Abandoned sea fisher
Tony Davies shows how to stiffen a hull at the very start of a big restoration project
Floor bearers and waterlines: part one of restoring a sorrylooking abandoned hull into a family sea fisher
This hull was once a 26ft Seamaster Commander from about 1966. It had lain in the yard at Watchet Marina for at least nine years to my knowledge, and probably a lot longer!
The superstructure had long since been removed; it was half full of rainwater, general boat-yard rubbish and a Ford 4D diesel with PRM gearbox that my workmate Peter Caplen and I assumed was rusted to death.
You might think that a hull of this age would be beyond repair, but on the contrary, these old hulls were laid up at a time when oil, and therefore GRP materials, were cheap so there was no need to skimp on the hull thickness. Also this was still new technology to many builders so they laid up thick and strong! This means that hulls of this age rarely suffer from osmosis, and the strength of the lay-up means that although in latter years they were badly treated, their strength prevented any serious damage.
Before putting it on a trailer, Peter and I removed what was left of the plywood topsides with a sledgehammer and craned out the old Ford engine, which we planned to replace with a Volvo outdrive.
The main keel was loose, so we decided to remove it completely to make it easier to get the hull onto the trailer. Similarly the steel bilge keels were badly rusted so we cut them off with the angle-grinder. Once all the major rubbish had been removed
inside, including the prop shaft, we scraped out most of the muck lying in the bottom, then pressure washed the inside which gave us a better idea of what condition the hull was in.
We ground off the resin and the top of the keel bolts then a bolt was used as a drift to knock out the bits of keel bolt still in place in the hull.
Now we could start the restoration.
Stiffening the hull
The first major job on our hands was to replace all the hull stiffeners: all those that had been put in by previous owners had to be removed as the hull surfaces had not been properly prepared before the stiffeners were bonded in.
It was a simple job to hammer a chisel under each stiffener and prise it off the hull as the resin and mat had been laid on top of bilge paint and dirt rather than the abraded and degreased glassfibre that is essential for strongly and properly bonded structural timbers.
We use exterior grade ply for this job rather than marine grade – we feel there’s usually no need for marine ply in cases where it is to be totally encapsulated in glassfibre. Hardwood 18mm ply can be bought for about £30 a sheet – half the price of marine ply – but it is important to be choosy as there is some real rubbish out there which is little better than shuttering ply.
Once all the old stiffeners had been removed the hull was degreased and pressure washed internally. We could now start on building the strength back into the hull, starting with the floor bearers in the bottom of the hull.
But before any bearers could be installed we had to find a vertical line to work to, which is most easily deduced by making a new waterline on the outside of the hull.