1962 38' Wooden Cruiser Restoration

[Reo Baird]

This is a project boat i recently acquired with the intention of restoring.

Any input/comments/suggestions are very welcome.

Plans:

- Possibly switch to diesel power
- Complete interior renovation
- Tasteful upgrades to the exterior, including: new railings, new deck flooring, etc.
- Complete overhaul of the electrical system


The boat is a 1962 Monk design, built in Victoria, BC by John Nicholson. The hull is ceder planking on oak frame... it is in remarkably good shape.

It is currently powered by a Mercruiser 427.

Pictures:

Exterior shot

Interior shot

Messy wiring and hoses


Updates coming soon.

 

[North Beach]

Re: 1962 38' Wooden Cruiser Restoration

Reo, that's gonna be a danged nice rig. I'll be watching this resto for sure.

BTW, that second picture looks like my office

Welcome to iBoats!

 

[bananaboater]

Re: 1962 38' Wooden Cruiser Restoration

Always intimidated by restorers that take on such projects. Very impressive Reo.

The wiring looks like mine but much smaller scale. I guess the general working plan is if it functions, good enough.

Looking forward to seeing the progress.

Albert

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: 1962 38' Wooden Cruiser Restoration

Welcome to iboats Reo...Beautiful old rig you've got there

What waters do you plan on floating her on? She looks like she can handle some waves and keep ya dry up on the bridge.

Congtaulations on the purchase, and good luck with the rig

 

[tsha222]

Re: 1962 38' Wooden Cruiser Restoration

That's gonna be nice! I have a 28' Carver Santa Cruz, circa '77. It is a labor of love and one of those things that I wonder sometimes if it will ever be finished! I recently found a 1977 Silverton Sedan (34' LOA, 12.5' Beam) and the temptation to grab it up was almost too much. I like how much room your boat is going to have inside. That age of a boat is almost the best way to go to get something that you can really make your own. I owned my own custom home theater install company until 2007 so I am most looking forward to the entertainment part of my boat. That wiring can be tamed for sure and with that kind of space, you could add all sorts of goodies!! Best of luck.

 

[Greg Mrozinski]

Re: 1962 38' Wooden Cruiser Restoration

Reo,

Welcome to iboats. That boat has beautiful lines. I am going to state the obvious here...you have one hell of a job ahead of you. The hull looks great. Is it covered with glass? Also, I would think long and hard about switching the engine to a diesel. Diesels are exspensive and the fuel benefit (I know we are talking displacement speeds here) generally isn't realized on a boat that size unless you plan on using it everyday for long trips. If the gas engine runs and is serviceable then stick with that. Besides you can always put a diesel in later. Have fun and good luck.

 

[boatflipper]

Re: 1962 38' Wooden Cruiser Restoration

Gorgeous boat! Will definitely be following this build!
Good Luck!!

 

[Reo Baird]

Re: 1962 38' Wooden Cruiser Restoration

Thanks for the comments and encouragement everyone.

Reo,

Welcome to iboats. That boat has beautiful lines. I am going to state the obvious here...you have one hell of a job ahead of you. The hull looks great. Is it covered with glass? Also, I would think long and hard about switching the engine to a diesel. Diesels are exspensive and the fuel benefit (I know we are talking displacement speeds here) generally isn't realized on a boat that size unless you plan on using it everyday for long trips. If the gas engine runs and is serviceable then stick with that. Besides you can always put a diesel in later. Have fun and good luck.

The hull is just painted with some sort of thick paint that hides the wooden planks. The planks are visible under the water line.

As far as the diesel, it really is dependent on whether i can get a good diesel for the right price. Your very right about the diesels being being expensive, but there is also the increased resale value of the boat to consider. If i can pick up a used diesel for a price that makes sense, then i will probably go for it, if not the gas motor stays.

Welcome to iboats Reo...Beautiful old rig you've got there

What waters do you plan on floating her on? She looks like she can handle some waves and keep ya dry up on the bridge.

Congtaulations on the purchase, and good luck with the rig

The boat will live in the Georgia Straight, near desolation sound. Generally not too many big waves out here in the inside channel but that suits me just fine

I actually have another project boat on the go as well, a 32' Bayliner Conquest. If anyone is interested in that project, i have a thread about it over on the bayliner owners club forums: http://baylinerownersclub.org/forum/showthread.php?t=42868

Once both boats are done (i am aiming for a mid to late spring launches), I will most likely put one or both up for sale, and launch into a new project, probably another boat. One of my main motivations for this project is to hone my carpentry (and other related) skills (my friend who is a very knowledgable carpenter is helping me out a lot on this project).

 

[Greg Mrozinski]

Re: 1962 38' Wooden Cruiser Restoration

Rio,

I caught your work on the Bayliner. Looks great so far. I read about you using Poli-glo. I have used it before and I think it works very well for what it is...an acrylic clear coat. The key with that stuff is preparation prior to application. Surface needs to be very clean and stain free prior to the first coats. The Poli-glo folks also sell an oxilac acid based cleaner called Poli-Ox. It works much better than the poli-prep and will remove heavy staining including rust stains. It's great on stainless steel. I have a 35' Carver Aft-cabin and used it on that last spring and it held up great through out the whole year. This year all I have to do is clean some and then reapply a few coats. Let me know if you need any tips for applying. I 'll be happy to share my experiences with using it.

