hydrolysis of surrounding areas.
The sad news is that I may very well have to dry this hull for much longer then I wanted or expected even with modern tech. But hey THIS is what boats are all about. The never ending fun of what’s around the next corner.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Re: VIDEO UPDATE. 005 the Lady itself.

Colvic has something on their side. And that being the reason why I have a good opinion of them. They went for the strong build to guarantee a strong overall hull on many of the boats they made. Built like a workhorse. The beauty of that is that by having a somewhat thicker hull I have better chances at repairing damage. There’s many a myth going around on the marinas and pubs concerning GRP boats. The truth is they ALL have Hydrolysis to some extent. It’s not a reason for catastrophic failure of a hull unless not taken care off. I did not buy a modern build because I could not overcome my feelings on through hull keel bolts and hydrolysis of surrounding areas.
The sad news is that I may very well have to dry this hull for much longer then I wanted or expected even with modern tech. But hey THIS is what boats are all about. The never ending fun of what’s around the next corner.

Only on planet Greg. Boats were meant for sailing in everyone elses World.

 

[GregOddity]

Re: VIDEO UPDATE. 005 the Lady itself.

Only on planet Greg. Boats were meant for sailing in everyone elses World.

Funny you should say that hehe. And me trying to understand why the Solent looks so empty and the marinas so full. Planet Greg is a wonderful place to live on. There’s actually only interest on doing stuff, everyone is equal, and people help each other in order to achieve common goals and satisfaction. There's no I'm am right and you’re wrong and egos are left at the space port on arrival and returned on departure.

 

[doug748]

Re: VIDEO UPDATE. 005 the Lady itself.

Funny you should say that hehe. And me trying to understand why the Solent looks so empty and the marinas so full. .

)


"Absolutely bare, no mast, fittings engine, etc?

I understand the home completion thing but I thought it was home completion not home source your own parts.

That would have been a colossal undertaking and beyond any typical diy skills of the day."


Colvic would supply what you wanted, hull and deck straight from moulding, which went mainly to boadyards for fitting out, I would guess. Hull and deck bonded with hatches loose or hull and deck, with fitted engine and ballast which was popular with home builders. They also had kits of chandlery.

I don't think they supplied complete kits of parts like Trapper et al but they would sell you a complete boat if you wanted - though I have no doubt this would be subcontracted out for finishing.

PS

I have just looked out an old advert, Greg's 33 hull and deck, supplied loose would have cost £6157 in 1981

 

[lpdsn]

Re: VIDEO UPDATE. 005 the Lady itself.

I have just looked out an old advert, Greg's 33 hull and deck, supplied loose would have cost £6157 in 1981

All he needs is a time machine and he'll be able to sell for a profit. Invest the proceeds in a semi-detached somewhere, come back to the present and sell. Then he could buy a new boat completed by its builders.

 

[Iain C]

Re: VIDEO UPDATE. 005 the Lady itself.

Absolutely bare, no mast, fittings engine, etc?

I understand the home completion thing but I thought it was home completion not home source your own parts.

That would have been a colossal undertaking and beyond any typical diy skills of the day.

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I'm actually going to disagree with you here. I know the guy who built this Colvic Victor...in fact as a teenager I sailed many many miles on her:

http://www.yachtworld.co.uk/boats/1985/Colvic-50-3148532/Spain?refSource=browse listing#.WurkBIgvyUk

He took about 6 years off (6 years Greg, not 8 months) and did the whole thing between him and a mate. It was parked outside his business (a garage, so his house was onsite too) and he worked on it pretty much every waking hour. Bought two old lorry engines, marinised them, built his own stern glands, sourced the rig from Sailspar and built it himself, moulded his own deckhouse, got a plasma cutter and fabricated all the stainless (and there was a lot!) including the "battering ram" bow protection for dealing with piracy. Every single piece was home built.

I just googled here and there she is...odd seeing her after all these years (I'm mid 40s now) although she was a lot tidier back then. In fact, I introduced one of my fellow crew-members to my mum, they became an item for 18 years until the big C sadly took him from us...although as a silver lining I did inherit his project Sabre which I was able to finish off and launch in 2009.

Maia took a lot of breeze to get moving due to her huge weight, however I think the advert is wrong and she has twin 75hp, not 75hp in total. With the throttles on the stops she would bury that bathing platform about 6" underwater and become this crazy semi-displacment power-yacht thing doing about 11 knots if my memory serves me correctly.

