Destroying a perfectly good boat

I haven’t written for a while, because like many others our life has been slow paced, fairly home based, with not much going on. With renovations on the house complete, we took some time to recover but in November an opportunity arose that took Ian to Sheffield for the day. Not the most likely place to purchase a boat, but that’s what he did! Just before catching the last ferry of the day home, he sent me this photo.

As you may know, when we lived in London we had a yacht and really enjoyed sailing, but before we moved we sold her, not knowing where we would live and if she would work where we would be living.

Living on a small island of course a boat works! But this time, we are thinking speed over sail, and if I’m honest, I’d always preferred being under power not sail (Ian doesn’t fully agree), but this little diamond in the rough looked perfect. 

Small, perfectly formed, and ready for some Ian magic to be performed. She’s a Fletcher speedboat built in the 1980’s with a 40hp engine. Apparently her most recent life has been ferrying her owner to the pub on the canal, so she hasn’t had much work done, but she is sound and has much potential.

As we have learnt with our previous boat restoration, taking apart and prepping for the final finish is the time consuming bit, so this is what we did.  

 

Firstly, the blue vinyl interior needed to go, it’s dated and although not tatty, it doesn’t have the look we are striving for! 

Next the engine needed to come off and be renovated but before you can remove an engine, you need somewhere to store it. Now, you can purchase a stylish, expensive  special boat engine trolley, or, you can make one from a sack trolley…

 ta da…

The engine removal became a community event, with our amazing neighbours helping with the removal. Much laughter, multiple ideas on the best way forward and comedy faces left me struggling to document the activities due to laughter induced camera shake. However, the deed was done, and we could begin the mighty task of preparing the hull.

Removing all the instruments, sanding, sanding more, epoxy resin filling holes, fiberglassing where needed, sanding, filling, sanding and filling (I’m having flashbacks to writing this about our walls!!!).

We strengthened areas that needed it, created a proper lazerette (a small compartment) at the rear, which will look neater once we put everything back together. Everything was epoxied so it’s good and strong. We sanded the hull once more, just to be sure it was as smooth as possible. 

As the weather became colder we moved inside where new rear seats were created.

We managed to keep the side panels, removing the old vinyl to use as a template.

Never had I imagined I would be sewing vinyl at Christmas! 

Finally, we painted the inside, so she looked tidy by the end of the year in one place, at least!