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1st December 2008

Boat bought

Three of us (Joe, Fab and I) found a boat for sale for £1800 on a local website, and it seemed to be fairly well specced, with an engine that had seen only 50 hours since an overhaul, GPS, VHF radio, fish finder, trailer, new battery and overhauled electrics.
I spoke to the guy and he was leaving the island in 5 days so was desperate to sell - I made an offer and it was had for only £1400. Deal!

We believed she was a Shetland, but after some significant research and asking about in forums, we have found that she is in fact a Vanguard Thunderjet (Crazy name for such a boat!).

It looks like there was previously a small kitchen and even a toilet which one of the owners seems to have taken an angle grinder to and completely cut away. Not a prolem, but I can't help but feel that this must have left some of the boat somewhat weaker than it was originally. Another curiosity is the absurdly optimistic estimation that there are 4 to 6 berths in there!

Here's some pics from the day she was bought:


A quick overview suggests there's a heck of a lot of work to do. The previous owner clearly wasn't much of a 'neat freak'. A lot of mess had been left in the cabin, though there were a few useful items including a full set of wet gear, several fishing rods, three fuel tanks, a tackle box, electric sander, glass fiber eqipment, rope and electrical spares. He'd also left lots of grime in there.
The engine does look in good condition, however.

3rd December 2008

Boat Gutted

I've had the week off, so whilst it wasn't raining, I took to stripping the boat, digging down and properly finding out what work was needed. Suffice to say, we've got our work cut out.

The hull is mostly fine; a couple of minor repair jobs and a repaint are all that is necessary. The cabin is functional, but there are some cracks in there, and the perspex used to replace the front screen and skylight isn't so attractive, although quite functional. The electrics are somewhat ropey, and I think these are going to need to be completely stripped and rebuilt. Some details like the previous owner having had screws go directly through the flux of some cables in the loom are somewhat alarming. I'd like to avoid an electrical fire when out at sea!

Following are some images taken as I've stripped the cabin:

I've created a to-do list that we'll all have to work to (and no doubt add to) as we go through the work on the boat. Not only will it keep us on track and reduce omissions in the work needed, but it will also provide a sense of progress on what appears to be quite a daunting task at this stage.


Affix wooden bow hatch panel at base (Perhaps drill speaker holes here for all-range speakers
Mount Hatch with proper hinges and handle.
Fill hole in floor just in front of the door in cabin
Rebuild storage/seating lids & mounts - allow gaps for battery cables on starboard lid.
Possibly fit new roof hatch
Possibly fit new cabin front screen (either new one from manufactuer, or potentially heat & bend perspex then cut to shape).
Rebond front & rear storage compartments together - looks like they have come loose.
Repair base of door sill, create decent seal, re-hinge & add door handle to cabin door. Possibly add a small porthole
Repair pretty serious crack behind electrical board
Create new electrical board with mounts for VHF & Hifi (faraday cage for VHF?).
Gut all wiring after mapping out current circuit

Create new wiring:
2 x Batteries
Battery selector switch
Master switch
Circuit for radio
Hi-fi, possibly with external speakers
Fix navigation lights
Sort out poorly placed flood lightsing
Mount internal and external LED lighting
Repair/lube/replace current steering cable
Replace steering wheel
Repair Bilge pump
Fit fire extinguisher
Remove all old canopy mounts and fill all holes
Sand and varnish roof grab handles
Replace edging on deck
Sand down, fill & neaten steering mechanism box. Possibly mount compass for awesomeness.
Repair s.steel bow rail
Replace screen on deck
Remove engine. Service?
Create new s.steel engine mounting plate
Port rod holder - fiberglas repair needed
Prop - repair
Crack near to aerial needs to be repaired/filled
Possibly create mount for table + build removable table for cabin
Dodgy soft filler on bow/starboard side - replace?
Sand entire boat, inside and out
Paint - grippy paint on the outisde and antifoul under the waterline.
Re-carpet cabin walls
Buy/fit 4hp reserve outboard
Buy new flares
Buy lifejackets

Trailer:
Sandblast whole trailer.
Replace horzontal strut going between the wheels.
Inspect and replace any other dubious structural sections
Check winch - think this only needs wirebrushing and repainting/greasing
Check rollers, trailer mount etc.
Repaint the whole bloody thing.

