MiToS re-built/fit- versilcraft Mystery43

[jfm]

+1.
Unless you're planning to use those low profile supports specifically made for keeping the mattress slightly raised.
Actually, I have no 1st hand experience on them, but I heard some enthusiastic feedbacks.

+1. I am a big fan of the wood slats things to raise the mattress and ventilate it. I have them on my current and previous boat. However, you do need to have a rim right around the bed ideally, and from the pics I do not know if Vas intends to do that. Would need to be about 100mm above the surface of the wood upon which the slats and mattress sit - the thing covered in black snakeskin in pic below, which forms a "tray" into which the mattress sits. They can be in varnished wood or something, as well as upholstered

 

[Divemaster1]

Vas,

Once again I have to take my hat off and admire what you are achieving here....... and your stamina, persistence and drive to get work done and to do things right is nothing short of amazing.

Respect !

 

[Robg71]

+1.

Do tell, you don't want Robg71 to launch his boat before yours, do you?

I shall put the launch on hold for nine months

 

[MapisM]

Would need to be about 100mm above the surface of the wood upon which the slats and mattress sit

Yep, that's one reason why I have no first hand experience: on my boat, the rim is only 3 or 4 cm high, so I didn't have the option.
Actually, I didn't loose my sleep on that (...'scuse the pun), because the bed base is holed and ventilated anyway, but in Vas boots, I'd rather make it 10 cm or so, as you say.
This way, regardless of whether he will want to use those things or not, at least he will have the choice. A higher rim doesn't hurt anyway.

 

[thunderbird]

Hello, a member of our forum has given me the link to your project, great stuff.

I'm rebuilding a Gallart with toroflow detroit engine, i'm glad it's a grp hull, but work is still continue on my boat

Best regards from The Nederlands
Patrick

The pimping of the Thunderbird can be seen on this forum (in dutch only, but a lot of pictures that will tel the story)
http://www.navis.be/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1172

The thunderbird afther 5 years of pimping :

 

[KevB]

+1. I am a big fan of the wood slats things to raise the mattress and ventilate it. I have them on my current and previous boat. However, you do need to have a rim right around the bed ideally, and from the pics I do not know if Vas intends to do that. Would need to be about 100mm above the surface of the wood upon which the slats and mattress sit - the thing covered in black snakeskin in pic below, which forms a "tray" into which the mattress sits. They can be in varnished wood or something, as well as upholstered

I do have a 'tray' which the mattress sits in but even with the wooden slates wouldn't the moisture still be trapped between the mattress, the base and the wall of the tray. Or does it stop it condensating in the first place?

 

[vas]

wow, thanks for all the kind comments!
I'm busy working and you've been busy replying, so a mega reply is necessary

Great progress again Vas, she really is starting to come together. It must be great for you to see this.

Great pics, always like seeing your next instalment!

just staggering the amount of work you have done....and got to do. Vas, I take my hat off to you. :encouragement:

top job, starting to really come together there..
:encouragement:

Vas,

Once again I have to take my hat off and admire what you are achieving here....... and your stamina, persistence and drive to get work done and to do things right is nothing short of amazing.

Respect !

thanks guys, yes, really coming together, making me want to work more (even managed to steal a couple of evenings to work till late, but that means I'm now knackered... ) It's quite feasible that the two smaller cabins will be upholstered this coming week and then I'll move "up" to sort out the galley and salon mess. Shouldn't really post a pic of these areas!

Great update - portholes turned out very well

yes, glad they came out like that. The whole idea of the alloy strip where the portholes are worked v.well. Need to polish them though before fitting them after painting the hull.

