Refit/Restoration of 1985 62' Aluminium Yacht

[RozDev]

Originally Posted by bsurvey

it is mandatory to see this boat out of the water from the water line down it could be toast
you should also get a NDT guy down there is inspect the bottom along with a surveyor, one stray wire or lack of zinc for any period of time could wreck an aluminum boat and require extensive replating

Yep pretty much the first thing i did, was get it hauled out. Actually I had the boat dived and scraped before it was moved, the divers said they had never seen so much kelp! about two skip loads was scraped off, they said the tugs would have been at full power trying to pull that hull through the water!

They did report no major issues which was a huge relief, I was still obviously concerned about the bare aluminium though so if I can get the vids working i'll show you all the outcome of that.

[redhead]

This looks like a great project and it sounds like you're ready to dig in. Good luck and let us know (pictures are great) how it goes.

[Terra Nova]

Originally Posted by RozDev

...pretty much the first thing i did, was get it hauled out...

Hope you still have it hauled out so yo can have the NDT done.

[RozDev]

Originally Posted by Terra Nova

Hope you still have it hauled out so yo can have the NDT done.

Yes, yet to be measured, insurers have insisted on hull thickness readings. But early indication from some stuff we have cut out is great. Will post more on that later.

[RozDev]

So the first thing i did, when safely docked at her new berth in Crosshaven was give it a complete deep clean.

It was hard to describe exactly where to start, during her last passage the raw water intake pump had failed on the engine mid atlantic, and they had dury rigged an electric water pump off the toilet system to serve the engine. This solution actually served to render all the toilets on the boat inoperable, unfortunately, that combined with a split fuel return hose had managed to cover the entire engine room with a mix of human waste and diesel, with all bilges and bilge pumps entirely clogged and overflowing too!

It wasn't nice, let me tell you!, fortunately my twin brother owns and engineering firm and one of my other friends and environment spillage containment company, so between them, we have all necessary haz mat suits and detergents to take care of the job in hand. There wasn't a single surface above and below the floor that didn't had a film of diesel on it.
no photo's of the cleaning stage but here's some before and afters of the remaining cabins and galley.

























The deep clean took about a week of solid labour, the amount of spillage mats that absorbed the diesel, filled about 20-30 big black bin liners and we pumped about 100 gallons of contaminated bilge effluent out from the hull. You can just see what we were dealing with on the 4th photo down from the top, this was the entire length of the boat...foul! But all disposed of correctly I may add.

[RozDev]

The deck also scrubbed up really well too, a tip from the local yard, the locals swear by a chemical called Chloras, which is used to disinfect milking parlours, but it is brilliant in removing deck stains and algae when used in diluted form, so a quick scrub and wash down, and hey presto! one years of laying up neglect disappeared!

[billmayse]

I would definite hire a competent certified surveyor who is familiar with aluminum boat, I believe they will need to audio gauge the hull.make sure surveyor is nams or sams
Mahalo,
Bill s/v Justice Tayana 52

[RozDev]

For those with a keen eye, you'd have noticed in the post above, one of the davit arms was badly damaged in the navy interception.

Here's some closer photo's of the damage





Here's what it should look like!



Anyway happy with the overall deck cleaning from this:







To this:

[RozDev]

Well, with the cleaning done, the raw water intake on the engine replaced, the engine flushed and topped up, the diesel tanks cleaned, the genset working, and the steering repaired, it was such a nice day, we couldn't resist a quick sea trial under its own steam for more than 18 months just before we haul it out for the major refit.

Here's the pictures of her final spin before going ashore, it looks well, i think you'll agree!









Umm... the sea trial didn't exactly go to plan, despite the steering being fixed a quadrant pulley decided to shear in the harbour (i think to take up the slack in the stretched wire, we over tightened it!) and the engine also conked on us. The diesel in the day tank, it appears, was just a thin film sitting on sea water, I cursed myself, for not draining it along with the main tanks. anyway a quick radio ashore and 5 gallons was delivered on a rib to us. A quick flush of the injectors after cracking the lines and some ez start into the air intake, and she was up and running again. To avoid further contamination we stuck the main engine diesel line intake straight into the drum to bypass the day tank.

