How To Repair A Hunter 170 Plastic Deck

Hook, Line and Sinker: Haines Hunter project boats function three

The joy of buying the project boats is over. It'due south at present time to knuckle downwards and go on with the chore ... slowly

That's non new; each year the Hook, Line and Sinker pair commit to a project boat, finding an quondam boat in need of a restoration and a repower with a Yamaha outboard engine.

This time around, Andrew has found a trivial-known Haines Hunter Tri Hunter 170, while Nick has turned his attention to one of the most popular boats of its day, a Haines Hunter V19r.

>> Hook, Line and Sinker: The hunt for the perfect project boat

To mix things up a bit, this fourth dimension around we're tracking every dollar spent on them – after all, the working title on these builds is "Project Boats on a Budget".

Here'southward the latest update on where the Hook, Line and Sinker builds are at.

Haines Hunter Tri Hunter 170
Andrew Hart

I now understand why so many wrecks lie in paddocks or parked up abreast a house awaiting restoration.

The dream of restoring a bargain-priced hull may seem real when buying it, merely the magic fades as shortly as the reality of what is involved hits home. Fair to say, I feel a piffling broken.

You might remember that the construction of my $5000 Haines Hunter Tri Hunter 170 was rotten to the core – so rotten, in fact, that it was almost at the point of beingness besides dangerous to use.

How bad? We reckon it is only a thing of time before the engine tears off the transom, sinking the whole thing.

My program to save money – these are project boats on a upkeep, don't forget – was to help Michael, my fibreglass-work mentor, with the rebuild.

Nevertheless, laying fibreglass is something of a skilled job, and I'm sorely lacking in that department. Adding to the pressure was the realisation that filming Claw, Line and Sinker was keeping me away from the projection far more than I'd hoped.

Making things even worse was the news that Michael could only requite weekends to the project. His work and then far had been cracking, but with but a few hours at a time here and at that place to spare, progress has been frustratingly tiresome.

Replacing the Haines Hunter Tri Hunter 170's plywood stringers and transom wasn't too bad. Things moved on, and the hull soon had a floor.

Next, the bow was fitted with a huge plywood casting platform with built-in storage space – and then much space that we could fit it with an Engel fridge on a drawer. The platform will exist a bang-up spot to fish from in one case information technology is finished.

Things were progressing rapidly, and spirits were loftier. Then it came fourth dimension to reattach the deck.

It didn't fit.

The new deck's bodgy fit relates to the original layout of the Haines Hunter Tri Hunter 170. Before being torn apart, the boat was a bowrider with a pair of helm windscreens – a deck design that was way alee of its fourth dimension.

When Andrew and Michael pulled the deck off the hull, nearly of the original structure hidden beneath it was cut out to leave behind what could technically be classed as a flimsy bit of fibreglass – a blank template for the rebuild.

Notwithstanding, the classic deck is very different to the one that is replacing it. The procedure of repeatedly lifting the deck off the hull and lowering it back on again to check if information technology fits – recutting and reshutting – has been the worst function of the job.

It has been and so tedious that the whole build seems to have stopped every bit the weeks and months drag on.

In the meantime, Nick was sending me photos showing that his boat was at the stainless steel shop, then the storm cover shop, so came the bulletin that he was booking it in to fit it up with a new Yamaha outboard engine!

Even so, there is finally light at the stop of the tunnel with the deck finally glassed back in place.

A discussion of advice, though; if you are diving into the world of old boats, get in with your eyes wide open.

Unless you plan on taking the hull to a mill full of experts and throw gazillions of dollars at it (just like Nick did with his V19r), or you have the skills and the fourth dimension to work on it, the whole process will be very slow.

A bourgeois estimate of work on the Tri Hunter would be 35 weekends at vi hours a weekend, making for a total of 210 hours … and nosotros're not even finished yet!

As I write, the Tri Hunter's elevation sides are existence painted.

I've also ordered gear from BLA Marine Products, including a Minn Kota electric trolling motor, a pair of ix.0-inch Humminbird Helix sounders with side imaging (one for the helm, one for the bow), lights, pumps, wires, a Seastar hydraulic steering kit, and I've even met my new engine – the mighty Yamaha VMAX 115 SHO.

