Gutting a 45' sailboat

[Bill_Giles]

If you are living aboard then strip it out leaving yourself liveable accommodation then spend as long as you like making it into the boat of your dreams. You are going to spend the rest of your life tinkering and making improvements so don’t sweat it.

[Capdave360]

Originally Posted by Ketch79

Hello! I just bought a 45' bruce roberts sailboat for very cheap, an older man was selling her because he couldn't keep up with maintenance. The interior is infested with cockroaches and is very dirty. My plan is to gut the entire interior of the sailboat and re-do it myself. My main concern is with the size of this boat, it has air conditioning (don't think it works) and many other electrical equipment I'm not too familiar with. I would love to take out anything electrical, gut it, repaint / fix up anything that needs to be fixed, and start on doing the interior the way I would like. To live on of course. I have a time frame of about 3 years and was wondering what a normal time frame of gutting a sailboat is? Thanks for the help!

As many have said, before doing anything with this boat, you need to assemble a wholistic view of the project. Look at the fundamentals first - hull & deck condition, steering condition, rig & sails condition. After that look at engine & running gear & tanks. After that look at the electrical system - charging methods and batteries and wiring and switchgear. Then look at basic hotel systems - potable water, grey water, black water, cooking, lighting, HVAC. Then look at navigation and safety equipment. After all that, look at the interior.

If after the exercise above, you want to take this project on - I don't see a good reason to gut that interior. Remove everything that moves, bomb the boat a couple times for bugs, take down the overhead and other easily removable parts like drawers and etc. Turn off all the electrics, plastic bag anything sensitive to water, and pressure wash the hell out of the interior (you can add bleach or whatever to the stream).

Needs a new cabin sole - put that in, and fix the other bits that are obviously broken. It's not a piano - don't try to make it perfect.

Just for the interior alone, this approach will be something about 1/100th the hours of gut and rebuild.

But don't do it unless the rest of the project makes sense. Get help if you don't have the experience to determine that.

[stubones99]

Originally Posted by Ketch79

https://imgur.com/a/PJzePBt

So these are the pictures of the interior of the sailboat. The main reason I want to gut it is because of the smell and I'm worried if I just clean it, it will still smell because of the areas I'm unable to reach. And the bilge area or around / inside the ac.

Everyone says bug bomb the interior. I recommend bug bombing it two to three times, at two week intervals since not all bugs will be killed by the first pass, some will hatch out from eggs after the first bug bomb, and will be killed by the second pass. Third pass is to make sure you got everything...

But clean all the debris out first, and anything they might eat. They are there for food, not wood. Remove everything that is a possible food source first. Try to seal up the boat as good as you can, judging from the windows, that may be an issue.

Good Luck!

[ausnp84]

Like so many others here, I too have done a big boat refit (43ft steel ketch) inc completely gutting the interior, new steel deck and wheelhouse, new wiring, plumbing, interior, mainmast, rigging, etc etc.

In total it cost over £100k, took 5 years and also cost me a fiancee. In saying that, I learnt SO much, had a great time, and was so happy to finally head south to Portugal.

Keep what’s there if you can (unless you’re prepared and happy to undertake an all-consuming project) and feel free to ask plenty of questions!!

N

[Tillikum]

Remove all loose items, open everything up, take up the floors, buy a decent ozone generator or rent one and put it in there for a week. Before you start the ozone build an improvised cover for the forward hatch out of ply and fit a good quality extractor fan with a rain cover over it. That way at the end of the week of ozone treatment you open the companionway, turn on the fan and wait for the ozone to clear. The ozone will kill all the mold, insects etc. that it can reach, so make sure everything is exposed that can be. For what the ozone doesn't reach, buy a bottle of Benefect and a garden sprayer and spray it all down, scrub as necessary. The Benefect will not harm the surfaces, but will kill all mold it contacts. It's also food-grade and non-toxic. Where a surface doesn't need wiping, just spray on and let dry, simple as that.

From what I see in your photos, you need repairs not a gut job. And if God help you, you can't resist the temptation to tear it all out, take lots of photos before and during, buy tie-on labels and label everything. It all looks so simple as we take something apart, but putting things back together has a mysterious way of being much more difficult! If you plan to replicate what is there, in whole or in part, keep what you remove as patterns. That way you'll be able to puzzle out from the remains all those details that were missed when happily "deconstructing."

[BenBowSirocco]

Ketch79

I do design work and build boats for a living. I have been repairing and building boats professionally for over a decade. My wife and I have been living aboard and sailing together for 7 years... etc. etc. Simply trying to give you an idea that I might know, a little bit what this project will entail.

Ask yourself very carefully: do I want to donate years of my time and save an old boat, or do I want to go sailing?

You will not get money out of that boat. NO way NO how. If you somehow are part of the 1 in a million that finish what you begin with this project, you will dump thousands of hours and and tens of thousands of dollars into it if you gut it.
My personal advice to you if you looking for an inexpensive boat so you can live aboard and go sailing- start visiting the yards near you and find a deal. Face-space marketplace and craigslist are full of them! Many times yard managers cannot give you contact info of the boats owner, but they can give yours to the owner. Make up little sandwich baggies with your contact info and a note folded inside to clothes pin to boats you like.
I have gone to look at boats with great bones, but in need of some TLC, the seller is asking thousands of dollars and after looking it over and a short conversation being told to just get it moved and I can have the title. They just want her sailing again and dont have time.


I fear that what you are actually doing is creating yet another ICW hazard to safe navigation because in the end, this project will be abandoned. The boat will be left derelict at anchor and you will move on with your life. THEN, we the sailing community will suffer more bad representation in an area already trying to pass laws to restrict and limit our freedoms upon the water.