The emergency tiller arm connects directly onto the rudder shaft, so emergency steering in place we limped home. Wins for the sea trial were: Emergency Tiller set works fine, 24V electric windlass also work perfectly up and down for the 65kg anchor!

We dropped the anchor whilst sorting out the engine, and all I could think of was that we had tested the windlass on the wind out but no-one had reversed it, and I had visions of block hauling 150ft of anchor + chain manually...Happy Days.

Just before you guys think the sea trial was a bit fool hardy, It was only around the harbour, not open seas, I had the marine engineer onboard that had worked on the engine plus the local lifeboat coxswain too., plus three other very able crew.

Next was the lift out!

[RozDev]

Here the lift!





And the video:

IMG_1428.mp4

IMG_1414.mp4

[hellosailor]

I would definitely go with the renaming, Poseidon would doubtlessly be happy to see his daughter given a new name, to begin a new life with a new "husband" who will be treating her with due respect.


And, the old name may be in scores of law enforcement "be on the watch for..." lists.

[kryg]

Nice lines, but your going to experience real expense and lots of time invested in a boat with a negative history that no amount of love or money can alter..

I have a 50' or 15 meter Aluminum boat 1986-87 vintage. there will be little damage to the hull, lift all the floor boards and check the hull inside if is sound no problems under water however don't wait. Now your committed you will need to put her on the hard stand strip our the interior, don't mess with what is there as it will take twice as long. there nothing cheap in restoring this boat, lets hope your not married as it will cost you big time.

You should also to conceder the following- total cost for the refit and in many cases rebuild like the interior can't be fudged. The final cost will be possible more then buying one with a good reputation ready to go sailing.

Let say you rebuild and refit this boat with lots of love and expense, question you need to ask is what you will own? An ex drug boat owned by jail birds a name change will not remove the boats reputation even if you change the color from white to Blue.

After all that effort you will then be a proud owner of a nice but expensive 80's boat that will take a few years out of your life and possibly your entire spare cash to get every thing right and sailing again.

In my view now it is time to re think your priorities; do you really want to sink your time and hard earned money into a boat that can never shake its reputation?

My Advise is yes she looks sound nice lines, if it was not a drug boat I would consider investing in her, but just maybe but there are seaworthy nice sound boats available at far less then your up for in the refit .

Consider this in the end no matter how much you invest it will not change the boats history.

My advise is think it over, sell it as is, if you can and make a small profit or loss, If your married or have a partner then this move will save domestic havoc.

Use the money from the sell to buy a boat in good repair no bigger then 50' if need be get a loan pay it off instead of investing in the drug boat.

Believe me when I say you will find changing direction it will be far cheaper exercise you can start sailing instead of looking for and buying new gear and working on it. Plus your can enjoy your social life.

One more thing the reality is a 62 feet is a big boat and in go order, is still very expensive to run...buy a 50’ or smaller. Good luck with it.

[RozDev]

It's big job in every sense to step a 25 meter mast!

Had to hire crane to complete it, the de-rigging took a day too.



Yep that's a professional rigger at the top!



The mast hadn't been stepped in over 10 yrs and took quite a lot of vertical pull force (and a couple of taps from a persuader) to get it to 'pop' from its base, but all done without incident.

[RozDev]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

I would definitely go with the renaming, Poseidon would doubtlessly be happy to see his daughter given a new name, to begin a new life with a new "husband" who will be treating her with due respect.


And, the old name may be in scores of law enforcement "be on the watch for..." lists.

Yes I am 90% there on the rename, just have to come up with one now!

[Snowpetrel]

Looking real good! Amazing what a bit of cleaning can do.

Lots of talk on NDT... For aluminium hulls, its useful, to get a rough gauge of thickness in a few spots, but isn't very effective at finding the type of isolated pitting that normally occurs unless you can really narrow down the area to search first.

The usual ultrasound only does isolated spot thickness and its very likely to miss most small corrosion cells. Also Paint and fairing thickness cause issues. Nothing beats poking around inside to find any suspect areas yourself first. Look around frames and stringers, and inside tanks. If you find a suspect area then get the surveyor to probe that area, but even then it's no guarantee.