4th January 20098

Hull Paint pretty much stripped

This was a gruelling and particularly laborious job, involving lying on our backs with paint scrapers in the middle of winter, slowly scraping off the old paint and primer an inch a a time. On top of that, the flakes would fall on your face and somehow always get behind your goggles; joe ended up in A&E with a flake of paint in his eye. Not nice. Further, we had to go over the whole thing again and again with sand paper, attacking the paint that was really stuck fast. It's a job I'd be happy never doing again! Alas, it's done now, and here are the results:




22nd March 2009

Big update!

It has been nearly a couple of months since my last update for which I apologise. On the plus side, there's a whole load that has been updated, so here goes:


Trailer

Ivan has comepletely stripped the trailer down to the bare metal, then rebuilt it with new rollers, jockey wheel and a reinforced cross member between the wheels which was bowing a little. The trailer was in a sorry state originally (check the photos the day we bought the boat), but now it really is as good as new!




Hull work

In order to get at the trailer, and to get at the majority of the hull, we've put the boat on stilts. It was quite a tricky job and she nearly fell off once as we eased the trailer out, but she has been on the stilts for three weeks now so it seems pretty sturdy. The hull has had some serious sanding, and all chips and cracks have been filled and sanded over. I also fiberglassed out a drainage hole that was no longer needed, and looked like it might leak. I think it would be fair to say that we're pretty much ready to paint the hull:



Steering Box

The box that housed the steering mechanism had a laughably poor repair job done to it. It was unsightly, looked weak and not watertight. We've bought a new steering mech, so we decided to completely start from scratch, filling in all the old holes and spending a bit of time doing a decent repair job:



Nose (Bow) section

Again, another shoddy repair job from one of the previous owners - poorly filled such that the shape had been lost, and was all lumpy and just not pretty. Ivan set to it with a grinder, sander and some fresh filler and has made it look a treat! We've bought a decent bow roller to attach to it so we'll be able to store the anchor off the bow of the boat instead of it bounching around on deck.



Bow Rail

The Bow rail had a nasty crack in it, so I took it along to my welding class to weld it back together and give it a decent polish. It's not perfect, but should make it strong enough to be pretty safe. If I get another chance, I might take it down again to fill all the dents and imperfections:



Filling and fiberglassing...

We've done extensive repair work inside the cabin and on the hull - a previous owner has removed what was a small toilet and a sink. In the process, he removed the walls which left the bulkhead of the cabin unsupported. The cabin door didn't fit properly, the surround was cracked and flexed a lot. All cracks have been filled and reinforced with fiberglass. We've also added two wooden struts for strength and to attach the door to in the future. The result is a pretty damned tough bukhead which doesn't flex even if you give it quite a lot of grief. Other small holes from fixtures no longer used have been removed to make everything that bit more sturdy and watertight.
It has been really quite time consuming, but I think we're near the end of the repairs and filling - we'll soon be at the more exciting stage where we get to add features and gizmos onto the boat. We're still trying to figure a name though!



15th April 2009

Paint starting to go on...

Finally, what seemed like an endless chore of scraping, sanding, filling, sanding and yet more filling, we've actually arrived at the stage where we can start putting paint on the hull. We used special 'anti-osmosis' gel coat primer that you buy in grey or green so you can tell how many layers you've put on. It's not cheap at £25 a pot, and I think it's going to take four pots to prime it completely. Then there's the small matter of the anti-foul paint that comes in at a cool £45 a pot! As they say, a boat is a hole in the water that allows you to pour your money in...

Nevertheless, here are the pics of the primer coats going on:


Door and Door Frame

It looks like the lower edge of the door seal had taken a lot of grief over the years. It was in a sorry state, but with some TLC, filler and an angle grinder, we've made it look pretty neat. Coupled with a decent door seal, I'm hoping not too much water is going to get into the cabin.
I'm not too sure exactly why, but we decided to make a new door too. This was cut from 12mm marine ply (also expensive), given three coats of ronseal woodstain so it matches the roof rails, and then coated with marine varnish so it lasts a while. It still needs mounting, and I'm not sure how the latch/lock is going to fit just yet, but so far, so good:



Storage bin covers

Whilst we had the carpentry kit out, we created a couple of new lids for the storage units. I've included a photo of the original rotten, poorly fitting lid that they were replacing. I think these are going to be painted white eventually.




Removed manky windows

The front and roof windows were in a horrible condition so have been removed. We have rounded the edges of the frame so we will be able to fit a window seal... we still need to find some decent perspex to build the replacement windoww, which should be fun.




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