Next fourth dimension, expect me to be on the water and leaving a V19r in my wake!

Haines Hunter V19r
Nick Duigan

At completely the other terminate of the spectrum from Andrew's projection boat is mine: the Haines Hunter V19r.

The boat I bought is a very early model – belatedly 1960s nosotros recollect – sterndrive version of the classic V19r hull complete with driver and rider ashtrays, chrome Mercruiser gauge cluster and push-push radio.

After buying it, I'd made contact with Mick Taranto from Gippsland Composites, who was doing some nice timberless rebuilds using a product chosen Thermo-Low-cal.

Thermo-Calorie-free is a composite lath that replaces plywood. The brochure claims it is lighter, stiffer and stronger than plywood, and best of all, it will never rot.

Speaking of rot, it was interesting to see what harm five decades had washed to the V19r's structure.

In that time, nigh of the floor and all of the stringers had reduced to something akin to black paper-thin. The only affair holding up the internal structure of the boat was a liberal coating of fibreglass that supposedly was put in place to protect the timber from the elements.

The transom wasn't as bad, showing signs of rot effectually the hole put in for the big sterndrive, merely otherwise fairly solid.

The transom's adept condition relative to the rest of the boat's timberwork didn't make much difference as this was to exist a total blended rebuild, so every chip of forest had to come up out. Well, almost every flake.

Somewhere in its life, maybe equally far dorsum as the factory but more likely old later, the boat was fitted with a nicely fabricated teak and drinking glass windscreen.

Information technology's the kind of thing that today would toll a fortune, so we decided it was too good to throw away, particularly given the alternative was a charmless, predictable fibreglass wavebreaker.

The windscreen's timberwork, we decided, would become the bridge betwixt old and new, a nod to the Haines Hunter V19r's 50 years of provenance. Turns out it would likewise become the source of quite a few problems forth the fashion.

The hull restoration was a large job merely straightforward; fit information technology with new stringers and cross members, and fill the entire subfloor area with closed-cell foam.

This step stirred a bit of cyberspace chat, with some questioning the foam's value every bit a safety measure out. But foam filling is more than that; aye, information technology will keep the boat floating should the very worst happen, but it also gives the hull extra stiffness, and extra quietness. Foam is a great sound deadener, and serenity boats are nice boats.

The most challenging task for Mick and the Gippsland Composites team was remodelling the deck to permit usa to keep the old windscreen yet provide a reasonable helm position allowing the boat to exist driven sitting or standing.

The screen raked much more than steeply than a wavebreaker would exist, so there are some abrupt angles to fence with.

The upshot, in my opinion, looks fantastic as the proportions are right from any angle, and with the seat boxes and seats in place, the driving position is good.

The powerplant – what should exist a match made in sky – is already settled. A lightweight iv-cylinder Yamaha F200 ii-stroke outboard engine volition become on the back, and I'd be expecting xl knots-plus summit end. More importantly, we should likewise get a 24-knot cruising speed at 3500rpm, all while burning 20.0 litres of fuel an hr.

That's the dream, anyway.

I decided against using a transom pod this boat and instead will transom-mount the engine, really only to preserve the purity of the hull – the V19r has the reputation it does for a reason.

Considering of this, I didn't want to chance stuffing up the ride and handling with a hull extension, all simply to gain an extra 500mm of cockpit infinite.

All said and done, the excellent composite restoration that included new hull gelcoating, painted topsides, an aluminium crash-land rails, fuel tank and insulated seat boxes came in at $25,000.

Counting the $4500 I paid for the gunkhole and trailer that ways I'm $29,500 in the carmine. However, in return I now have a gleaming white, fully blended 6.0-metre Haines Hunter with a half-life equivalent to Uranium 238.

There are still a few little jobs to practise. Next stop is GM Marine Stainless, and later on that I'll need some covers and clears. So the electrical fit-upwards, deck hardware, engine...

That'due south a few jobs. Improve have another expect at that budget.

Source: https://www.boatsales.com.au/editorial/details/hook-line-and-sinker-project-boats-part-3-119035/

Posted by: moodyanighbold.blogspot.com

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