DIY Boat Restoration

Amazing new footage showing the shipwreck of the USS Richard Montgomery from the 1960’s compared to 2023!

Bomb Ship Richard Montgomery off Sheerness1960s Home Movie Lying dormant for 80 years, the American Liberty Ship SS Richard Montgomery was just 13 months old when sunk by bad weather in August 1944. Crossing the Atla...

If you know, then you know …..🫣

So I realise it’s been a while, and there has been much going on, including new boat, new job etc.
Anyway, long story short, I decided to sell the boat due to time constraints etc. had a buyer who had to pull out in the end, although as he came down from Manchester I let him stay on the boat overnight. Wasn’t a complete loss as he had put two coats of anti-foul on for me 😁.
I have decided on a change of strategy, and will have her surveyed tomorrow. Planning on starting the list of jobs once it’s done!

Finally finished the hull, three coats of Jotun Penguard HB epoxy primer and three coats of SML Shield underwater primer. Just need to sand and polish the top sides.

Quite pleased with the finished job.

Just watching the sun go down at the club after a days painting, I had until 4pm to get two coats on, finished and cleared away by 3.40 👍

Very proud to the receive the boat restoration trophy from my local sailing club this year. Awarded for the restoration of Hermione, a Contest 33!

Just a few photos from a weeks sailing from Corfu!

Finally caught up! Last project post for a while as I am off to Corfu tomorrow for a weeks sailing!
Anyway, the icing on the cake has been sanded back, just need to touch in a few areas.
Believe it or not I do have a plan….but it will be all systems go when I get back! I need to get the first coat of epoxy primer on the hull before the air temperature drops below 10 degrees so keeping my fingers crossed 🤞🏻

The chunk missing on the front edge of the keel has now been replaced by a dollop of JB weld, assisted by some Hempel Profair epoxy filler, sanded and ready for primer. I also gave the keel a coat of epoxy resin once the sanding was finished.

This is the first layer of filler applied and sanded back with 120gt, 240gt and 800gt. One more layer needed which is when I will mix in some colouring so it matches.

Whilst waiting for the icing to dry…..(sorry, filler) I thought I would make start with some of the gelcoat repairs needed to the topsides. Some of these were impact cracks obviously battle scars from sailing round the world on the same wave! These type of repairs are often hard to do as the cracks are often to small to take the gelcoat filler, the only way really to effect a decent repair is to open them up with a dremel type multi-tool. I know it goes against the grain to dig channels in gelcoat, but if you do well with the filler and sanding it should look fine afterwards.

Once the glass was dry the not job was to tidy up with epoxy filler. Bit like icing a cake! 😁

Apologies for the delayed update, you might see a string of posts as I frantically try to catch up. So still filling and fairing, although these are photos from the Skeg repair I had to do, basically the bolts holding the skeg on are fibreglassed over then filled. After around 50 years the glass had started to delaminate so I stripped it back and re-glassed.

DIY Boat Restoration updated their business hours.

DIY Boat Restoration updated their website address.

Even had time this weekend to make a start on filling the areas ground out where blisters were found. Used Hempel Profair which is a 2 part epoxy filler. Really easy to mix and apply, very warm weather so used slightly less catalyst which gave me reasonable working time. Just the starboard side left to fill, then I can look forward to sanding…..

Had another good couple of days this weekend on the boat, finished the keel off with a once over using a grinder and flap disks, then a very rough fill with JB Weld on a damaged area on the leading edge. Finished off with a coat of epoxy resin.

Spent the day cleaning the paint and rust from the keel using a needle gun and compressor. If you want to see how it performed just click the link in my bio for the YouTube channel👍

So again this was my previous boat, difficult to work in such tight spaces but managed it in the end!

Just realised that there are no updates on instagram from my previous projects, thought I would share some before and after photos. My previous project was a 1971 Contest 33, one of the toughest jobs was the removal of the fuel tank!

Just realised that there are no updates on instagram from my previous projects, thought I would share some before and after photos. My previous project was a 1971 Contest 33, one of the toughest jobs was the removal of the fuel tank!

Bargain hunting at the Worthing Boat Jumble!