Plywood Boat Restoration.

[inchman]

hi, i've recently been given a gp14 in need of a bit of restoration, does anyone know of a good book that details or shows the methods of repair and renovation of a plywood boat?

thanks in advance
Gary

 

[deisel]

If You Go To The Selway Fisher Web Site He Does A Couple Of Exellent Books On Plywood Boats.

 

[dombuckley]

There's also a very good website http://groups.msn.com/GP14building. Started by a guy who was building one of the Fyne Boats kits (hence the name), its now got lots of info and pics on restoring and repairing a GP14.

How old is yours? Mine was built to racing spec in 1957, with minimum thickness of ply allowed under the rules (5mm). Just try finding 5mm ply now!

 

[Lakesailor]

I did it's little sister, the Heron. It has to be 6mm ply now, but a bit of shaving at the scarf sorts that. Use epoxy to repair dodgy frame ends or replace them. Epoxy the outside of the hull but don't do the inside as you'll never get all the moisture out of the ply and it will be trapped inside if you epoxy both sides.
Remove the centre-board box and refit using epoxy and replacing any suspect wood on the box and hog, as if you don't and once you've finished the boat and it leaks you really don't want to strip it again.

Click on piccies.

 

[Boatmik]

Howdy,

I put a number of plywood dinghy restoration scenarios up on my website.

The first thing to decide is if you want to go minimal or maximal. If you have something close to sailing condition now, have a look at the link on restoring a Sabre dinghy.

It gives some ideas for patching up plywood with thin glass to make an invisible repair when the boat is repainted.

Other entries deal with replacing decks etc.

http://www.storerboatplans.com/Faq/faqindex.html

Best wishes
Michael

 

[Lakesailor]

Good site Mike. Lots of info.

 

[Boatmik]

Howdy,

I have just put together some links for plywood boat repair that follow on from what I posted above.

Just compiled some links to useful boat repair articles ... mostly to do with plywood including repairing big and small holes, patching dents and repainting, through to replacing whole panels and decks

And a simple non skid paint (or varnish) method.

Repairing, restoring plywood wooden boats ... a whole bunch of methods

Best wishes
Michael Storer