petrolhead
Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2003
- Messages
- 614
I started work on another boat project just before Xmas, a while back my father-in-law bought an old 70s Norman 23 that I gave him a heads-up on. The guy selling it had just sold his house and was about to lose the mooring that went with it, and the boat had engine problems which was putting off everyone who looked at it, he was getting desperate as moving day approached and we had him over a barrel! I feel ever so slightly guilty as we really screwed him on the price, it cost us more to have it towed to the boatyard than we paid for the boat.<br />Anyway, after a bit of fiddling about we've given up on the motor, an old inboard Ford crossflow, and had the option of either getting another and swapping the water cooling parts over or doing a complete rethink. We went for the second option and have removed the motor and outdrive and converted to 4 stroke outboard, giving us lots more room inside and the convenience of being able to remove the motor easily if we need to.<br />So the transom has now been cut down and a self draining well fitted, all done in plywood and glass encapsulated, and last week I tore out the old cockpit floor and started to build a new one. I've done it all in exterior ply which will eventually have 1/2" thick Oak planking glued to it, should look really nice.<br />Before that though we're going to replace all the flooring in the cabin too, and all the interior side panels are coming out to be replaced with 3mm white Foamex (PVC) which is cheap, looks nice, quite hardwearing, and easy to wipe clean.<br />I'm going to post some photos of work in progress soon and put a link here.<br />Meanwhile I still have another resto project which I posted photos of a few months back, an ex-hire 1950s Thames Runabout which I'm doing up to sell in the spring. It's on hold at the moment as it's a bit cold to work outdoors now, I did the interior before I stopped work and it's now sitting under tarps until April when I'll finish it off and put it on eBay.<br />Also in progress is a 13' clinker ply skiff which is for keeping, to replace my ugly little GRP dinghy which rows about as well as a barrel, and doesn't look much better! I've almost completed a full kit of parts and it's nearly time to get the building jig set up in the garage and start assembling it, I'd really like this one finished by springtime too so I can sell the dinghy and get it out of the way.<br />Photos of all this stuff to appear in the near future too.
