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woodboat
Canada
131 Posts |
Posted - 10/04/2005 : 4:06:41 PM
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Rationally and financially it is definetely NOT worth rebuilding this boat. I continue to plug away on her as I am somewhat subborn - and have the time. It is however quite likely that I will NOT have the time next year, so she may be sitting for a year, and maybe three, meaning she will probably be on the scrapheap where she belongs. For as long as I have the time and am able, I will continue to work on her. I DO wish she had a fibreglass hull!
Although she has a hundred 'issues', there is only one item I am unsure about fixing and that is the V-drive leak. I may 'offer' the boat with trailer for sale (lol) and see if anyone is crazier than I and fork over $10k. - Steve |
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yottyboy
USA
166 Posts |
 Posted - 10/05/2005 : 12:15:52 PM
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| What is leaking on the Vdrives? I've redone mine and know the inner workings. For your comfort, Walter Machine still supports all its products. I dealt with them directly, although not inexpensively. |
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woodboat
Canada
131 Posts |
Posted - 10/05/2005 : 1:32:39 PM
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| Hi yottyboy, thanks for your interest. Top shaft seal leaks big time under load. Shaft is scored, implying alignment problem - and it looks 'off', but nothing appears to have shifted/moved and hull is straight. Wondering if shaft scoring is result of seal gone? or is the prob more serious? From looking at the V-drive, the front housing comes off at the top shaft... |
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woodboat
Canada
131 Posts |
Posted - 10/16/2005 : 10:24:47 AM
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Among other things, I have been busy extracting some 1500 staples  in the bilge area, mostly on the stringers and vertical supports of the cabin floor. When I got the boat these staples were holding dirty yellow sheets of one inch thick 'sponge' type foam in what appeared to be an effort to surround the engine compartment. I say 'appears' because much of the foam lay in sheets in the soiled bilge and were black with oil and grime and soaked in all the slimy water that was down there.  The water was there because of leaks in the hull of course, but also because the aft deck covering the engines was totally rotten and all the weather/rain was of course pouring in.
I assume that once the fibreglass boats came Carver built drainage and scuppers into the aft deck, but in my model it appears that all the rain water was expected to flow into the bilge around the engines. On my boat the seams on the aft deck were over the distributers and carburators something I have since corrected on my rebuild. Back to the foam, I filled 3 garbage bags with the wet slimy sludgy  foam and tore the rest out that was still hanging. This was one of the first tasks back in June, but only recently have I come to pull out all the staples as I prep the hull for inside removal of rot and repair with epoxy.
So, the question is (after all this lol) Do any of your boats have this foam? Was this possibly a factory effort to control sound? Certainly not for fumes IMO. Who in their right mind would use this type of water absorbing foam? In any event, it is not going back in lol...  Carry on - Steve |
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Rob
Canada
79 Posts |
Posted - 10/17/2005 : 11:36:07 PM
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| No mine does not have this.. |
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yottyboy
USA
166 Posts |
Posted - 10/19/2005 : 2:00:04 PM
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| The seals are not too expensive. The shaft may be a somewhat costly item, but you could also take it to a machine shop and have them install a "speedy sleeve" on the worn area. This should cure the leaks. It's the bearings and gears that are really pricey. For the remaining parts contact Walter Machine directly thru: http://www.waltergear.com/ |
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woodboat
Canada
131 Posts |
Posted - 12/07/2005 : 7:00:10 PM
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Hi Folks,  got myself a new toy - an AIO scanner lol. So here are a couple of pics fwiw. The first of my boat day of delivery - and debate whether she should be put in as there was concern that she might sink. Following much careful analysis of her visible bottom condition I decided to take a chance that the rot was not too excessive and true enough, the pumps were able to keep up. (Eventually I learned that there was so much crud,oil and rot in the bilge water had a tough time getting in lol  ). There is (actually today should be 'was') so much rot under that white and blue paint few would believe it . Only things really visible here are the missing/rotten rub rail pieces mid-ship (under the foredeck and sidedeck) and at the bow, and the canvas covering the front of the rotten flybride (amazing the whole bridge did not blow off during the 1400mi trip).
Second photo is same day of the salon after a bit of a clean-up. Does not look to bad in the pic, but I ended up gutting most of the inside of the boat - to be reassembled next year I expect lol...
If you would like to see more photos of the work in progress... let me know and we'll give the scanner a workout and clog up Paul's site lol...  Cheers - Steve
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Edited by - woodboat on 01/07/2006 10:59:50 AM |
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woodboat
Canada
131 Posts |
Posted - 12/08/2005 : 6:32:13 PM
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Hi again... since I can't work on the boat now with the snow here... here are a couple of pics of what I faced day one...
First is what was presented upon lifting the broken engine hatch covers...  note the rotten 'beams' down the centre, laminated together in pieces to by-pass the rot lol... then covered with 1x4 PT boards screwed down... no wonder no engine service had been done as I discovered later. 
Top left of the photo is some of the yellow sponge foam I mentioned somewhere else... this was stapled with a thousand stapels all over the bilge are from mid-ship back, with sheets of it in the bilge soaked with oil grime. Filled three garbage bags with the stuff. Still do not know why it was there.
<p>
This second photo is the bilge area between the engines. Look closesly and you will note several ribs with a bit of rot poking out of the slop. That grime visible was about 3 inches deep and consisted of black sludge accumulated over years no doubt. I went through the entire boat's bilge eventually and took out some 3 gallons of this sludge by scooping it out by hand... not fun. 