It may not seem like it, but what you are doing reflects upon this entire sailing community and we are trying to speak to you with kindness about taking this project and your actions seriously. Putting yet another derelict out to anchor is good for no one. Not you, not the sailing community. Not the people who live there, not the people who use the area.

Putting your boat at anchor will NOT help your project. PLEASE DO NOT DO IT.
If your at anchor:
What dumpster will you LEGALLY deposit the guts of a 45' sailboat?
How will you prevent any debris/toxic dust from blowing into the water as you demo/built it out?
How much time (time=money) will be wasted by having to move every piece of material and hardware 4 times: store, truck, dingy, boat.
How do you plan to accomplish all of the cutting/sanding/grinding without a flat open space to cut plywood? OR 120VAC power?
How long before the cops show up when your doing the work on deck letting all your dust blow into the water? Then what?

If you choose to move ahead, your project belongs in a boat yard! Where you will have dumpsters, people throwing out old parts, plywood to scavenge, free old paint, people around who can advise you and lend a helping hand once in a while. Resources of knowledge and equipment to use and a helping hand once in a while is worth the expense.

If you choose to do this- do it right! Pull her out and put her in a yard and set to work in a place designated for the job! PLEASE. Seriously PLEASE.

[MicHughV]

when I first started to build my Roberts 38, back in the late 70's.....I thought I could do it for $9K and in one year....
yes, haha, you can quit laughing now.
three years later and considerably more $$$, I'm embarrassed to say how much, but suffice it to say, my $9K estimate wasn't even close, I splashed the boat and it was a bare bones boat at that.

my opinion, based on very good experience of witnessing several rebuild efforts, is that it takes longer and will be more expensive to " rebuild" a boat then starting from scratch.

You don't say if this will be a full time job or a weekend putter around job, but regardless, you are looking at...as minimum.....3 years.....and when I say three years....I'm talking burning the midnight oil on many a day.

My advice, take a systematic approach...tackle one task at a time...because switching gears all the time, bites into your schedule.
secondly, write down a schedule, this way you can be " thinking" about step two, while still busy "working' on step one.

Have fun....I did !!!

[MicHughV]

regarding the roaches.....buy a tub of boric acid powder....you can get this at any hardware store....and sprinkle it liberally in the bilge and every other nook and cranny...that will take care of them.....

[CaptBobR]

We are a non-profit that teaches disadvantaged youth at risk to become knowledgeable enough to take the ABYC certifications or become a commercial merchant mariner

We work on boats that need total rebuilds. It generally takes us about 3 months plus some dollars to rebuild a boat.

If you have full time capability I would estimate 6 months at least with just one person

[MicHughV]

re-building or even just building a boat is typically a guy thing...but if you plan on bringing a wife, girlfriend, or some chick you met at a bar onboard, you will need to rethink your live aboard/fix stuff plan...you are going to be at this for a while....a project like this is well known to be a relationship breaker....

[TrentePieds]

Simple math: OP sez he'll devote four hours a day for as long as it takes. That is 28 hours per week for 52 weeks a year. That comes to 1,456 hours per year. I think very few people could stand such a pace consistently while working for wages besides. Furthermore, only about 1/3 of those hours will be solid productive hours. The other 2/3 will go to organizing, shopping, tidying, tool maintenance, etc, etc., particularly if living on the hook and having to work/live around the clobber. That sort of thing quickly gets to be soul-destroying.

So if there is 5K hours required to do the job, and given that 1/3 of 1,456 = 500 (nigh enuff), the job will require 10 years to complete. If the time required is 12K hours, as someone suggested, the the number of years to complete will obviously be 25.

That is why women won't "buy in" and why so many "projects" are abandoned.

TP

[GILow]

Originally Posted by CaptBobR

We are a non-profit that teaches disadvantaged youth at risk to become knowledgeable enough to take the ABYC certifications or become a commercial merchant mariner

We work on boats that need total rebuilds. It generally takes us about 3 months plus some dollars to rebuild a boat.

If you have full time capability I would estimate 6 months at least with just one person

Agreed.

[hpeer]

Ketch,

Is this a STEEL or FG hull?
Which model?
Where are you?

[jeepers]

Having rebuilt over 20 motorcycles (and still do) Over 15 Jeeps professionally (hence my nick name "Jeepers"). 5 house Renos & 2 houses built from the ground up. 5 major boat refit/reno projects. These are all life skills... Ketch79 - What you have received here is a $50,000 consultation. I am not going to repeat the extremely valid wisdoms shared on this thread. What I will say is;- Manage the task. Don't let the task, manage you. To survive this. As there are no winners only survivors. There is nothing to win, only to succeed. Manage your time, efforts and resources, constantly. Ask yourself; What do I really need to do, this month, this week, today? What can I do to make this whole job more efficient? In EVERY way. I would start by copying every comment/gift offered here in my own hand if I was you.I will only add. Drain all the fluids & clean the bilge to the current list. Create a battle plan preferably with the help of someone experienced in Wood &/or Fiberglass &/or Steel boats &/or Ferro cement boats. They are all unique & all indeed different. A survey is a very, very good idea. That should help your plan know more of what you don't know.

[commander500]

The time frame is.... enough time to sell it, and buy a country house.

From what you describe, this project will make you wish what I just suggested but, of course, this is your decision. My comments are just based on my own experience. The joy (or pain) of rebuilding a boat/sailboat, can only be measured by the one doing it and the task involved. Mine is not that bad and I am going to finish but, its like when they say - "if you have to ask you can't afford it?" - If you have too many questions, don't do it. Many other factors involved there so, please do not be discouraged, just think about it.

My $0.20.