 

[Reo Baird]

Re: 1962 38' Wooden Cruiser Restoration

Thanks for the input greg... i will try and find polyox, i didnt see it on the shelf at the place i got the polyglow at, but perhaps i can have them bring it in. For the engine hatch, i ended up using toilet bowl cleaner, but it required a lot of scrubbing and i ended up using a scotch-brite pad to sand out some of the worse stains.

Update:

Here we are glueing and screwing plywood cut outs that match the curve of the arched 2x3 roof ribs. We thought the flybridge floor could use some reinforcement as with a couple 200lb guys jumping around up there, it was a little borderline.

Here i have removed the helm from the left side, and relocated the hydraulic lines to the right side. There is more room on the left side, so we've moved the helm over to allow for a more spacious kitchen layout on the left.

Here i have moved over a hatch that was interfering with our new kitchen layout. It also allows access to the top of the tank, like it should, now.

Building kitchen cabinets. 5/8 ply rather than melamine for extra strength and durability.

 

[Greg Mrozinski]

Re: 1962 38' Wooden Cruiser Restoration

Reo,

Poli-Glo has a website where you can order all of there stuff. http://www.poliglow-int.com/poliglow.phtml.

 

[SBTOM]

Re: 1962 38' Wooden Cruiser Restoration

Wow, thats a huge/cool project you have there! On the original roof ribs, were those cut out of a solid piece of wood or does it look like they were bent?

 

[Reo Baird]

Re: 1962 38' Wooden Cruiser Restoration

Wow, thats a huge/cool project you have there! On the original roof ribs, were those cut out of a solid piece of wood or does it look like they were bent?

They are bent, not cut.

 

[Reo Baird]

Re: 1962 38' Wooden Cruiser Restoration

Progress update on the cabin. Hole for "aft cabin" cut.

Completed layout for the kitchen

Tearing out old fuse panel. Will be swaping in new battery selector panel below.

Most of the wiring is now torn out. Here i am organizing into bundles of clean reusable wire and seperating out the junk.

Wiring mostly sorted.

 

[Huron Angler]

Re: 1962 38' Wooden Cruiser Restoration

Wow...and to think I thought I had a bird's nest of wiring on my rig You've got a bit more I'd say.

Are you making a passage from the helm to the aft cabin thru the deck? That's what it looks like in the one photo.

Lookin good, keep it up!

 

[Reo Baird]

Re: 1962 38' Wooden Cruiser Restoration

Wow...and to think I thought I had a bird's nest of wiring on my rig You've got a bit more I'd say.

Are you making a passage from the helm to the aft cabin thru the deck? That's what it looks like in the one photo.

Lookin good, keep it up!

No, the entrance will be from the bow section. We are raising the floor in that section to give the aft cabin more head room at the head end. Overall, it won't have the best headroom (enough to sit up at the front, enough to pull your knees up in the rest), but its much better use of the space then just having empty hull space.

More aft cabin construction pics

Starting to re-install wiring. This is the main distribution point. The system is comprised of two battery banks. One house bank and one engine bank (instead of two interchangable banks). Fuse panels will be narrowed down to 3. One DC house breaker panel, one AC breaker panel, and one ATC fuse block for the engine circuit (as opposed to the old system with a number of random ad-hoc tube fuse blocks in random locations). The fuses and breakers will all be located at the helm.

strapping up wiring harnesses. The wires are grouped into harnesses by function. At key points, there will be plugs. Pictured above is the main power feeds for the helm, and also the helm to engine harness.

 

[Reo Baird]

Re: 1962 38' Wooden Cruiser Restoration

Wiring the ceiling

Connections are twisted, soldered, and heatshrinked

Ceiling is insulated and vapor barriered

Ceiling board is going up and the staple dimples are being filled and sanded.

First coat of paint.

 

[zach103]

Re: 1962 38' Wooden Cruiser Restoration

can you put some kind of joint compound to make the whole ceiling look like one piece

 

[25thmustang]

Re: 1962 38' Wooden Cruiser Restoration

I will be following this one, great to see a project like this!!

 

[Reo Baird]

Re: 1962 38' Wooden Cruiser Restoration

can you put some kind of joint compound to make the whole ceiling look like one piece

When done it will have teak strips covering the transitions. It looks a little higher end then just having a plain white ceiling. I have filled and sanded all the staple holes.

Update:

Testing out the lighting.

I am sanding and repainting some spots on the boat that had damaged paint. I'm also in the process of re-caulking all the deck seams/window seals/etc.

Here i am repairing a spot where some rot was starting to form due to warn out caulking allowing water in behind the paint. I have removed the rot, and sprayed the remaining wood down with wood bleach to kill any remaining rot.

Some progress on the aft cabin.