1972 Keel Up Restoration

This you may not like, I left the side compartment open and I can stow a bunch of skis in there while we are out. I have a snap on fabric cover on the front of the aft deck to the floor, but it is only as wide as the motor well leaving a space for the skis to go all the way to the transom. The cover hides the battery etc.

The front observer seat is the original which is up enough off the floor to allow a knee board to slide under and actually extend up under the deck. All of this allows me to take a bunch of stuff with us and not be in the way. We ski out of our yard so I could keep most everything on the beach, but a lot seems to wind up in the boat.

If I raised the observer seat a little I could get a wake board under it.

I will see if i can find some pictures if you are interested.

jim

 

I am always interested Jim. Right now this project is geared to the transom and side splashwell or motorwell interface - what ever you want to call it. One step at a time. My goal for next weekend is to have the transom fully installed and the sides of the motorwell installed as well. Motorwell sides will double as knees and tie directly to the hull shell. I will support the hull to make sure there are no hooks and the bottom is flat and true. Then the core will go in. Then the 3 stringers will go in.

At this point I am mainly concerned about structure. I do have alot of questions about throttle types and placement but those are better saved for later. I am 57 years old and this will probably be my last restoration and probably my last boat. I want to do it right.

My dad was an antique car guy and he did not get his dream car until he was 70. I am a boat guy and I will not wait that long to get my dream twin rig.

 

Saw your reply on my build thread, thanks. I was also pretty active on Scream and Fly when I had my Hydrostream. I recored it with balsa and plywood. The same old discussions come up regarding materials and my 2 cents is that if you seal it well with resin and keep it dry it doesn't matter if you use wood or foam. I have a question about coring with sheets of foam, with balsa blocks, the scrim lets it conform to the shape of the hull, how does that work with large sheets of material? Cut it in strips? Does it come in blocks on scrim like balsa?

 

The stringers are just to support the floor and really do not need to be all that strong. A couple layers of glass over the foam seems to be plenty. Not familiar with coosa material but if you are using it for the transom, it must be pretty tough.
Laminating your splashwell sides to the floor sounds like overkill, but nothing exceeds like excess. I made my transom with marine plywood duplicating the original. It is plenty strong with twin 150's. No stress cracks yet. I agree about the "I" beam. I'd bet the transom was flexing and the beam was added to "fix" the problem.
What kind of motors are you planning on using?

 

Merc 150's

 

I have 3 days of time to work on the boat. The goal is to get the transom in, get the motorwell side knees in, and get the skeg support plywood area in. Also sand the outside of the hull.

Saturday - Cut the deck to widen the transom area. Check hull on trailer for hooks and support appropriately. Temporarily install the deck to measure and make a transom template and a side splashwell template. Cut 3 1/2" transoms and install one, and cut 4 1/2" splashell sides. Install skeg support area in the hull and tab it in. Drink beer.

Sunday - flip the hull (it is still relatively light at this point) and sand her down. Put hull back on trailer and proper supports. Install final 2 plys of transom. Install side splashell knees 2 per side for 1" thickness. Install one more 1/2" knee inside of the splashwell to double as splashewll bottom support. Tabb them all in. Drink beer.

Monday - Do everything I did not get done. Work on deck up side down to clean up underside and install short pieces of PVC pipe for rigging on the starboard side. Fill all transom holes with fiberglass jelly. Drink beer.

Next time I go up to the shop to work on the boat it will be core installation.

 

Don't forget that you will have hydraulic hoses to run also. Use big pvc or two. You will be surprised at how much room you will need.

jim

 

Good call on using 2 PVC pieces instead of 1 Jim. Does anybody know the difference between 0-90 weave and 45-45 weave on fiberglass cloth?

 

Reinforce joints with 45-45 bid tapes. Large areas like the floor can be either 0-90 or 45-45. Non-woven or unidirectional cloth is strongest but does not conform to curves very well. Most important is to keep the resin to a minimum, just enough to wet out the glass fibers, no more. Attached PDF is from a Lancair aircraft manual regarding 0-90 and 45-45 fiberglass tapes. The link below is to EAA hints for homebuilders. There are several video's at the bottom of the page regarding composite lay up techniques. http://www.eaavideo.org/channel.aspx?ch=ch_hints_composite I used the prepreg technique extensively.

 

The hydodyne I drove in the mid 70's had twin 115 Johnsons on it. When I firewalled the throttles the whole boat almost came out of the water and the acceleration was incredible. Something like 0-40 in 4 seconds. There was even a sticker on the steering wheel that said "do not grip during acceleration"! 1970's Johnsons were not rated at the prop like todays motors are. I was probably playing with 200HP. The reason I am putting alot of beef into the transom and stringers is because of that incredible acceleration. 300HP firewalled will put it all to test. (I am designing the seats also to take that kind of acceleration). That is why there will be 5 knees in the transom. Better to have to much than not enough. With todays modern materials I will have a very light and hot Dyne when I am done.

Ski38off your links were very useful - thanks.