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After much contemplation and a rethought inflatable boat project, we decided to buy a 'real' boat. She's a 1981 13' Boston Whaler, in need of some work!
I love a project and with Bonnie's loving encouragement, we found this on Craigslist, right here in Brunswick. Its too bad I didn't start photographing earlier then this. This is after 2 power-washes! And the old outboard removal. Alas, this is where we will start.
Another view; Not sure if this wood was original, but it could have been 40 years old. Next step, strip everything out.
It took an entire day to get her stripped out. So many rotted screws. The end result was a little encouraging.
Rust does not come right off fiberglass! Note the new bottom paint. I had it flipped over and sanded to bottom. Patched a couple of holes and used some Eco-friendly Petit bottom paint. Its interesting how boat paint works. It actually is designed to kill stuff that tries to attach to it. We will see how well this product performs at the end of the season. She will be sitting in the mudflats at low tide. I hope it isn't covered with barnacles.
This was not easy to remove! It involved a sawsall and a 19 oz Allagash brew!
I'm so grateful to have a workshop to do these projects in.
Chrome railing ready for polishing! Sometimes it pays not being a perfectionist!
2 more power washes and a bottle of Simple Green later..
Very thankful the last owner replaced the rub rail. Next step, lets start installing the new wood
Put plenty of thought into cutting my own, but decided to buy a kit from Specialty marine. One of the best decisions I have made. I simply added 2 more coats of varnish. Specialty Marine
Piece by piece the wood went in! Finally signs of progress.
Moved her into the garage and started the more delicate items. Note chrome railing installed. Hole for steering helm. Measure 4 times drill once!
Brand new Suzuki 20hp. Steering cable installed. I also thru-bolted the outboard. New outboards are so much easier on the environment and due to my lack of mechanical skills, a necessity!
Its very hard to fix something like that on the open seas!
Control cables and wiring installed! That was tricky.
Wow, getting there! Mid June, but that's ok.
Launch is successful with help from my friend John. Sorry about the hat!
Pulley system took some trial and error! Set it up with the kayak 1st.
I started with a 50lb pyramid anchor; found out the hard way that wasn't big enough. Moved to a 100 pound model. That's not easy to move around! I did it without falling overboard though. No old metal pulley that seaweed gets caught up in. We will see how it holds up with Henri on the way!
I've taken this out several times with friends and family, it runs great and is a nice size for us! Maybe I'l put a couple of lobster traps next year!
End of the season is here! I took her out of the water yesterday. I'd say the project was well worth the effort.
Even though I got a late start, not really launching until mid June, I think we took her out a dozen times. Every time that Suzuki started right up! One nice feature of this little boat, is it has oar locks. I didn't need to use them once. Also the bottom paint worked very well. No barnacles to remove. The outboard is getting winterized by the outfit that sold it to me, one quick cleaning, then covered up for the winter. Just a couple of rattles to fix in the spring, and maybe add a bimini top. The pulley system worked pretty well. A couple of times the rope got so tangled I couldn't pull the boat in, so I took an impromptu swim. I didn't really love trekking across the mucky weed grass, but its hard to complain about that kind of problem!
If I wind up throwing out a couple of lobster traps next year, I'll update this page with that process!
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