Gulf Coast 18 Fiberglass Repair and Other Refitt Tasks

[M.B. Naegle]

Originally Posted by wyb2

Ok, I think I see the problem, is the underside of the cockpit floor bonded to the top of the keel trunk (arrow in picture)? That would be a bit of a hurdle. If it’s tabbed you can go at it with an oscillating tool like Spot suggested. If they gooped up the whole topside of the trunk before dropping the deck on top, that’s a trickier problem, not sure I have a good suggestion to get around that.

It looks like it's together somehow, at least on the port side (right side in pics), but I'll poke around some more.

With the lockers, I think the best thing to do will be to cut them all out leaving just the hull and the cockpit floor, then I'll make individual fiberglass tubs to drop into the holes and screw the top lip in place with some sealant. That way they are better sealed, removable for repairs, and don't trap any moisture under them. As it is, it looks like they might have had some side drain holes, but they just filled with muck and water till the plywood rotted out.

I think I'm going to get some practice with the easier "low hanging fruit" glass repairs first (bullet holes and the bulkhead hole) and see how these these other challenges pan out.

The top of fiberglass is a little rough with sun damage, but the bulkhead and back deck holes look like something fell on the boat. There's also a dent in the side of the compass where it got knocked off. That's a little comforting to me as the holes don't seem to be from the fiberglass getting weak and someone stepping in the wrong place. I get the impression that all the damage was just from it getting roughly treated on land. A hole's a hole in the end.

[Lake-Effect]

We've enjoyed our 19' microcruiser for 15 seasons now, mostly on a Great Lake, and she's especially great for towing to explore mid-size inland lakes, which are delightful.

When we bought our boat, I knew going in that she had some rotten bulkheads and a few minor blemishes, which didn't preclude our sailing her right away. At the beginning of our second season, I tackled the rotten bulkhead, and removed a whole bunch of waterlogged old foam, etc. replaced that with blue Styrofoam, and made and f'glassed in a new plywood bulkhead. It took a while, but there was nothing particularly tricky or difficult. I've also done several minor fg fixes with epoxy & glass cloth and/or gelcoat. And I've helped with fg repairs to other boat.

So, speaking from that perspective...

I think that boat is probably too far gone to justify repairing. It all depends on what value you put on your spare time... but I believe you could probably find a better-condition and sailable boat in that size for less than $2k, and maybe even under a grand. Without counting labour, I can see that materials and hull hardware could easily exceed $1k. Do you have usable mast, rigging, motor? Even used sails will be maybe $500 or more.

If I was to repair that boat:

• cut away and remove any rotted or disintegrated interior plywood and fiberglass, til whatever's left is sound. You might just have the hull left...
• new fg-covered plywood transom
• I wouldn't bother with separating deck and hull. I would work out alternative access to put in plywood support for that crushed side deck

You want to do the most fixing with the least effort, and get sailing.

But - I would first sit down with some paper and estimate the cost and especially the time you want to put into the project. Unless you like fixing more than sailing, I think you'd be further ahead with finding a project boat that's more complete and can be sailed almost immediately.

Good luck in any event.

[M.B. Naegle]

Thanks for the input guys.

It defiantly isn't ideal and I am keeping an eye out for something better. On the plus-side, getting this boat got me a half decent trailer in case something turns up that's in the grass or water, or I can sell the trailer to recoup my cost. There is a free Catalina 22 not too far away that needs a mast and trailer, and the hull looks mutch better, but not sure my little 2000 lb. cap. trailer can handle it (side question, at 2250 lb. displacement, how much weight could you "remove" from a cat 22?).

I'm no stranger to money pit projects. When Gone in 60 Seconds came out (the Nick Cage one) I decided that for my Personal Management merit badge in Scouts, I would save up for a Mustang like Eleanor. Then I learned how rare and stupid expensive they were, so I settled for a rust bucket 54' Chevy 4-dr. for $300. It's still in pieces slowly getting restored and I lost track of what I've got into it, but I could have $60,000 when it's done, and 4 doors on a really good day arn'-t worth half that.
BUT
Sentiment is a dangerous thing. It's my first car, and now I love 53-54 chevy sedans more than any other car. I typically don't factor my time into projects like this unless it's a professional endeavor or something taking time from my day job. I'm keeping a running tally of everything I put into this boat materials wise. If I can keep it under $2000 +time, I'm OK with that.

The other factor when getting into deep projects like this is that they give you the chance to make it your own. If I had a boat that was in perfect shape, but I didn't like the color, I'm more likely to learn to live with it (waste not and all that), but if I gotta buy paint anyway... In the case of this boat, there's not much to gain in the fiberglass repairs, other than improving the lockers, but it'll be all the "right" colors in the end and I'm learning more about what else I can do to make it better than any old day sailor.
Or,... something better will turn up and this'll just be a practice run for future maintenance and repairs.

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by M.B. Naegle

There is a free Catalina 22 not too far away that needs a mast and trailer, and the hull looks mutch better, but not sure my little 2000 lb. cap. trailer can handle it (side question, at 2250 lb. displacement, how much weight could you "remove" from a cat 22?).

If necessary, you could looking at replacing the springs, axle and wheels/tires on your trailer, which would increase its weight capacity.

You seem to have the right attitude for projects, and I know it's certainly satisfying to complete projects that others would run away from. (our house, basically but 32 years later we are still married and have a pretty nice house now)

Still, even for the young, time is precious, and if you have the choice of plowing $2000 into a basket-case that will take a year or more to be useable, or into a more complete boat that you could possibly sail this summer, the latter would be my choice.

[Spot]

Originally Posted by M.B. Naegle

Thanks for the input guys.

