Hello, sorry about the lengthy post
Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2010 5:03 pm
Hi all, I have a 1977 c26 full keel.
It started out as a "buy it now" ebay boat. I paid 1 dollar for it and
a gazillion dollars later and twice as many man hours I have a decent boat!
Gutted the inside, redid the galley and all cabinets, and changed the compression post to 4" galvanived square tube. New sails, electronics, new sole, holding tank, lavac head. The bilge has all been regelled to help clean it up.
As I tore the sole out, I found the ballast was water logged and as I dug deeper, it turned out to be over 2000lb of lead shot with a little cement/ resin tossed on top.
I removed it all a scoop at a time; reglassed the interior of the keel; mixed the lead with west system and reset it. Who would have thought the lead would act like a heat sink and keep the epoxy from setting at its normal rate?
A week later with lots of applied heat I had a one piece keel! It suprised me that it was just loose shot for ballast. If it had been hulled it would have all ran right out the bottom.
The outside was a total mess from the water line down. It had a bad case of blisters. I ended up grinding the hull down to good and used west system with a barrier coat and faired it just like new. Above the water line was in good shape, so I was able to grind, fair it, and then painted it with imron and it turned out great.
The deck was not bad so I gave it a quicky. Redid the windows. I built window frames from star board. They turned out great, except I had a hard time keeping them sealed. Nothing seemed to stick to them. The deck seem to keep leaking no matter what I do, so after 4 years of that, I am currently bonding the deck to the hull glassing inside and out. That should take care of the leaks.
The windows I made a mold from the outside frames of star board and pulled grp parts glassed the outside to the cabin. The inside, I think I should be able to use the inside star board frame with a neopreme or butyl gasket to stop those leaks,
My toe rail was bent and had been pieced, so I have thought of glassing a short rail and put a track on it? I havent really got that far yet. The other unknown is my chain plates. I think the best place would be to move them out and bolt them thru the side hull? Not sure what that would do to my trim though? One thought was make them out of composite material I really dread mounting them the way they were, another potential leak?
I am open for suggestions, the work is obvoiusly not a problem this is the last time I intend to work on this boat so I dont mind over building
Thanks for any sugestion or comments as there will be a lot more questions to come.
Tim Huss
It started out as a "buy it now" ebay boat. I paid 1 dollar for it and
a gazillion dollars later and twice as many man hours I have a decent boat!
Gutted the inside, redid the galley and all cabinets, and changed the compression post to 4" galvanived square tube. New sails, electronics, new sole, holding tank, lavac head. The bilge has all been regelled to help clean it up.
As I tore the sole out, I found the ballast was water logged and as I dug deeper, it turned out to be over 2000lb of lead shot with a little cement/ resin tossed on top.
I removed it all a scoop at a time; reglassed the interior of the keel; mixed the lead with west system and reset it. Who would have thought the lead would act like a heat sink and keep the epoxy from setting at its normal rate?
A week later with lots of applied heat I had a one piece keel! It suprised me that it was just loose shot for ballast. If it had been hulled it would have all ran right out the bottom.
The outside was a total mess from the water line down. It had a bad case of blisters. I ended up grinding the hull down to good and used west system with a barrier coat and faired it just like new. Above the water line was in good shape, so I was able to grind, fair it, and then painted it with imron and it turned out great.
The deck was not bad so I gave it a quicky. Redid the windows. I built window frames from star board. They turned out great, except I had a hard time keeping them sealed. Nothing seemed to stick to them. The deck seem to keep leaking no matter what I do, so after 4 years of that, I am currently bonding the deck to the hull glassing inside and out. That should take care of the leaks.
The windows I made a mold from the outside frames of star board and pulled grp parts glassed the outside to the cabin. The inside, I think I should be able to use the inside star board frame with a neopreme or butyl gasket to stop those leaks,
My toe rail was bent and had been pieced, so I have thought of glassing a short rail and put a track on it? I havent really got that far yet. The other unknown is my chain plates. I think the best place would be to move them out and bolt them thru the side hull? Not sure what that would do to my trim though? One thought was make them out of composite material I really dread mounting them the way they were, another potential leak?
I am open for suggestions, the work is obvoiusly not a problem this is the last time I intend to work on this boat so I dont mind over building
Thanks for any sugestion or comments as there will be a lot more questions to come.
Tim Huss
Welcome to the forum and as always photos please.