Great progress Vas. It looks like you are aiming for a retro-modern feel with the interior and certainly seem to be achieving it. Can't wait to see more photos as you progress with the furniture etc. How are the showers going, I think you had started the mosaic tiling quite a while ago?

true, I more or less decided on what features of the original design I wanted to keep and how to blend them with my own. Since most of the alterations were down at the cabins, we'll get a full view once all are finished and door frames are back in place. Wont be long.
Showers are were they were last year after I tiled half of them. Basically figured out the technique, did the main one and left the other for later. I'm planning to sort out the floor segments (were cut and matched before the tiling so now need a 5-6mm chop all around in order to fit back in place...) and lay teak on them at George's workshop before fitting them in place.
The main heads sink assembly designed by me, was dismissed as unbuiltable by two corian "experts" (my arse) so I'm going to my trusty marble specialist to built out of 20mm marble Will be less than half price of the corian!

Great going Vas. We are all on edge of our seats now waiting to see pictures of a whole cabin fitted out and that kind of thing! What you are doing there looks really really nice

thanks John, me too

Ref those upholstered panels, don't forget that 3M dual lock often makes for an easy fitting method. Lots of panels on my boat are done with this. Have you tried some? I can mail you a metre next week if you want to try it (I have rolls on the boat and I am on board tomorrow)

I'm aware, but I'm stretching everything over 5mm double thickness foam (as in 2mm dense, 3mm coarser) and at points I do stretch it lots to get a decent smooth/softish finish. Doesn't look I'll have any issues since I've finished quite successfully the difficult bow cabin with all the slanted panels and odd shapes. The port cabin that I'll start tomorrow is straight forward.

You asked above about adhesive for hull fittings. Yes I meant polyurethane adhesive like Sikaflex, not epoxy. I think you need the flexibility of the polyurethane, as you say - epoxy might be too stiff. The normal Polyurethanes used in boatbuilding are Sika 291 and 3M 3200. I just had a quick look at the spec sheets and tbh Sika 221 seems to be very similar to 291, except it has slower cure time and is aimed at the building trade rather than marine. But it's still a thick polyurethane and if you are installing seacocks etc I'm sure you don't care if the tack free cure time is 24 hours rather than 2 hours, or whatever, so you might as well save yourself e50 and use the 221. Its shelf life is quoted as 12 mths

nice, that's exactly what the v. knowledgeable guy that sells the stuff in Volos told me when I went to order a 291. Since I only need one tube I insisted and he's ordered it for me I'll fit them all sometime next week. I was actually wondering what's the use of the retaining nut in this setup! I'll probably use them to keep the skinfitting in place whilst the 291 cures for a day or so, and then undo them slightly and keep them there in order not to scare anyone looking at my bilges

"Bed ply base is also in place. Wonder if I should drill any holes for vent/reducing condensation etc, but will leave it for later."

I would recommend drilling holes, it's something I need to do. I've tried the 'special' matting but still amazed at how much condensation I get under the mattress. What probably doesn't help on my boat is the fresh water tank being located under the bed.

As usual vas, you've made amazing progress.

Thanks Kev, since the two panels are simply slotting in place, I'll do the drilling at some point, not too fussed right now as the bow cabin bed is currently doubling as workbench for upholstering jobs so offcuts and tools will end up in the bilges if I drill them now

Regarding some other comments by JFM and MM on the bed, all beds in MiToS originally had a 40mm lip over the 15mm ply that the mattress rests. I'm keeping that in both cabins, bow cabin will recreate this with a plain upholstered piece that's probably going to be slightly more than 40mm above the ply base. I cannot/wont use plank strips as suggested as I'm slightly short of height and don't want to loose any more. I had to get the bed higher than I really wanted in order to gain width (currently only 125cm wide reaching 130 at chest level) and I'm not willing to sacrifice any more headroom as I can now comfortably sit in the bed without feeling claustrophobic...

There's going to be a big hole in my life when you have finished this project Vas. I just went back to look at the original posts today. I wonder how far you have had to change from the rough plan on your first post?

I try not to read the first post now Wasn't planning on replacing the whole decks in MiToS but then the constructional method wasn't clear and some of the mess was hidden. Not complaining as following all this work, craft should be able to serve my needs for at least a decade without any major issues. If and after I ever retire I may switch to a sailing cat

I shall put the launch on hold for nine months

yeah right... they way you work around the globe mr, and since you do want to do some of the welding, I'm not scared, will probably take you till the end of the summer to finish the hull welds

Hello, a member of our forum has given me the link to your project, great stuff.

I'm rebuilding a Gallart with toroflow detroit engine, i'm glad it's a grp hull, but work is still continue on my boat

Best regards from The Nederlands
Patrick

The pimping of the Thunderbird can be seen on this forum (in dutch only, but a lot of pictures that will tel the story)
http://www.navis.be/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1172

The thunderbird afther 5 years of pimping :
View attachment 41220

thanks and welcome to the forum!
tbh I didn't even know of Gallart, will spent some time over the w/e to check you work bow looks v.close to mine!



phew, that was a long one.

cheers

V.

 

[MapisM]

I do have a 'tray' which the mattress sits in but even with the wooden slates wouldn't the moisture still be trapped between the mattress, the base and the wall of the tray. Or does it stop it condensating in the first place?

As I said, no first hand experience, but I heard from boat mates whose opinion I trust that yes, it does stop the condensation significantly.
Actually, one of these boaters has a slightly different rim around the bed, rather high around the corners (maybe 8, if not 10cm as jfm said), and much lower along the three sides. According to him, the fact that air flows more freely where the rim is lower contributes to further improving the effectiveness.
Which sounds reasonable, from a common sense viewpoint...
But I would think that the improvement vs. nothing at all is significant regardless.

 

[Divemaster1]

............I'm rebuilding a Gallart with toroflow detroit engine, i'm glad it's a grp hull, but work is still continue on my boat

The thunderbird afther 5 years of pimping :
View attachment 41220

Now that is a blast from the past .... the GMC lumps does not have the best rep and parts availability may be challenging....(with or without turbo??).

Looks like a Gallart 10.80 ....... along similar lines of the JCL Marine's Mamba, but a more modern edition...

 

[thunderbird]

I'ts a gallart 10.80 but mostly rebuild. the gmc are running great, somking alot when you put the power to fast to max. (no turbo's) I have 2 spare motors for parts.
I'ts the same design line/time period

 

[vas]

apologies for late update but I'm struggling with some uni work and I'm away from base for three days, so got to give some idea of what's going on before I leave for Athens later on tonight.

first of all, final hull patches around the transom area on both sides are done and over with:

On the exterior, George sanded and removed all primer off the sundeck as I wasn't particularly happy with the finish and the fact that 2-3 minor hairline cracks re appeared after the winter. So yesterday I coated the whole sunpad (3mX3m something) with a 280gr/m2 mat and a couple of coats of epoxy. When I'm back will get a light sanding and a couple of coats before priming.

George is starting the sanding the hull on 120grit to get a first coat of primer and will work from there on over the next couple of weeks.

Inside, I got the bow cabin complete (that is MY idea of completion which means that the side decks are NOT lined so that I can check that everything is fine with all the work above, railings, cleats, etc).

a lousy pic of the ceiling strips test fitted, got to remove them once more to fit the rockwool insulation before final placement and fitting lights and sensors.

Port cabin was not as simple and quick as I imagined (no wonder...) and took me considerable more than expected. Final result is v.good and I'm v.pleased with it.
Thumbs and wrists are definitely NOT pleased (as in knackered), so next few days is typing on the keyboard and driving to restore them ready for the stbrd cabin.

Biggest issues were the lining of the bed frames and the fitting of the ceiling slats.
Bed frames had as normal the original vinyl lining with one zillion staples (some areas rusted, other ok(ish) Took me more than 3h per bed to remove the old lining and clean up the staples (as in remove them one by one )
Then it took me another 4h to reline the one bed you see in the pics.
Hands didn't agree to do the second bed though but I persuaded them to do some mat and epoxy under the blazing sun on the deck instead so everyone was happy
Not too worried as I got to get the black water tank in place, strap it up, connect all pipework and then fit the bed on top.

In between had to clean up the wiring to the BMS and reroute some cabling for a neat finish. So went from this:

to this:

Ceiling was a bitch to fit as the new foam for the lining was slightly thicker than the old one, so turned out I was missing 2-3mm per slat. Meaning I was missing 15mm by the time I reached the cabinet/wardrobe. After a lot of swearing, headscratching and hammering with a mallet I remove them all again, removed the upholstery on strip #1, chopped 15mm of it, reupholstered it and refit everything == all this mess took the best part of a working day
Anyway, result is now close to perfect, lights and sensors are on, so v.happy.

ah, finally the mobile I was after had a price collapse for some reason and dropped 130euro, so got it as well. Means that new pics should be slightly better and I can bore you with weird panoramas. Tried one for the port cabin, cannot say that it's brilliant, but better than editing and posting 4 pics for sure Had to resize it a bit wider else it would be 100pix high... Actually this first one is quite interesting, I quite like it!

Today it took me half the morning to sort out the stuff accumulated in the stbrd cabin over the winter. Neatly cleaned them and organized them in boxes in the port cabin so that I can have a go teakoiling the bilges in the stbrd cabin and then lining it all up. That's what they look like now:

Next issue to tackle hopefully before the Easter vacations are over will be the chart table and galley area which unfortunately looks like this right now (after a bit of tidying up today...)

so, have an enjoyable festive week (or three...) and will update once I get some time to work and post.

cheers

V.

 

[KevB]

Thank you Vaz. With a descent pair on binoculars I'm sure the end is in sight and in your minds eye you now have an orderly task list to take you to completion.

 

[petem]

Monumental effort, much respect Vas. Keep it up.

 

[Divemaster1]

Vas.... came across this again and not sure if we have shared this with you...

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andy.hayward/Pages/Mystere.html

 

[rbcoomer]

Vas.... came across this again and not sure if we have shared this with you...

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andy.hayward/Pages/Mystere.html

What a great find! Interesting relating all the bits Vas has rebuilt to the schematic too

 

[Bajansailor]

Thank you so much Vas for all of these excellent updates - to say that your project is a true labour of love is a considerable understatement.
Just had a look at page 1 (and we are up to page 30 now, or page 88 if not logged in), and you were optimistically suggesting then it would be a 6 month project......

If anybody would like to save a copy of the Mystere catalogue at higher resolution than shown in Andy's website, I posted a copy of mine some years ago on here :
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?181878-Mystere-43-catalogue-another-blast-from-the-70s

And here is a link to another JCL Marine yacht, the Marauder :
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?247922-A-Marauder-for-JFM

 

[vas]

Thank you Vaz. With a descent pair on binoculars I'm sure the end is in sight and in your minds eye you now have an orderly task list to take you to completion.

8X50 are they good enough?



it's getting there, slowly but still satisfying, so I'm happy.

Vas.... came across this again and not sure if we have shared this with you...

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andy.hayward/Pages/Mystere.html

Thank you so much Vas for all of these excellent updates - to say that your project is a true labour of love is a considerable understatement.
Just had a look at page 1 (and we are up to page 30 now, or page 88 if not logged in), and you were optimistically suggesting then it would be a 6 month project......

If anybody would like to save a copy of the Mystere catalogue at higher resolution than shown in Andy's website, I posted a copy of mine some years ago on here :
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?181878-Mystere-43-catalogue-another-blast-from-the-70s

And here is a link to another JCL Marine yacht, the Marauder :
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?247922-A-Marauder-for-JFM

thanks guys, yes, I'm aware, and BS you've emailed me the files a couple of years ago when I started the rebuilt thread iirc

quick update before I go and pickup my daughter from a party in a village 15km away and 650m altitude

Stbrd cabin is almost done

remember you got to get the walls either clockwise or counterclockwise and plan it well. I started with the short white one and moved to the v.long (er for a 43footer) 2.5m yellow. It was the worst bit of upholstery I've done todate as I had to stretch it using almost 80-90% of my strength to get it right. Did the top first all along the ceiling line and then did the bottom. The right hand side was last but that was easy...

again reused old polyurethane (I think!) insulation from the ceilings in two crossed layers to fill up the gaps in between the frames. So sides have 60mm insulation. should be sufficient for the Greek winter and summer

and the almost finished article. Just need the bed itself and the v.short white bulkhead on the left of the cabinet. Should finish it tomorrow morning.

Also cleaned and oiled the rest of the bilges on the port cabin preparing for the blackwater tank installation. Finalized the position of the tank, and decided on the spot for the NMEA2K traducer next to it, easily accessible (sort of) under the inner bed of the cabin and 200mm off the keel. Wasn't happy with the 18deg slope so built two wedges out of 15mm marine ply and epoxied them all together in the right place. Also drilled the 52mm hole (but haven't got a photo of it doh!)
Need to do a smoothing outside at some point before antifouling.

George is busy sanding/filling/sanding and sanding again the hull all around...

more over the w/e

cheers

V.

 

[MikeBrazier]

Hi Vas,

Thanks for the update, just in time as well as I was just about to start pestering you again!

The new panels look very good indeed and the transformation is great, really starting to look like you are making progress.

Mike.

 

[rafiki_]

Nice job Vas, the finish looks really good. Greek winter not too harsh, but I guess the solar load is huge in the summer, so the insulation will be great. Not sure how much if any insulation on my Azi, despite being built mainly for the Med. I spent many nights on board over the (mild) UK winter, the cabin was ok once I got a dehumidifier, and kept it dry. My body heat kept the cabin temp generally above 10c.

 

[vas]

Hi Vas,

Thanks for the update, just in time as well as I was just about to start pestering you again!

The new panels look very good indeed and the transformation is great, really starting to look like you are making progress.

Mike.

a full time job (at MiToS) and a fullish (or is that foolish) job at the uni means that often I'm too knackered to post. So I'm afraid for the next couple of months updates will be fewer and further apart... (and then hopefully there'll be no updates for sometime!)

Nice job Vas, the finish looks really good. Greek winter not too harsh, but I guess the solar load is huge in the summer, so the insulation will be great. Not sure how much if any insulation on my Azi, despite being built mainly for the Med. I spent many nights on board over the (mild) UK winter, the cabin was ok once I got a dehumidifier, and kept it dry. My body heat kept the cabin temp generally above 10c.

I'm also wondering what insulation is in the boats built now, having said that, seems that most of the solar load is through the lower helm on f/b boats. The 50mm rockwool keeps the bow cabin nice and cool, the galley and lowerhelm are a fcking oven. Sitting in the salon vs standing in the galley may be 10deg diff!

anyway a quick update:

stbrd cabin complete, need the box under the bed (that after all this chopping and fitting, wont fit at all, so needs dismantling, chopping, reupholstering and fitting) and the set of drawers that are in the process of being modified to fit from 600wide to 425wide...

As explained in the toerail thread, I've been working outside sorting out the decks so that George can start painting (deck to hull detailing not done yet)
Following the disapproval of the first idea by the forum, I've changed completely the methodology and ended up with a 50mm high by 170+mm wide toerail. Started with port side as it "feels" safer having a P45 on that side which is same height as MiToS and with the railing off, doesn't feel you'll fall over.

This is matched with my work at preparing the bow for epoxy and matt and marking the round port for the bow cabin. Just got the last meter to go and the 40mm ply toerail will be epoxied in place on Thursday.

Bows now looks like that:

Inside, blackwater tank is resting in it's prepared support planks nicely oiled, and only needs the securing beams around it.

Have got a few short(ish) works that I'll happily do midday to avoid the sun (quite hot and tiring already) so I'll split my time along various odd jobs:

fitting the windlass breaker, auto bilge pumps, oil the rest of the cabin's hull (just under the corridor left), upholster the galley half a bulkhead and side panel, do the fairing blocks for fishfinder and traducer, etc

cheers

V.