I'm no stranger to money pit projects. When Gone in 60 Seconds came out (the Nick Cage one) I decided that for my Personal Management merit badge in Scouts, I would save up for a Mustang like Eleanor. Then I learned how rare and stupid expensive they were, so I settled for a rust bucket 54' Chevy 4-dr. for $300.

Donny, Donny...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jfhv71S4X3g

[Rumrace]

You probably already got great advise. In fear of being repetitive my key points.
Support the hull before you remove the deck. Go make a lovely new mould and do use balsa foam or plywood encapsulated for strength. Or make an inner and out mould bonded together.

So if you are familiar with auto body work you’ll note every C4 Corvette cracked its rear quarters by the roll bar cover rocking on it. Only way to fix it is Epoxy and even cars use Systems West.
Stabilize your hull and give it a modern couch roof.

[Madehn]

When i look at that boat I see a huge hole that will require approx a cubic sh$t ton of money and approx two of effort. No way that you will get by on 2 k. If you like fixing stuff for the heck of it then ok. But if you want to sail i would find a different hull. I have spent the last 6 years working on my boat learning skills etc as I go so I get the fun project part but I Am pretty sure the juice is not going to be worth the squeeze on this one. Best of luck whatever you decide. Ps I am a really good hack leg mechanic, a decent carpenter, and pretty darn good with both plumbing and electrical and I was AMAZED at how hard translating those skills to marine quality rebuild was.

[Rumrace]

Yup $1,700.00 with trailer. Needs an outboard porta potty compass.
The fibreglass Epoxy micro balloons wood tools 5 K

[M.B. Naegle]

Our old pressure washer kicked it, so I got a new one today and blasted all of the mold and moss off of the exterior and MAN what a difference! It almost LOOKS like it'll float, lol. Even the wood handles and rails look like they'll pass with a few coats of sealer. Did a lot of irrigation flushing sludge and plywood debris out of the bilge too. Still more to do but it's getting there. Ran out of daylight, so pictures later.

I'm having trouble finding marine plywood in my area. Would any rot resistant plywood do since it'll be encased in glass, or does it need to be hardwood with the waterproof lamination? Or is that just a question of how long I want it to last?

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by M.B. Naegle

I'm having trouble finding marine plywood in my area. Would any rot resistant plywood do since it'll be encased in glass, or does it need to be hardwood with the waterproof lamination? Or is that just a question of how long I want it to last?

Marine plywood isn't rot-proof either, but it's usually more resistant to humidity, more dense and fewer voids, and stronger. For redoing the side deck and other areas that won't normally be immersed, a good grade of regular plywood should suffice if it's glassed both sides. (the strength of coring comes most from two fiberglassed surfaces, not the coring material itself) For the transom replacement, marine plywood would be stronger, but you could still do a satisfactory job with other plywood.

[M.B. Naegle]

Originally Posted by Lake-Effect

Marine plywood isn't rot-proof either, but it's usually more resistant to humidity, more dense and fewer voids, and stronger. For redoing the side deck and other areas that won't normally be immersed, a good grade of regular plywood should suffice if it's glassed both sides. (the strength of coring comes most from two fiberglassed surfaces, not the coring material itself) For the transom replacement, marine plywood would be stronger, but you could still do a satisfactory job with other plywood.

That makes sense. I'll keep looking for a piece to use on the transom, but I'll use regular for everything else.

I'll also need to replace part of the swing rudder assembly, which was plywood, but of that I'm thinking I'll make the pieces out of aluminum. The tiller was a lamination of wood, but I want to carve one out of solid hardwood, unless a good used one turns up cheap. Those'll all be later projects.

[M.B. Naegle]

Here's some pics after the cleaning. I thought I would need to replace all the wood, but some of it will be fine with sanding and varnish.

The one shot looking into the bilge, I can see numerous past repairs, all look like they're holding up well, and it looks like they fixed them from both sides, so I dunno... maybe If I think really skinny thoughts and butter myself up....

[Spot]

Miles, if you are not familiar, Andy at Boatworks Today has some videos on transom repair:
https://www.boatworkstoday.com/proje...m-replacement/

[wyb2]

Originally Posted by Spot

Miles, if you are not familiar, Andy at Boatworks Today has some videos on transom repair:
https://www.boatworkstoday.com/proje...m-replacement/

Good plug, Boatworks Today is great.

He also offers 1-on-1 advice if you sign up for his Patreon subscription. Don’t know the details, never done it, but it’s an interesting business model.

[M.B. Naegle]

Still trying to find some marine plywood locally, but I can order a 2'x4' sheet for about $45 plus shipping if it gets to it. In the mean time I've cut the old one about 1/3 away. No end to the rot or delamination so it'll all need to come out, but the corner where it meets the hull is solid all around, so that should help in keeping the shape. It looks like a new glass encased panel will be easy to fit in without removing the deck, with the only part requiring inside access being building up or sealing the corner.

The old transom is 1/2" thick ply with a single layer of glass inside and almost 1/4" of glass outside. It looks like they didn' t really build up the inside corner much, and for now I'm leaving the first 1" of glass inside and outside intact to locate the new panel and give a lip for the new glass to bond with.

It looks like the old one failed in two ways. Mainly the motor mount holes leaked starting the rot and delamination, and once it got to the deck drain holes, they separated letting more water rot happen until there wasn't much supporting the motor mount and it was able to rip off.

That said, I don't want to bolt an outboard to the boat again, unless it's a small troller that just clamps over the transom. The upper rudder hinge can still bolt thru, while on the bottom I want to glass a block of wood to the inside so the bottom hinge can attach with wood screws. Then there's much less stress on the stern and less chance for water to start getting in again.

I also started grinding on the bow holes and bulkhead crack to get ready for glass and putty.