Saved from the bonfire...new project!

[Ru88ell]

JFM???

He had a couple of Fairline Squadron 78's built in a couple of years and reported all via the Motor Boat Forum. Very interesting.

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?335311-Boat-in-build-pics-(2013-Fairline-Squadron-78)

Your project is much better. It's got sails.

 

[rwoofer]

He had a couple of Fairline Squadron 78's built in a couple of years and reported all via the Motor Boat Forum. Very interesting.

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?335311-Boat-in-build-pics-(2013-Fairline-Squadron-78)

Your project is much better. It's got sails.

I would say the Vas project thread is far more complementary.

Just discovered this thread, which has been great to follow so far. Don't know where you find the time Iain.

I just brought an GRP Albacore back to life, but I'm hampered by not having any covered storage. Wood would be out of the question.

 

[paul.dlf]

Great thread, and encouraging for someone like me who's just started a daunting project...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pauldlf1969/

 

[JumbleDuck]

He had a couple of Fairline Squadron 78's built in a couple of years and reported all via the Motor Boat Forum.

A couple? Golly, what was wrong with the first one?

 

[Iain C]

Bloody typical. Friday today so was going to have a slight POETS day and get a few hours in this evening...perhaps start to get the port gunwale glued on...took the cover off a lunchtime to be nine dry in the sun and it starts raining the second I shut my laptop for the day.

On the bright side, I did get a bit of a sneak preview of what she's going to look like when varnished...sadly the shiny stuff is just rainwater! Stbd gunwale looks good though, quite pleased, although will need shaping and profiling a bit.

 

[Seajet]

Iain C,

lovely !

 

[Woodlouse]

It's a rubbing strake, not a gunwale.

Other than that, brilliant. I've always been a fan of Uffa Fox's designs.

Do you know what you'll be varnishing it with yet?

 

[Iain C]

Oooo, I'd disagree woodlouse! I suppose technically it's a rubbing strake, however in dinghy/small keelboat terms it will be referred to as a gunwale. In the same way as D2s on a twin spreader skiff rig are actually D1s. Besides, these aren't additions and in no way sacrificial...the old ones were rotten (cheap softwood) when I got the boat so I took them straight off. On more modern boats these gunwale pieces are much bigger and flare right out to about 70mm around the cockpit area to make hiking easier. On the FRP boats they are obviously just part of the deck moulding.

I'm going to use Epifanes 1 pack...and many, many coats of the stuff!

 

[Woodlouse]

Ooooo, don't disagree! I have compelling reasons! For one thing, they're attached to the gunwale. They don't have to be sacrificial, rubbing strakes haven't really been considered to be so since the invention on fenders.

Are you going to leave them as a square section by the way? The varnish will last much better if they've been rounded off a bit. Good choice on the Epifanes though. It's tough stuff as far as varnish goes, but the gloss can fade faster than some other brands. Keeping it covered should solve that issue though.

 

[Stemar]

Great thread, and encouraging for someone like me who's just started a daunting project...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pauldlf1969/

You're mad!

OTOH, she's so pretty, I can see why you were smitten, so maybe not quite ready for the nice men in white coats...

Why not start your own thread to tell us about your progress?

 

[Iain C]

Another update!

Things are going quite well, the gunwales are on, routed to the correct profile, and she's looking good. However, there was one job I've been putting off...finding out what made the big "bang" from the port shroud plate 5 or so years ago and ended 797's sailing days mid Solent.

This is what the stbd side looks like...

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the port side, before I, erm, started to modify it slightly, however it had basically pulled away from the inside of the hull at the top, and the hull planking, which had rotted a bit, started to delaminate and fail. It wasn't apparent from the outside, you could see that the top of the wooden shroud base had sprung by about 5mm. Had I stepped the mast and applied rig tension, the port side would have bowed in...not pretty. I know this looks drastic, however it probably looks worse than it is, and the very pretty decks do make up for this carnage!

So out came all the rotten stuff...unfortunately the bottom of the shroud base was fine, but it had to come out, in many pieces, so I could get to the hull behind it. So the plan is to replace the rotten planking with some biaxial glass cloth, laminate up a new shroud plate base, and thoroughly epoxy the whole lot together. I will also add some carbon tube (sorry purists) as compression members to put some of the rig loads onto the bulkhead and brace the hull sides outward. Old boats like this, where the shrouds go through the deck, a good few inches from the gunwales, effectively peel the shroud bases off the inside of the hull, are a far cry from the more modern boats where the chainplates are more sensibly positioned on the outside of the hull pulling inwards.

Here's the new shroud plate base...made up over a former made from a scrap piece of fence post, plenty parcel tape and hopefully as accurate as the Aldi profile gauge permits! Let's hope it stays that shape in the morning when the clamps come off!

More soon...

 

[Iain C]

The completed shroud plate mount...

