My new Trawler project

[hallp]

Hi All,
I have recently joined the forum as I purchased a 1979 Blue Seas Trawler as a project boat. I am from a sailing background so I have a lot to learn about this type of boating. I look forward to any advice received from the vast experience of forum members here.
one of the first major projects I tackled was replacing the fly bridge deck as it was soft and spongy. I used Balsa core for this job to keep weight down.
A few pictures attached showing progress.
Please let me know if you see anything wrong, this is all new to me.
Cheers

[Peter B]

Welcome to the forum. You have bitten off a real project there, but by the sound of it, you are not that intimidated by it, and confident you can handle the job. I think that is the attitude to have. Basically these boats (yours is the big brother to mine), are very forgiving. As long as the hull is sound, and preferably the engine in reasonable to good order, the rest is all do-able.

I remember the day I decided, with some trepidation, to attack an area softened by water ingress in the wall of the main saloon, as my boat is not fibreglass in the cabin, it is built of timber. Once I manned up, sawed out the area back to sound timber and slotted in a marine ply replacement, epifilled it in, sanded off and painted, you really can't see where it was done. Doing that sort of thing now holds no fears for me now. I might delegate doing what you're doing to a professional, but mainly for time reasons, as the process is fairly straightforward. Several on here have done similar projects, so I'm sure others will step in with advice as needed.

[boomerang]

Hello Hallp. You've gotten into the same "boat" that we're in! We're undertaking a recoring of our bridge too, on a Mainship, which is known for water ingress into the decks.
One thing I noticed in your pictures was the lack of supports to keep a constant crown in your balsa coring. I think it's important to have a consistent shape to the decking so the water sheds off properly and that your bridge & seating fit like they used to. Attached is a link to the blog my wife is doing regarding the work on our boat where you can see the temporary supports we're using.
Anyway, you're looking good & keep up the good work!
Shawn

Boating With Shawn and Liz

[Donna]

Project boats are the best! Welcome aboard and keep us up to date with your progress!! Good luck and have fun!

[Art]

Welcome, Mr. Ambition!

Can hardly wait to see your finished product photos while you progress with boat restoration.

Happy "Boat-Fix" Daze! - Art

[34Clipper]

Hope you check back in to keep us updated. I am currently tackling the same job! I would love to know if you successfully removed the headlining without damaging the timber trims etc, I need to do this as well

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Welcome aboard.

[Aquabelle]

Welcome hallp. Interesting 1st post. Why were you not able to save the lower grp layer of the old deck? And I'm interested in your choice of balsa core: did you consider any of the even lighter closed-cell products?

[Comodave]

I would install a wiring chase or two while you have it all torn apart.

[hallp]

This is the deck almost complete

[Mako]

Those first two photos sent a chill down my spine. But then I remembered I rebuilt a steel project boat with 40 years worth of rust.

[dhmeissner]

Looking good hallp!

[34Clipper]

Looks amazing! Isn’t is funny how there is such little structural timbers holding up the deck. Purely relies on the sandwiched core for rigidity

[Steve]

Nice job I'm sure you will get lots of good trips in her once all the hard work is done.

[menzies]

Damn, I 'm not being elitist, snobbish, anything like that. But I sure am glad I had the dough to buy a ready-to-go-with-just-a-little-bit-of-work trawler.

I just don't have the balls for that kind of comittment!

Good on you sir!

[FOG]

Welcome aboard. Your project is progressing nicely. Good work.