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  • in reply to: Replace plywood bottom #19395
    Chris
    Participant

    Those are Harken ones. You can get the springs, I think P&B do them. If they don’t give Harken themselves a call and see if they’ll help.

    The whole fitting is actually quite expensive compared to most but they are very, very good and well worth keeping.

    in reply to: Replace plywood bottom #19341
    Chris
    Participant

    I’d probably make the flaps out of one piece and secure in the middle – the rudder retraining clip would be an adequate fixing point. They’d look like a figure on 8 on its side.

    As for in use the last time I capsized a mk 1 GP was many years ago in a boat with a bow bag. I dont recall the flaps being much use. A bow tank is not only more buoyant, it keeps the water from sloshing all round the boat and this is vital to getting the flaps to work. I think in a bow tank boat they’ll work pretty well.

    I think 2x 36×12 bags in the back and 2x 34×9 under the benches was standard. But its been a while!

    in reply to: Replace plywood bottom #19331
    Chris
    Participant

    the best stuff to use is 1mm Lexan. You’ll get it off eBay, just watch the size and make sure it’s big enough. No hinges are required with this stuff and the best way is to use one piece to cover both holes I think. You can cut it with good scissors or a band saw.

    Generally if these are leaking its because you’re sitting too far back in the boat.

    in reply to: Replace plywood bottom #19244
    Chris
    Participant

    Ive just picked up a Duffin Mk1 13063 thats destined for the bonfire. Case, hog and floor rotten. The rest of it looks very good, it looked great until the floorboards came out! Its been left with the water pooled around closed bailers which I suspect is what happened to yours too.

    I did wonder if there’d be any takers for it as a Mk2 conversion but I doubt it. Shame.

    in reply to: Replace plywood bottom #19178
    Chris
    Participant

    What I should also say is that you’re not just removing the keel to dry and replace the keel. What is underneath is actually far more important and fiddly to repair if it goes wrong. That was why I took the keel off mine, it was wet, not rotten and would have dried on its own in a week or three. What was underneath the keel however was also sodden and would have taken many months to dry. Also I was unaware of it until the keel was off and by now it would probably have rotted the play out again and we’d have been back to square one.

    I’m a big believer in only doing this sort of work once!

    in reply to: Replace plywood bottom #19177
    Chris
    Participant

    Basically with the bands off if it falls off its got to come off! Beyond that the glue join will be degraded so gentle encouragement should see the borderline wood come away. If you are towards the ends of the boat I’d go all the way.

    Mine was at the bow and wasn’t actually rotten, just extremely wet. I drilled holes in it to establish the extent of the wet timber, cut at an angle (Not especially steep) and used a wide chisel to remove the section which was just over a foot. The only things holding it on were paint and nails, the glue had gone completely.

    Re assembly was the reverse of removal and I used the same wood – once dry it was fine. I filled the core sample holes with plugs from an old GP side bench (Rotten mk1 GPs are an excellent source of good quality hardwood).

    in reply to: Replace plywood bottom #19170
    Chris
    Participant

    Looks good – and not an especially bad job on one of these. I think making the patch bigger makes it easier to be honest.

    Keep it up – the boat looks well worth saving.

    in reply to: Floorboards #19165
    Chris
    Participant

    If you take the boards out it’s a matter of time before you get leaky buoyancy tanks.

    They do serve a purpose!

    in reply to: Replace plywood bottom #19074
    Chris
    Participant

    ash and obeche are not dissimilar in colour once aged a bit, both are a paleish yellow. Ash has a more obvious grain pattern. The stringers *might* I suppose be ash, its not especially heavy and a GP is a heavy boat but I’ve yet to see a 12xxx numbered hull with anything other than obeche stringers.

    Obeche is also significantly more prone to rot, so I’d say if they’re rotten they’re almost certainly obeche. We had a similar quandary with the stem on my boat which was very rotten and we couldn’t decide between the two – Alistair confirmed it was obeche.

    in reply to: Replace plywood bottom #19070
    Chris
    Participant

    1) Use something hard for your bilge keels. Obeche is too soft.

    2) You’ll want to fillet your joints, glass tape can trap moisture which then cant escape. fillets are stronger.

