Restoring a Classic Quarter Tonner

[Rich P]

I'm currently in the process of restoring my Eygthene 24 Quarter Tonner, its a step up from my last project boat (A Jaguar 21) as something far more sea-worthy and should have the ability to do some offshore sailing when finished.

Info on class here: http://www.eygthene24.com/
Basically she's a solidly constructed design with a nice seaworthy 55% ballast ratio.

Whats been done so far is summarised on this blog:

http://yacht-chicane.blogspot.com

But whats the point of a blog if no one can see it? Which is why i've posted it here, and intend to post any new entries here as well in the hope that there will be some interest! :)

Cheers, Rich

[Tim]

Cool boat. Among many other styles of boats, I'm also a sucker for 70s vintage bulbous, skinny-ended IOR types for some reason--maybe because they're what I remember being the "hot" boats during my childhood.

I look forward to checking your progress.

[Rich P]

Currently Chicane is out the water so that i can finish all the jobs that need doing. I will write out the full list eventually, but summarised:

- Interior Refit
- Engine Install
- Exterior Cosmetic Work
- Repositioning some deck hardware to better places after initial fitment.
- Mast Respray

Currently i'm wondering if its possible to make a budget cover, weather conditions in the UK don't help as shown by this pic:



I foolishly thought it would be easy to strip out he boat, first to go was the molded headliner, it was a pig and it turns out they stuck it up in places with filler:


However once i managed to cut it back right up the bulkhead it revealed another issue, instead of the bulkhead being tabbed to the deck head, the moulded liner continued right over! It looks like i'm going to have to try and fill the gap somewhat before tabbing to the deckhead. >.<


I'm not sure how im going to get rid of that filler, i'm loath to leave it and cover it, but a chisel had minimal effect... anyone have any ideas?

Back on the boat today my plan was to cut out both bunks, i managed one, using an angle grinder to take cut it into managable sections and to cut the tabbing. I'm taking ear plugs tomorrow, the noise was deafening, but my little 115mm angle grinder is proving a real asset! :) I then used a thicker pad designed for metal to grind back the left over lip from both sets of tabbing.

Tomorrows plan is to get t'other bunk out and then sort some deck leaks i have, since i can't do constructive work with water in the boat!
In a side note today was freezing, as i breathed out you could see steam coming out the vents in my respirator mask!

[Rich P]

Brief update:

The bunks from the otherside went today, and the tabbing is faired back to the hull roughly. Tomorrow i'm going to have a blast at the filler (!) and seal all the deck leaks i have, its no fun coming back to wet in the bilges!

I'm also debating the forecabin, i was going to leave it with the internal mouldings, but now i feel it would look out of place, and if i do it next year i'll just create the mess all over again, i imagine it wouldn't take a whole lot longer to do that as well this year? Does anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks!

[Zach]

Rich,

I like that boat. Really slick lines, and sort of an inverse of the normal color scheme on deck.

The next time you need to grind tabbing... grab some thin cut off discs for your grinder. Hardware store will have them, they are used for cutting metal. They fly through fiberglass without leaving as much dust as grinding.

Give a dewalt flap disc a try on the filler, they grind faster than a metal grinding wheel. (Grind faster on metal too... grin!)

Are you wearing a respirator while doing your grinding? I tripped over an idea a few months back, that if I wear ear muffs instead of ear plugs I can listen to music on an MP3 player while running power tools. Kind of cool, don't have to crank the stereo to the bleeding any more. (Grin)

Zach

[Rich P]

I use ear muffs as well, but just turn up the stereo! I have a multipurpose cutting disc which is pretty thin i'd say no more then 2-3mm (0.11") but as its cutting you can see a long line of dust just flying off from the end of the disc!

I've got a 40grit flap disc, but it didn't really go through the filler very fast... gonna try some different things today! :) I have a proper mask with a particle and gas filter.

As for the colour sceme... i thought blue non-slip and white decks were pretty standard?

[Rich P]

At last an update!
Check out the blog for more, hoping to start updating regularly again...