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ChrisParticipant
Its a Duffin hull.
Well worth saving, well done!
ChrisParticipantLooking again at the wood the grain is running in an odd direction for a hardwood chock. This implies that it was once plywood, has been marinading in the bottom of the boat for ages, has delaminated and fallen apart. Most GP chocks are about 8mm I think. I made mine out of tufnol. If you use that as a pattern I would significantly reduce the size of the T as it’ll get caught on the Genoa sheets.
If for any reason you can’t resurrect the cleat the Harken ones knock spots off all the others and are well worth the extra cost.
- This reply was modified 5 years, 3 months ago by Chris.
ChrisParticipantpiece of wood could be a (very) thin mast gate chock.
ChrisParticipantI’ve just checked, they’re part no HSB56 and readily available.
About £3
Unusual these days!
ChrisParticipantThose 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.
ChrisParticipantI’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!
ChrisParticipantthe 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.
ChrisParticipantIve 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.
ChrisParticipantWhat 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!
ChrisParticipantBasically 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).
ChrisParticipantLooks 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.
ChrisParticipantIf you take the boards out it’s a matter of time before you get leaky buoyancy tanks.
They do serve a purpose!
ChrisParticipantash 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.
ChrisParticipant1) 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.
ChrisParticipantThe 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.
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