There was a bilge pump aft sitting in the sludge (not visible in this pic), and of course it was jammed up with muck... totally. There was no float, I expect being operated manually from somewhere lol... as if it would keep her from going down Eventually I will get some pics developed (don't own a digital) and show you what it looks like today... Some sicko must have felt that wiring job worked just fine ... or at least was matching the rest of engine bay...
Later... - Steve
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Edited by - woodboat on 03/25/2008 12:14:08 PM |
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yottyboy
USA
166 Posts |
Posted - 12/09/2005 : 3:48:35 PM
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Jeezis,WTF!!!??? Steve I now know you're not sane (' ')
You mean that the engines were buried under the deck without ever being worked on? I've heard of SPOTs (Stupid Previous Owner Tricks) before, but this one is a real zinger.
One tool you should consider is a powerwasher. Not a wussy little electric one but a good 5 horse gas powered one which you can feed with cleaning and degreasing solution. Then get inside the boat and really get busy with it and don't be shy. It will blow away all the years of grime, dust, dirt, scuzz and rotten wood. Then you'll have a clean slate to work from, so to speak.
Of course you do this after removing anything loose. You'll also be happier if the stuff has a place to go (like a transom drain hole) rather than having to dip or pump it out by hand.
I know of no boat that wouldn't benefit from such a purge.
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yottyboy
USA
166 Posts |
Posted - 12/09/2005 : 3:49:57 PM
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| That wiring scares me. |
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woodboat
Canada
131 Posts |
Posted - 01/01/2006 : 10:42:02 PM
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Time for a continuation? While the first item to be attacked was the bilge (yes Yottyboy, I employed a pressure washer - albeit a cheapy electric one, this being a good thing as it was easier to work with onboard and in the tight bilge - and, a high powered unit would have blasted right through the 1/8" thin plywood remains as in many areas of rot, this was all there was left keeping the water OUT as I discovered later).
I started the bilge clean by scooping out gallons of thick goop and sludge by hand, then pressure washed the entire bilge front to back, shop-vacuumed the whole bilge, then degreased (simple green type of stuff), pressure washed again, shop-vacuumed out through the entire bilge again, and did this twice more to the point of only clear flowing water. This process took most of a week actually. The bilge (of course being a old - rotten - wood boat) always maintains several inches of water.
Next to be attacked was the aft deck on which one could only stand while praying because all the beams and supports were broken, missing or rotten. Even the centerpiece 3/4" ply in the pic of the original was rotten into two pieces. I gutted out all the original hatches and supports and beams as you can see in the second photo.
<p> After some planning, I decided to install a 4x4 PT beam across the full width of the boat under the patio door, supported by posts to the main stringers
 that run the length of much of the boat. While not seen in the pictures they stabilized the deck of the boat and squared up the patio door assembly which was in danger of collapsing into the bilge.
The rest of the framing for the new aft deck followed, resulting in five lightweight removable hatches with no hinges as in the old version (those hinges were over the carburetors allowing for water to leak onto/into them ... amazing design
lol).
Also, somewhat ridiculous in the original design was the fact that there was no access to the area midship between the engines as two beams (or what was left of them) ran to the stern and supported that old middle deck insert piece and the centre edges of the old hatches. In my new design, there is a centre hatch allowing easy access to this important area. Also, the edges of all of the hatches fall at a location on the sides of the exhaust risers permitting rain water to enter the bilge without affecting the engines (This all-wood boat had no design elements that forced rainwater into scuppers and overboard. Instead, rain water was expected to enter the bilge - crazy IMO).
All of the new 2x4 PT cross members are slip fit into groves and simply removable allowing for full, unencumbered access to the engines should this be required
 The last pic shows the almost completed rebuild of the aft deck.
At the same time I decided to rebuild the area aft of the hatches and next to the transom (area where the bilge blower resides on some models). Ok, that's about it for this round of scanning and writing.
And how's it been with you?
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Edited by - woodboat on 03/25/2008 12:22:03 PM |
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carvermitch
Canada
407 Posts |
Posted - 01/02/2006 : 09:51:02 AM
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Hi Steve,
Happy new year and I hope you had a great Christmas.
You seem to be making good progress.
I have checked the admin preferences and it seems that I can not have both HTML and Image on at once. I am sending a message to the forum co to see if I can change this. I will keep you posted.
Regards
Paul |
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woodboat
Canada
131 Posts |
Posted - 01/02/2006 : 11:03:36 AM
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Hi Paul, thanks for the good wishes - and I echo these for you and Yours.
Re: the apparent conflict of HTML vs Image, my understanding would be that Image is in fact part of HTML with the source specified... i.e. [img src] vs. just [img] .
What I do not know is if enabling HTML forces everyone to use it or not (which of course would not be possible). I would think that the use of HTML would become optional by way of insertion of code, and that regular writing/posting would remain as it is now.
Thanks for looking into it - Steve |
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carvermitch
Canada
407 Posts |
Posted - 01/02/2006 : 1:17:18 PM
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Hi Steve
I have changed this so lets try it and see what happens. Hope it works ok.
Regards
Paul |
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woodboat
Canada
131 Posts |
Posted - 01/02/2006 : 1:44:16 PM
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| Hi Paul, I note that with the change, the existing images do not show, and I can no longer edit my posts. First, I will post a test to see if changes in the image code will allow images. Second I will test the insertion of html code and see how this responds. If these things fail - guess we go back to the old lol... Thanks - Steve |
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