My Short Haul Refit

[Sailor of Fortune]

Lots of work but I agree with teakless deck. I'll second the KIWI grip scenario on that deck.

[Underway]

Originally Posted by O C Diver

Specs for the Cherubini 45'

LOA 45'
LWL 42'
Beam 14' 6"
Draft 4' 6"
Displacement 32K to 36K depending on the source.

Ted

I'm curious if any of these hulls had trim tabs, and if you know whether they helped get the boat on plane (with the original engine). Tabs are essential to get our OA out of the hole in a reasonable amount of time, and can then be retracted most of the way once the boat is over the hump (such as it is for a semi planning hull). By the way, I think your re-engine was the right move for that hull and will pay off nicely when you eventually sell.

[O C Diver]

Few more external projects :

The boat has side fuel tanks that have fill ports in the corner of the back wall of the salon. the fillers are mounted on these chessey plastic castings that are recessed into the wall. They are awkward to access. They're likely ok if your fuel dock has light automotive style fueling nozzles. The commercial nozzles with their heavy 2" hoses proved to be too much for the plastic as they both cracked.



The solution was to fill the holes and properly glass them over. Fabricate wedge shapes out of coosa to mount the filler pipes to. The wedges had to have enough angle so that the nozzles won't fall out of the fill pipes. They're properly attached to the wall and 2 layers of bi-axial cloth were molded over them to the wall to guarantee they will support the weight of any nozzle I can stick in the filler pipes. The one concession is that they're no longer recessed in the wall. I'm good with this as it was a bear to get the caps off.



I'm always amazed how Sean can take a piece of bi-axial cloth, mold it over a protrusion, and get it to lay flat against the wall. There are no cuts in that piece of cloth that is molded!



Sanded up and ready for gel coat fairing.



This hull has chines and there is no coring near the water line. As a result, when at anchor in modest chop, you get chine slap when waves trap air in the chine pockets. The sound reverberates in the master cabin as the is no coring in the hull to muffle it. This is an attempt to eliminate the pockets that the air gets trapped in. Coosa was bonded in to fill the void. Then bi-axial cloth was layered over it. Finally fairing it with gel coat. Should work.






The boat has a double anchor pulpit and. Below it is a strike plate of sheet pvc warped to conform to the hull. The strike plate was through bolted with 1/2" lag bolts. Most of the holes had cracked outward and the pvc was ugly. Thought about having one made out of stainless which became cost prohibitive. So Sean faired the bow and covered it with mold release paper. Then he laid up in fiberglass a strike plate of the same size and shape as the pvc one. The idea is to have one held in place with more modest screws so that it can be removed and repainted if I get careless. Haven't decided whether to match or contrast the hull color.

The bow pulpit was another nightmare story. There was a fair amount of flex to the pulpit. To the point where all the bondo in, under, and around it had cracked. after grinding out all the bondo, it was clear that there was 1 or 2 layers of fiberglass covering a laminated stack of plywood. The good news was that the plywood was dry and solid. So Sean added many layers of bi-axial cloth to the front sides and bottom of the pulpit glassing it back to the hull. The idea is to form a channel like a piece of structural steel. Don't remember how many layers of cloth went into it, but it's now solid as a rock. The tough part is making it stronger but trying to keep the appearance close to the original.






So if you spend your days glassing and painting boats, what do you do for stress relief? Sean duck hunts on Chesapeake Bay and it's tributaries. He has a fiberglass boat that he wanted 2' longer. His uncle who owns 1/2 the marina has the same boat. Uncle Eldon made his 2' longer which greatly improved tracking, stability, and actually increased the speed. So Sean is lengthening his. The boat has molded in lapstrake. So Sean built a new transom out of coosa board. He then built a mold for the extension so that the lapstrake will continue to the new transom. Once the class work is done, he will remove the inner mold.





With patience and dedication like that, I'm glad he's doing the work on my boat!

Ted

[Marlinmike]

Ted great project and love your sense of humor, keep the progress reports coming, enjoy following along!

[O C Diver]

Sanding, will it ever end?

Most of the construction, repair, and modification was Finished in the fall. That is to say everything but the sanding and fairing. Sean spends the next 2 to 3 months sanding, fairing, and removing the last of the bondo. Meanwhile, I'm inside the boat connecting engine systems, the generator, hydronic cabin heating system off the engine, and the new air conditioners. You have to imagine working inside a fiberglass box that someone is sanding on with machines most of the time. In spite of the boat being closed up, the fine dust from sanding finds it's way in side. Everything is coated with dust. Can't imagine how many days it will take to clean the inside of the boat. Outside is much worse. It's winter now and the building is closed up. Everything is covered in dust. It resembles a fresh dirty snow fall.



On the left side of the pic all the way forward is my parts table. Most things that came off the boat and will be reinstalled are labeled and put on that table. Everything is covered with an 1/8" of dust. Find what your looking for, blow it off, and go install it. In the beginning it drove me nuts. After a while I just stopped caring.


