Restoration Advice

Hiya,

I'm looking for some advice on a boat I'm restoring.

I bought a house-boat in a pretty sorry state about two years ago and decided to rebuild her from the inside out.  In doing so, I discovered she was a High Speed Launch, although I've never managed to identify her.  She's 40'6" LOA with a 9'6" beam, would originally have taken twin Perkins P6M engines and from this, I think, was probably a 300 class HSL.  One thing I have discovered is that she was, at one time, owned by Richard Dimbleby - some time around 1965-70.

Anyway, I've decided to do a proper (or as near proper as my wallet can afford) job of restoring her and her current condition is a hull with the decks partically stripped up and no superstructure (which was a horrific box a la house-boat).  The hull seems fine to me, although she's been out of the water for a good six months now and some of the seams are opening towards the gunwales.  What I really want to know is, if I put engines back in her and put her to sea, will the hull take it?  How can I truely tell the condition of the hull?  Is it worth my while getting a survey done on her?  I'm loath to do so, as I have a deathly fear of the surveyor shaking his head and declaring my boat firewood.

I understand that, where HSL's have been restored before, the hull has been sheathed in fibreglass - although this is a solution, I would much rather keep the hull more original than that.  Of course, if this is at the expense of refastening al the timbers, I'd have to reconsider...

Any advice will be very gratefully received.

Best Regards,

Paul

Hi Don,

 sorry I've left it so long to reply.

  My boat's an ST as well it turns out, not an HSL - shows what I know!

  My hull seems pretty strong and the general opinion of people I've asked is that, as long as I'm not going out charging into force ten seas with the throttles wide open, then the hull should be fine and is probably best left undisturbed.  I'm still not convinced about fibreglassing, having taken so much of it off my boat and found nothing but rot underneath...

  In the end, I *did* get a chap to semi-survey my boat (he runs a local restoration company in Penryn where my boat is and agreed to look over her for me) and he was actually pretty complimentary, so I'm a bit happier about the whole thing, now.

  Good luck with yours - have you got much to do?

Paul

Hello all,

A good friend of mine has completed a significant amount of work on an 68'x19' beam RTTL replacing in total around 40% of the side planking and structural timbers beneath with a view to returning her to original service condition. His bill for timber is huge. He found that most of the damage had been caused by fresh water ingress from leakage around non-standard hand rails that had been placed around the deck. Also the previous owner had placed fibreglass wool between the inner hull and a new interior skin to insulate the boat from the cold. This soaked up even more water causing more damage. I suspect that any boat of this type with good ventilation around the inner hull will last for years and that by encasing the hull in fibreglass could prevent the natural drying process.

Cheers A76NJK

Hello Christian,

The boat is RTTL 2751 Phoenix and is in very good condition in pretty much every respect. Quite a bit of the original equipment still remains on board. She was laid-up in the River Hamble for many years just south of the M27 river bridge and used as a live aboard. The water being very tidal was mainly salt which I believe has looked after the lower planking. However she will be removed from the water later in the year to inspect the underside and for repainting back to service colour scheme but from the inside she looks just fine with no significant leakage.

I will get some pictures of the restoration for the forum when I next see the owner. The interior is very 1970's and needs reworking but externally she is very close to her service condition.

Cheers

A76NJK