Living for nature

[Infinite-Foamy]

My name is Eric, I am a senior in highschool and currently restoring my 88' F350, I just aquired my dads 81' Tartan 3000 and am begining to restore the cabin so I can put her in the water next season, wondering what is the best fabric for the cushions, What should i use to replace the floor(on a budget), If a composting toilet is a possibility? and If i can still use the loran unit my dad gave me, if not what should i purhcase? or just use my charts? Any coast guard safety courses I should take?

Also just picked up a 89' winner escape, when putting the cover on as I got to the back, the trailer rotated on the axle until it bottomed out. What would be the easiest way to put more weight on the tounge?
Happy boating,
Eric

[atoll]

if you are doing this on a limited budget,any lightweight polyester canvas type material will do for covers,sunbrella is the good stuff,but expensive,or scotch guard furniture upholstry is also used.
you also may want to replace the foam if it has deteriourated,as it can let off toxic isocynate gas in a degraded state.

floors are generally 12-16 mm plywood,an exteriour grade hardwood faced ply will do the trick if painted below and varnished on the edges and above.

loran you can give to your local museum!
gps handheld or bulkhead mounted with external antenna are fairly cheap and dependable.

do not know abouth composting heads ,but there is plenty of info on cf,use the search on the cf control panel.

i would do some basic reading first before doing any courses,lots of sailing and navigation primers available through amazon etc.

see my thread for boat building ideas,under my signature

if you leave your trailer hooked up to the tow bar it cannot bottom out

happi daze

[marshmat]

Hey there Eric, good to have you on here.

Point by point:

Fabric - I've given up on anything resembling vinyl or fake leather. Sunbrella over closed-cell (lifejacket) foam is where it's at, IMHO.

By 'floor', I hope you mean 'sole'. (The sole is what you walk on in the cabin; the floors are the transverse framing members underneath it.) There's a lot you can do with even relatively cheap plywood and a bit of epoxy- "MDO" sign-painter's plywood, and concrete formwork plywood, tend to be good, solid, water-resistant stuff and cost much less than "marine grade".

Loran's not really supported anymore in most of North America. You'd be hard pressed to find up-to-date loran charts these days, let alone a loran transmitter that's still operational. But a GPS USB puck is something like $40 and, combined with an old laptop running Linux and OpenCPN, will beat most fancy chartplotters from the turn of the century. That's just a tool, though; learning the art of navigation is a journey in itself.

Definitely take a few introductory classes if you don't already know the COLREGS, sailing theory, etc. They're fun, not too pricey, and can save you a lot of expensive, painful trouble. Here in Canada I'd talk to the Power & Sail Squadron; someone closer to you might have better local advice.

As for your imbalanced trailer, a photo would really help. It sounds like the winch stand (and therefore boat) are too far back.

You might consider posting technical questions in individual threads rather than all in one post. It'd make the discussion easier to follow.

[Celestialsailor]

Welcome Eric. I found cheap Sunbrella on ebay. Just have to be patient for the right color. I did and saved hundreds. What do you have for floors now? Scrap the loran and buy a new handheld GPS for $100. You won't regret it. My first boat came with an RDF (Radio Detection Finder). I would pull out an old chart turn the antenna to the best reception and see how many degrees it was off North. You needed 2 different signals to get a fix. Of course I was a mile away by the time I figured out where I was. Some how I always ended up where I wanted to go.

[Bash]

Originally Posted by Infinite-Foamy

and If i can still use the loran unit my dad gave me, if not what should i purhcase? or just use my charts?

Welcome to the forum, Eric.

As a general rule, don't trust any electronic navigational instrument that's older than you.

That loran unit belongs in a museum, not on a boat.

[Infinite-Foamy]

Originally Posted by Bash

Welcome to the forum, Eric.

As a general rule, don't trust any electronic navigational instrument that's older than you.

That loran unit belongs in a museum, not on a boat.

no matter how much i rely on technology as a teenager, I understand that you can't pull to the side of the ocean and ask someone for directions, so I will never fully trust an electronic navigational device; charts, compass, sextant, etc is best imo.

[Infinite-Foamy]

ok so i need to replace the 'sole', boat had water sitting in the cabin for years as the cockpit drained into the cabin due to rotted hoses which i replaced. ripped the sole up but saved it in two large pieces for a pattern. the floor or fiberglass bulkheads are a-okay

[Infinite-Foamy]

Replacing the foam for the cushions most definitely as there have been multiple squirrels and numerous mice/rats living in them as well as black mold, nasty stuff that I don't want to take a chance with.

sorry for the multiple replies, can you qutoe multiple posts in one reply?

as for posting these questions here instead of in a more suited area, one person replied to my post several weeks back and just told me to use the loran as a door stop but didnt answer any other questions and no one else jumped in so i figured id try here...

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by Bash

Welcome to the forum, Eric.

As a general rule, don't trust any electronic navigational instrument that's older than you.

That loran unit belongs in a museum, not on a boat.

ahhh...so you do have a sextant.

[Celestialsailor]

Eric...click on each icon like this you want to quote. Then the last person, click this and fill in between the quotes you wish to comment. Took me years to figure all this stuff out.

[SunDevil]

Pick a fabric color that won't fade in the Sun. And that will hide dirt or be able to be washed by hand easily.

There is a small business here that recovers cushions and makes boat covers, maybe you should get a quote from a local company to recover them. I've tried to do upholstery before, and it didn't turn out so great, was time consuming, and the cost of having this company to do it wouldn't have been much.

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha and welcome aboard!
Good to have you here. Yes, that's great you saved the cabin sole for a pattern. Use the best grade exterior ply you can afford. Varnish the nicest side and that'll be up. Paint the other side and that'll be down. Use the best grade paint you can afford. Many swear by some of the new latex but I always still use oil based.
There are more appropriate threads for these questions but you have to click on the forum and pick one and be specific in the subject line.
kind regards,

[Cormorant]

For the trailer, your axles and shocks are probably held onto the frame by big U-bolts. Jack up the whole trailer and block it up safely. Move the axle back a foot or so. See if you can get an accurate measurement of the tongue weight. For good trailering (no highway wobbles) you want 10% to 15% of the total [trailer + boat weight] to be on the tongue.