Then one day the sanding nightmare is over. It's time to clean the building and prep for the first round of painting. It may have taken a week to clean the boat and everything in the building. We literally hauled trash cans full of sanding dust to the dumpster. There were trash cans full of sanding paper and sanding discs for various machines. Here are some pics of the shop floor which is really grey not white, and the boat getting ready to be masked off.
















Next up it's pictures from round one of painting. These pictures are awesome and make the preceding 8 months all worth while!

Ted

[healhustler]

Awesome Awesome Awesome!!!!

[Forkliftt]

Ditto Ditto!! Waiting for the initial paint pictures


1983 Present 42 Sundeck
Twin Lehman 135's
✌️

[Pack Mule]

Man your killing us . Love all the work . This is one sweeeeeet ride.

[O C Diver]

Painting with Awlgrip:

Now we are to the painting phase. The hull is all sanded and faired. Here is how the process will go. After all the masking is done, the areas that aren't getting painted the first day are covered to avoid over spray. Sean does all the painting, so the boat is broken down into several days of painting. The hull is wiped down with paint prep the night before to remove any last traces of wax, etc. First he will shoot 2 light coats of primer. This is to make the surface compatible with the Awlgrip paints. Then he shoots 1 to 3 coats of Ultrabuild (primer and ultabuild shot the same day). This is a thicker primer that will fill all the pin pricks, slight scratches, sanding marks, etc. in the fiberglass, gel coat, and West system surface .The number of coats is determined by the fairness of the surface. If he could do the entire boat at one time, he would then sand the Ultrabuild. Sanding the Ultrabuild produces the final fairness of the hull. After sanding the ultra build, he will wipe the boat down again. Then come 2 more light coats of primer. After the primer the hull will be sanded lightly for the last time with 400 grit paper and wiped down again. Top coat is 2 or 3 coats depending how it looks after 2. So to recap: 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of ultabuild all on the first day so they can chemically adhere together. Then sand the boat. 2 coats of primer on the same day. Sand lightly. 2 or 3 coats of top coat on the last day. Since the boat is to big to do all at once. He will paint all the sections with ultrabuild before sanding, then he will paint all the sections with primer before starting the final sanding. Top coat will be painted in sections also, and there are 3 colors.

Here is a couple of boat units worth of paint. Not all the reducer is for me. Sadly, none of the top coat is on the table or in the price.





The next 4 pictures are after the first day of painting. Yup, Sean did 4 coats of the hull and back deck in one day......and half of that evening. Dedication!










This last pic is from Thursday afternoon when the last of the ultrabuild was completed.



Some will tell you it's possible to do the painting in less steps (coats). It may very well be possible.......but not on my boat.

Coming next will be some of the inside projects.

Ted

[healhustler]

Holy crap! Does Sean have a wife and kids that I can kidnap and get him to do work on my boat?

[BruceK]

Stunning truly amazing work. Your boat is a showpiece, a credit to you and Sean. Better than new!

[Pack Mule]

Wow Ted ,This is really something . Now this is the way to prep one for paint .

[fryedaze]

Ted, when do you think you will be back in the water? If I am out this spring I may hit Somers Cove.

[mbevins]

You do realize you've created Sean's worst nightmare... 50 grown lusting men wanting his telephone number.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Trawler

[O C Diver]

Guys, I appreciate all the kind words. This has truly been an epic project that I won't repeat. But when I look at it now, I can't help but smile from ear to ear!

Originally Posted by healhustler

Holy crap! Does Sean have a wife and kids that I can kidnap and get him to do work on my boat?

Larry, don't know if you missed that part about duck hunter. He has more guns than Manyboats has anchors. Sean is very conservative and protective of his family (wife, 2 kids and dog). I imagine he would hunt you down and field dress (gut) you so that you would remember not to do it again, before he killed you. Intentionally hurting his dog (Roxie) would probably be a fatal mistake.

Ted

[O C Diver]

Originally Posted by fryedaze

Ted, when do you think you will be back in the water? If I am out this spring I may hit Somers Cove.

My guess is April or May. Waiting to see how long sanding the Ultrabuild takes. Let me know if your coming over, would like to stop by and say hello.

Ted

[healhustler]

Originally Posted by O C Diver

Larry, don't know if you missed that part about duck hunter. He has more guns than Manyboats has anchors. Sean is very conservative and protective of his family (wife, 2 kids and dog). I imagine he would hunt you down and field dress (gut) you so that you would remember not to do it again, before he killed you. Intentionally hurting his dog (Roxie) would probably be a fatal mistake.

Ted

Yeah, yeah, but would he work on my boat?

[O C Diver]

Originally Posted by healhustler

Yeah, yeah, but would he work on my boat?

From what I can tell he likes money. Probably could even make Bucky looky purdy.

Ted

[Nsail]

Wow! This is why I joined the Navy, ... er Trawler Forum

[Sailor of Fortune]

Originally Posted by O C Diver

From what I can tell he likes money. Probably could even make Bucky looky purdy.

Ted

I think Bucky is already purdy. She may not be everybodys' cup of tea, but she looks to fulfill her mission statement/design admirably!!