 

[shaunksb]

Re: VIDEO UPDATE. 005 the Lady itself.

I'm actually going to disagree with you here. I know the guy who built this Colvic Victor...in fact as a teenager I sailed many many miles on her:

http://www.yachtworld.co.uk/boats/1985/Colvic-50-3148532/Spain?refSource=browse listing#.WurkBIgvyUk

He took about 6 years off (6 years Greg, not 8 months) and did the whole thing between him and a mate. It was parked outside his business (a garage, so his house was onsite too) and he worked on it pretty much every waking hour. Bought two old lorry engines, marinised them, built his own stern glands, sourced the rig from Sailspar and built it himself, moulded his own deckhouse, got a plasma cutter and fabricated all the stainless (and there was a lot!) including the "battering ram" bow protection for dealing with piracy. Every single piece was home built.

.

Disagreeing is fine. The point I was making is it must have been exceedingly rare for that to happen, which it seems to be.

So unless this one was the last one they were working on when the factory closed how did it come to be?

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[GregOddity]

Re: VIDEO UPDATE. 005 the Lady itself.

Disagreeing is fine. The point I was making is it must have been exceedingly rare for that to happen, which it seems to be.

So unless this one was the last one they were working on when the factory closed how did it come to be?

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It seems the owner bought the Hull and shortly after passed away. The widow, refused to sell and could not finish so it just slowly got to the stage I found her. I understand he bought it as a kit just the hull and there was a company involved making the inside. All the wood we found was professionally handled, there are notes on the inside of the hull scribbled and even a company name. But that’s all I know so far.

 

[GregOddity]

Re: VIDEO UPDATE. 005 the Lady itself.

I'm actually going to disagree with you here. I know the guy who built this Colvic Victor...in fact as a teenager I sailed many many miles on her:

http://www.yachtworld.co.uk/boats/1985/Colvic-50-3148532/Spain?refSource=browse listing#.WurkBIgvyUk

He took about 6 years off (6 years Greg, not 8 months) and did the whole thing between him and a mate. It was parked outside his business (a garage, so his house was onsite too) and he worked on it pretty much every waking hour. Bought two old lorry engines, marinised them, built his own stern glands, sourced the rig from Sailspar and built it himself, moulded his own deckhouse, got a plasma cutter and fabricated all the stainless (and there was a lot!) including the "battering ram" bow protection for dealing with piracy. Every single piece was home built.

I just googled here and there she is...odd seeing her after all these years (I'm mid 40s now) although she was a lot tidier back then. In fact, I introduced one of my fellow crew-members to my mum, they became an item for 18 years until the big C sadly took him from us...although as a silver lining I did inherit his project Sabre which I was able to finish off and launch in 2009.

Maia took a lot of breeze to get moving due to her huge weight, however I think the advert is wrong and she has twin 75hp, not 75hp in total. With the throttles on the stops she would bury that bathing platform about 6" underwater and become this crazy semi-displacment power-yacht thing doing about 11 knots if my memory serves me correctly.

It sure is a work of love that boat. Thanks for the link. And I hear you. on the time. I don't doubt he did neither. It really depends what your aims are and your means and tooling. There's a boat not far from my marina that has been under construction for the last 26 years, and the guys loves to have a beer sitting on the deck. That boat is on the hard next to the water on a marina not far from ours.

Those 2 engines really look "mean" on that boat I bet she did go when the power was pushed.

 

[GregOddity]

Re: VIDEO UPDATE. 005 the Lady itself.

All he needs is a time machine and he'll be able to sell for a profit. Invest the proceeds in a semi-detached somewhere, come back to the present and sell. Then he could buy a new boat completed by its builders.

You don't happen to know where I can find a working Tardis?

 

[Iain C]

Re: VIDEO UPDATE. 005 the Lady itself.

Disagreeing is fine. The point I was making is it must have been exceedingly rare for that to happen, which it seems to be.

So unless this one was the last one they were working on when the factory closed how did it come to be?

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Which one, Greg's boat or Maia?

 

[lpdsn]

Re: VIDEO UPDATE. 005 the Lady itself.

You don't happen to know where I can find a working Tardis?

I assumed you'd build one.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Re: VIDEO UPDATE. 005 the Lady itself.

I assumed you'd build one.

Hehe :encouragement:

 

[GregOddity]

Re: VIDEO UPDATE. 005 the Lady itself.

I assumed you'd build one.

Touche:encouragement: