MiToS re-built/fit- versilcraft Mystery43

[rafiki_]

The interior looks great Vas, and your bed making impressive. I recall the various schemes for the main cabin seat and desktop, and it has come together very well.
With respect to the fins, of course JFM and Bart will give you the best views, but my tuppence is for the sternmost position of the 2. You might want to talk to a stabs supplier with a “what if.....” type discussion, and from the installations I have seen, I think most tend to be about 1/3 along the hull length.

 

[MapisM]

Q: do I just bolt the lacquered iroko straight on the stainless steel sides of the hard top, or do I get something in between?
I'd rather have some sort of elastic spacer, maybe M6 rubber washers (2-3mm thick) making sure I get some distance between the iroko and the ss. I do understand that it's going to be a nice place to gather a bit of dirt, but it will help keeping things balanced and in a dynamic stability so to speak.

I'd have spacers too. That area is bound to be a bit of a dirt trap also without them, btw.
If you wish to make it more reachable for cleaning, you might consider fitting longer teflon spacers instead, like those which you can cut to measure from cylinders.
Making them 2 or 3cm long would leave enough air around the wood planks and the steel tubes, making both more cleanable, so to speak. And without affecting the aesthetic result, I would guess.

Following pic shows the two candidate spots for the stabs.
...
looking forward to your views!

From your drawing, it looks like the green placement is exactly half way along the WL, with the boat essentially in a displacement asset.
But in a P hull, even if often used at D speed, that is a wrong placement, because the boat CoG (which is what matters more here) is surely further aft.
That said, I would ideally place them a bit more forward than the white position, but definitely closer to the white rather than the green.
In other words, if those are the two alternatives allowed by the internal layout, I'd go for white in a heartbeat. :encouragement:

 

[vas]

The interior looks great Vas, and your bed making impressive. I recall the various schemes for the main cabin seat and desktop, and it has come together very well.
With respect to the fins, of course JFM and Bart will give you the best views, but my tuppence is for the sternmost position of the 2. You might want to talk to a stabs supplier with a “what if.....” type discussion, and from the installations I have seen, I think most tend to be about 1/3 along the hull length.

I had no sheets on board (all were at home for cleaning) and only had this for the bow cabin, used bedcovers on the others based on colour to match the surroundings
P. I'm not going to discuss my bedmaking as the bow cabin bed is oddly shaped indeed (and assymetrical) and wife thought it was a good idea to get the sheet (after chopping it a bit) to the retired tailor down the road and add rubber band practically all around, which may be a good idea to keep the sheet in place, but impossible to get a creaseless fit...

I'd have spacers too. That area is bound to be a bit of a dirt trap also without them, btw.
If you wish to make it more reachable for cleaning, you might consider fitting longer teflon spacers instead, like those which you can cut to measure from cylinders.
Making them 2 or 3cm long would leave enough air around the wood planks and the steel tubes, making both more cleanable, so to speak. And without affecting the aesthetic result, I would guess.

I like that, but don't you think this space will be excellent for wasps nests? Worried about it, could do a 10mm spacers with twin nuts btw, make it 11 with a washer behind on the wood side and cut on the costs (probably got to check...)

From your drawing, it looks like the green placement is exactly half way along the WL, with the boat essentially in a displacement asset.
But in a P hull, even if often used at D speed, that is a wrong placement, because the boat CoG (which is what matters more here) is surely further aft.
That said, I would ideally place them a bit more forward than the white position, but definitely closer to the white rather than the green.
In other words, if those are the two alternatives allowed by the internal layout, I'd go for white in a heartbeat. :encouragement:

Will measure accurately against the waterline today when she's out for the first time in two years (will be fun seen how dirty she is...) but yes I believe the green one is smack in the middle.

e/r as in behind the 4 diesel tanks placed across and theoretically very close to the COG, is the preferred placement for me as well. Wont have to route high pressure pipes through the bulkhead to the cabins area, no extra noise in the cabin area, will keep everything local in the e/r and easy to visit/check/whatever.
Will be slightly tight in visiting the space for inner hull reinforcing , but I'll manage that!
Plan is to add a few thickish csm layers outside with epoxy similarly to what Bart did on his:

only interior will be reinforced with 15-20mm ply sheets across the frames, first layer to level to the first chine iroko (not sure of the terminology, talking about where the hull side meets the bottom) as seen in next pic, next layer over them and across the frames to the first liftstrip bearing longitudinal beam. A sheet of ply and 10kg of epoxy will do it

Before I go any further I need to get in my hands all these bits and see how big they are and how they can fit in there. Hope they're not too big to fit between the frames!

cheers

V.

 

[Bigplumbs]

Looking very Nice Vas she is a real beauty and the work you have done excellent

Dennis

 

[KevB]

I hope one day you get the chance to just enjoy the boat. Your enthusiasm for improvements leaves me feeling tired.
She looks fantastic and hats off to you for all your work. Fingers crossed that the stabs fitting goes smoothly and you have a summer of boating pleasure.

 

[vas]

I hope one day you get the chance to just enjoy the boat. Your enthusiasm for improvements leaves me feeling tired.
She looks fantastic and hats off to you for all your work. Fingers crossed that the stabs fitting goes smoothly and you have a summer of boating pleasure.

comeon Kev, you have to understand that I enjoy working on the boat and improving it almost as much as relaxing on it, shouldn't really feel tired, maybe I should


OK, some news!


first finished off with the HT iroko sides. An awful lot of varnishing, then cutting M6 SS stud into 55mm lengths (iirc), bolting it on, tightening them using double nuts and then the fun of fitting them.
The captive nuts sandwitched and epoxied between the two layers of iroko weren't all completely true to the sides which meant that a bit of hammer or in a few cases larger holes on the HT were needed to persuade them all to get in place. Following MM suggestion I did put a spacer but couldn't be bothered cutting ertalon or something and sliding it through, got some M6 thick nuts and used them instead. Was good as I could take some imperfections of the HT frames and still have the iroko looking straight.
Mind, not looking forward to EVER removing this thing again! Will only sand and varnish on the spot!

apologies, crappy pic of them fitted... Not easy to get a decent pic as now boat is on the hard, so angle is bad.

Now working on the stabs, and following a discussion in this thread I spent the whole day yesterday working on carefully measuring, cutting, re-stitching and sorting out the opening for the extra bunk on the stbrd cabin. Doesn't look bad, still need to cut a piece of the ceiling of this bunk over the head area and hopefully lift up the ceiling by 100-120mm, giving a bit of breath on the person using this bunk.
BTW, that is the original thought of mine as seen on the sketch on first post....

Sorted routing of all aircon pipework, so sometime got to bring the aircon man to disconnect the two devices and later reconnect and re-gass them again in the new spot.
Recon will need half a day rerouting all cabling visible in the following pics another way so that they don't interfere-bunk area should be completely clean of cables!

first move (actually took me at least an hour to do the cut, must have been a psychological thing...):

space from "inside" the coffin, sorry bunk:

haven't finished the left hand side top stitching again as that's the area I'm cutting the ceiling, actually the floor next to the lower helm, in order to give it a bit more space:

crappy pic of the whole bed area:

Worth noting that it's amazing how much mess I've managed to create in under a week! Should really take a pic from the same angles as the ones I posted a month ago and see the difference
Bow cabin is the only one untouched so EVERYTHING removed from the two other cabins is now there, matresses, pillows, chest of drawers, aircon, ply pieces, you name it!

Anyway, hope to start putting things together pretty soon.

On the plus side is that now I don't have an excuse NOT to built a new staircase to the cabins level, old one was way too tight to come down with feet straight and I really hated it!
So now top three steps will be fixed creating an extra shelf next to the feet of the new bunk, bottom three will be on a pivot and turn over the top three giving me reasonable access to the keel area where the aircon water circ pump, strainer and compressor will live.

Checking the stbrd stab mechanism or fitting the security pin (if needed) will be a mattress lifting and bed ply lift job, one person half a min so not a problem.


cheers

V.

 

[rafiki_]

Vas, just got round to reading your article in MBY. Some nice reminders in there of your journey with MiToS, and some of your design decisions. While a short article like that hardly does justice to her transformation, it made great reading. Heres looking forward to many more chapters. :encouragement:

 

[rbcoomer]

Vas, just got round to reading your article in MBY. Some nice reminders in there of your journey with MiToS, and some of your design decisions. While a short article like that hardly does justice to her transformation, it made great reading. Heres looking forward to many more chapters. :encouragement:

Quite agree - it needs a book/movie really to do it justice!

I'm in the process of re-reading to fill in some of the later posts I missed. Unfortunately circumstances and a change of job - albeit to something in the marine industry that I love - has had an impact on time and I also can't read on phone now as the site cashes the browser (Adverts I think). This means I can't grab a few minutes over lunch etc to catch up any more!

It's somehow even more epic on the second reading as you see even more of the detail and toil that's gone in. Makes me embarrassed that my tiny little project has hardly progressed in a similar time frame.

Truly an inspirational feat of dedication and resourcefulness! Utmost respect to Vas :encouragement:

 

[vas]

hi all, long time no updates on this thread!

was planning to update on work carried out before the summer but since the work related to the stabs prevailed, I never managed to.
now tidying up folders, pictures and docs I got some things that I might as well post in order to get a more complete report on the work carried out.

Starting with, there were 3 places that ply repairs were needed. First and largest was the upper helm area where it wasn't originally primed and filled by Alekos and to make things worse, the paint selected was a matte one that was done by a dodgy combo of a decent and hard wearing paint (used throughout MiToS) but matted with something (don't ask, don't remember I think it's done with some liquid) from another line of products with dubious compatibility (as it proved...) So Alekos had to strip, repair, fill, sand, etc and finally paint. This time I chose a slightly lighter glossy colour which seems to be withstanding the sun much better.
Further on the aft deck there were two spots that needed a small repair, looks like I missed on the original repairs some inner soft spots that surfaced later on, no big deal.

actually had to line the area in the next two pics with a new 6mm sheet of marine ply in order to get some decent finish

and Alekos at work again:

primed upper helm:

finished work, sorry no pic from the helm...

Another work carried out was coppercoating with the real thing part of the hull as the custom job wasn't impressive to say the least. I got less than the quantity I'd need to do the whole hull so worked on the principle that if it works I might as well fit it on the "worse" and least accessible part of the hull. So started from keel and worked my way up to the first chine, as the rest was easily accessible for scrubbing while swimming
FWIW, the real thing seems to be working okay so this time I'll get a couple more kilos of the thing and finish off the rest of the hull:

(on the pic above, note that the painted hull is impressively shiny and glossy after 4yrs, needless to say I've never washed the hull nor polished it )

and the fins coppercoated ready to be fitted back in place:

next pic was really scary as Dimitris brought the rib in order to test fit it on the bathing platform. Had to clear the wooden mast of a small sailboat so ended up extending all the boom and getting the rib too high up:

Doing all the work and messing about in the stbrd cabin meant I could finally redo the steps going down to the cabins. Originally steps were too tight as there was a door to the bottom of the steps to stbrd for the common heads. Moving the heads towards the bow and to port and joining the two heads into the now stbrd cabin for the daughter and friend(s) meant that I could get the staircase around 20cm longer overall meaning you can finally go down the steps properly and straight with no issues. All iroko, done and initially fitted the two sides with all five steps sliding in and out in the grooves. Once all were varnished, the three top steps were mounted permanently as was the back drop of the steps.
The lower 2 steps can slide out as can the back (not visible in the pics below) and I can slide in there to work on aircon compressor and stab controller (although the latter can be accessed by lifting the new second bunk of the stbrd cabin. One of the best conversions I've done, honest!

Few more things to report when I've got some time next and then it's mainly electronics work which I find quite interesting and will try to summarise here.

cheers

V.

 

[Mr Googler]

Brilliant Vas. Thanks for continuing to share. The hull does indeed look amazing after 4 years!

Quality workmanship in the first place can be the only reason :encouragement:

 

[qatarwadubai]

this message is to USER (VAS) I want to buy the Stanley searchlight from you please..... how much do you want for it ??? thanks... yours... Emjay

 

[qatarwadubai]

hello

how much is the price of the Stanley searchlight ???

 

[vas]

this message is to USER (VAS) I want to buy the Stanley searchlight from you please..... how much do you want for it ??? thanks... yours... Emjay

hi,

apologies if I mentioned I'd like to sell it somewhere in this thread, but it's fitted on the boat and not planning to sell it.

V.

 

[Maserman]

Hi
I have a Mystere
In your working in the boat did you have to change the exhaust. I need some idea of how the exhaust flows through the pods on the side
Thanks

 

[Maserman]

Hi Vas

I'm particularly interested in how the exhaust comes out under the exhaust covers - I have the same boat and my port outlet flange is knackered and need replacing!

Would be handy to see how it looks from the outside!
thanks

 

[vas]

Hi Vas

I'm particularly interested in how the exhaust comes out under the exhaust covers - I have the same boat and my port outlet flange is knackered and need replacing!

Would be handy to see how it looks from the outside!
thanks

hello and welcome to the forum!

didn't had to remove/replace outlet flanges.
I did see how a Mystere looks like with the GRP covers removed though (on another Mystere)
Well, the 129mm dia pipe is mounted (somehow) on a sandwitch between the hull and an inner ply reinforcement.
You can see M6 (iirc) nuts all around the pipe in the engine room.
However, I doubt you can remove the steel pipes with the GRP covers in place, so best to remove them. I mean you can undo the nuts from the inside if you're lucky but I very much doubt all will come out, you'll probably need access from outside also.
FWIW, you're most likely going to have some leaks on the GRP cover against the hull, so best to remove them completely, check screws, clean secure, reseal with decent adhesive and refit.
I just completed an underwater conversion for the exhausts, have a look at: http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?517490-Underwater-exhaust-conversion
Haven't reported the final results (which are promising) as I haven't had the time to do some serious testing (just moving half a mile from port to boatyard and then back...
I'll try to find a couple of pics I think I took of the other Mystere and post here but don't hold your breath as I'm away and going to be abroad or on the boat till mid August.

cheers

V.

 

[vas]

well, delayed departure from Lux, so found 3pics that will give you an idea of construction:

cheers

V.

 

[Maserman]

Hi Vas

Thanks - that gives me a good idea of what's what under there Hope your trip goes well.
M

 

[Clooty]

Wow, a serious undertaking but I bet hugely satisfying.

 

[rafiki_]

Any updates Vas?