    3) it might be worth drilling some holes into the keel to see what the core sample is like. If its dry and doesn’t want to come off leave well alone. if its wet then its worth encouraging it to come off. Wet and rotten are not the same thing, the front 3ft of keel on mine was absolutely saturated with water. I took it off, dried it, and replaced the same wood. I then plugged the holes with some mahogany. Its. better safe than sorry here as water can bleed down the ply and degrade the glue joints to the structural frames. Epoxy is better, but it still happens and you’d be surprised at how much cascamite is used in boats that you’d automatically assume are epoxy throughout.

    in reply to: Crazy idea? #19061
    Chris
    Participant

    The stringers tend to be Obeche which is light weight but quite soft. Readily available.

    Hull ply wants to be 6mm 5 core marine ply. Robbins in Bristol supply the best stuff, Elite should be sufficient as it won’t need to be a Sapele face. Be very, very careful with wood from other suppliers as ply sold as “marine” can vary enormously in quality and the last thing you want is to spend hours fixing your boat with 3 core okume ply and for it to fail in 18 months time. Buy cheap, fix twice.

    in reply to: Crazy idea? #19046
    Chris
    Participant

    Depending upon what you intend to use the boat for, the wooden one will be faster, lighter, stiffer, stronger, and if in otherwise good condition less likely to go wrong than an old single skin grp hull.

    I’m not a fan of the old glass boats for anything other than pottering purposes. And even then it needs to be an exceptional example these days! Most lost their floorboards decades ago and as a consequence have leaky buoyancy. Then you get those that are over tensioned (remember, highfield levers were not standard in this days, you used a horn cleat and hook rack) either pulling out the shroud anchorage or breaking the boat’s back under the mast.

    A really good one will be an excellent cruising boat. but these are very few and far between!

    I’d sort the wooden one, especially if its by a good builder and in otherwise decent order.

    in reply to: drain plugs #18964
    Chris
    Participant

    If we are talking about a wooden mk1 boat I would be wary about installing screw bungs or even socketed plastic bungs. The bottom of the transom is a notorious rot spot and the holes drilled into the bottom that accept corks or rubber bungs will remove water almost down to the last drop. If you install a screw bung you will move the bottom of the hole up several milimeters and will trap a surprising amount of water on top of this vulnerable area. The push in plastic ones are better but it’ll still trap more water than leaving as is.

    Tight fitting corks in my experience are fine 🙂 I can count on one hand the times ive had one come out in 20 years of dinghy racing

    in reply to: FRP cracking – a problem ? #18705
    Chris
    Participant

    FRP/GRP doesn’t necessarily mean low maintenance – just different maintenance.

    Even relatively new FRP boats have a lot of ply in them in key areas to add reinforcement for fitting attachment, local high stress etc. These can and do rot out (Poor coating) and can be quite expensive to put right. Look closely for signs of this, the through deck sheeted boats have a particularly awkward piece where the Genoa track sits under the deck and is a common failure.

    You will struggle to find an entry level series 2 FRP hull that doesn’t have some gelcoat damage similar (But not as extensive) to the one you’ve seen. GPs tend to be built with a thick gelcoat layer and polyester resins and gelcoats shrink over time which leads to cracking and star crazing especially on the decks. If you press the panel and its stiff this is nothing to worry about (And if you fix it it’ll probably come back weeks later) if its soft this is definately structural damage and will need to be sorted.

    in reply to: FRP cracking – a problem ? #18676
    Chris
    Participant

    Hmmmmm.

    I would say that this isn’t structural actually (Sorry Oliver), but is certainly not a 5 minute job to put right if you were wanting to do it properly.

    This looks to me like classic UV/heat damage where the boat has either been left uncovered or sweating under a PV cover. There is an old repair in the middle of the photo, but this is not the root of the problem.

    To fix it you would need to remove all of the affected gelcoat and re-apply, or – significantly easier -paint the decks. There shouldn’t be any need to apply glass, this only affects the gelcoat.

    Does it need doing? No, not really

    Would it bother me? Yes.

    Would I buy this boat? No.

    Hope this helps 🙂

    • This reply was modified 4 years, 11 months ago by Chris.
    • This reply was modified 4 years, 11 months ago by Chris.
Viewing 15 posts - 31 through 45 (of 56 total)