GP14 Sailing Forums Forum The Re-hull project

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    • #9399
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      About 4  years ago I had been planning to do some pretty serious wood to GP 2289 to turn her back into a boat again (the only boat in the boatyard that wouldn’t fill up with water when the cover blew off in a storm and had the opposite problem when  sailing!).  Anyway some poking with a screwdriver around the bottom of the mast step found some new rot (i.e. rot that wasn’t there when i’d checked a few years before) so I decided the original hull was not economically salvageable, which was a shame as she was a fairly unmolested R R Sills hull and aside from the need to bail frequently was a joy to sail.
      As I had all the bits except the hull I kept my eye open for a suitably cheap replacement hull and about a year later a GRP hull with a rotten wooden deck appeared on Ebay, £50 was paid so I now have another hull. It is a Bourne Plastics GRP hull (some where in the 8 or 9 thousands I think, will check the hull number later) with a wooden deck by R Moore of Wroxham. The GRP bit is like new however the plywood on the deck has seen better days. The wooden framework under the deck is 90% ok with one or two small areas which will require replacing or more wood scarphing in.
      I salvaged all the fittings, foils and deck (which I’ve kept as a reference for where the fittings go) off 2289. Most of the hull was still pretty solid and I didn’t really want to waste it so a fairly large chunk of the aft end (the lower portion of the hull from the thwart to the transom) I have re-purposed as a very large bookcase in my living room.
      Having had the new hull for about 3 years now I’ve finally started work, the aim is to have the new deck and a coat of varnish on by the end of the summer and maybe the fittings on and sailing by the frostbite series.
      I’m noticing a definite difference in quality between the beautifully quality accurately cut R R Sills Precision Woodwork and R Moores who seem to have scrimped wherever possible. Not sure if it’s to save weight but the bit of wood the deck fastens to between the stem and the mast and it’s counterpart on the aft deck are pine on the new boat whereas the old boat it was mahogany (I’m going to re-make this). The plywood Moores used is definitely an inferior grade (hence it’s a delaminating rotten mess). Also where the fibreglass meets the deck behind the gunnel it’s sandwiched between two bits of wood, rather than using bolts and some sort of adhesive, Moores have clench nailed it together with copper boat nails through the fibre glass with no evidence of any adhesive! I’m now removing the boat nails, gluing on the outer strip and bolting it through with stainless which should make the hull slightly stiffer.

    • #9402
      Oliver Shaw
      Moderator

      I commiserate with you on the demise of your Sills boat;   they were regarded at the time as the then Rolls Royce of GP14 builders,  and even only a very few years ago there was a comment on the website of West Kirby SC,  a top racing club, n that “Those old Sills boats were good.”   Incidentally they also built Herons,  and we have one in my club.

       

      My second GP14 was a Sills one,  much loved,  which I had from either 1967 or ’68 until the mid-seventies.

       

      I had a tour of their works in the late sixties.    They told me that they were not primarily boatbuilders;   that was just a sideline.   Their primary work was industrial patternmaking,  making hardwood precision patterns for forming male moulds for industrial precision casting;   they would be used to form “sand” female moulds,  then the hardwood pattern removed,  and finally the molten metal poured in.   The particular area they were working in required the finished casting to be as accurate as possible prior to machining.   No wonder they were very firmly into precision woodwork.

       

      They told me the delightful story of an order which they had just completed for the Army,  who wanted a fleet of six GP14s for recreation and training;    but they would never be raced in civilian competition,  and there was no need for them to measure to Class Rules,  so perhaps some short cuts could be taken in the build,  and the Army wanted a competitive price.

       

      The contract was agreed,  and Sills built the boats.  And they did indeed take some short cuts;  instead of measuring and checking everything,  they simply built them to their existing jigs without any other measurements.

       

      Then,  for their own satisfaction,  when they had finished they took one at random and put it through a full measurement check.    The biggest discrepancy that they found was 1/16 inch!

       

       

      Oliver

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