 

[Lakesailor]

All interesting work. The hull looks a bit sad with the holes in it.
Is it a class thing that you are rebuilding it the same? Mind you with bonding in carbon fibre, I guess not.

The reason I ask is that the Windermere class boats have a ring beam, a bit like a frame on a wood and canvas canoe, that transmits the load from the mast step and the shrouds to the rest of the hull. I made a similar item in steel when I had problems with my DIY trimaran.

 

[Iain C]

Don't worry, it's still going, it's just that not much has changed visually, just endless filleting and sanding. TBH, I've had enough now, I just want to get some varnish on her and start to refit her. I could spend the rest of my life sanding down every fillet so they are as smooth as a very smooth thing, but it will be a bit trivial. She will never be perfect and I don't care, she will look a lot better actually racing again than rotting in the boat park or looking like an "unfinished project-offers" in my back garden. If all goes to plan I will have much more important stuff happening over the summer so now's the time...site lights, polythene tarpaulins and fan heaters will have to do! If I get to finish her, fine, however if not at least she will be protected with some varnish. I'm probably only a few days away from varnishing the cockpit...I'll pretty much finish that before moving onto the decks.

Dilemma...do I go over the whole boat with an oxalic acid solution? She will need a good hose down to get rid of the dust from all the nooks and crannies. However I can't decide if it's a good thing to do or not. Will it really bleach it much lighter, or is it similar to a freshly sanded piece of wood? There's places where there will be the remnants of epoxy (most is sanded off where it needs to be), is it going to really highlight these? The hull planking and some of the woodwork/foredeck is 1960s, the side decks are 1980s, the stern deck is 2013...will the acid make change the colour much? I'm trying to avoid the whole boat looking like a patchwork quilt...or will 6 coats of Epifanes bring it all to a similar hue?

 

[Iain C]

Sorry, should have said...there's some little black spots on the decks (cover blew off when I was away in the autumn and the trees dumped a load of sappy stuff on her) and there's also black areas on the hull planking on the floor here and there...hence reason for possibly using the oxalic acid.

 

[Hoolie]

The effectiveness of oxalic acid on wood is very uncertain. I've had major improvements and no effect at all
I would suggest a few unobtrusive trial areas before blasting the whole boat

 

[Iain C]

Yes, I know some of the wood is the wrong colour, some of the woodwork distinctly amateur, and I've not even looked at the topsides yet but there is now varnish on the boat! It's just got to "that point" where I need the boat done and out of the garden (oh I wish I had a nice big workshop) and it's still a big improvement over how she looked! And TBH I want her to have a certain "patina"...I could have totally redecked her at vast expense and ended up with a boat that looked just like a modern composite boat 35 years her junior.

Countless more coats of Epifanes now needed to build up some shine...then repaint the hull...and start screwing some fittings back on!

 

[Iain C]

Well, in between rainstorms I've got a few more coats of Epifanes on and she's looking OK. No getting away from the fact that I am going to have to get her undercover and warm for the last few coats. Plan is to sand the hull, fair it, and get that ready for paint too, and basically do the two together.

In the meantime I've been given some sails (main & jib) by one of her previous owners (thanks again Chris Avery if you are reading this, many beers owed!), to complement the kite (white-hooray!) I got for a tenner. The numbers needed changing...I decided to go back to K instead of GBR just to reinforce her advanced years! The markings were also red so I removed the lot (hairdryer works very well, and white spirit to tidy up the minimal residue left) and applied new ones. I made the sail insignia from scratch, quite pleased with the result. Don't worry, it's all a lot straighter than it looks in the pictures!

I've also ordered lots of s/s fittings from ebay. Because the ribs are now a bit thicker, the old keel bolts were not long enough any more. TBH they probably weren't long enough anyway, I don't think they actually were fully home in the keel! As they can capsize, I am taking no chances here, so got 4 bits of 300mm 316 threaded bar to cut in half to make 8 keel bolts. Fortunatly, she has had the faster, more modern keel added at some point in her life, so it was a simple M10 thread.

I've also got 14 new c/s allen bolts to attach the shroud plates (will be faired in)...a few of the old ones had gone bang, and some were replaced with screws! Likewise I will replace all the bolts holding the bow fitting on, and where the loads then go down bars under the foredeck and currently screws into the keel band, these will be through bolted in rebates and faired smooth. She may be an old girl, but I do want to be able to push the boat hard in any weather and not worry about rigs and keels falling off. Hopefully the additional strength built into the hull, some carbon tubing here and there and new bolts everywhere will keep everything where it needs to be.

Now, rain...BUGGER OFF!!!

 

[Searush]

Looking really nice, a credit to you. I'm astonished by that pick of one lying on its side, is it the version with a polystyrene keel?

 

[Iain C]

Well if you liked that, you're gonna love this...