Hippocampus

[phill]

I know a few people with that top. It's cosy and fairly easy to get watertight. Nice job you're doing.

One of the weaknesses is the handrails.

[ukdiggerboy]

i like it ,it looks low and sleek but the head room inside is low not a problem for us shorties

[ukdiggerboy]

had a couple of long days on her this week, finally after a lot of hard work ,and brain strain trying to get the fiberglass sections to seal properly, at the same time fit to the hull we have done it, all sealed up and water tight, well apart from the bow and rear bulkheads. we have tried to help the joint by adding the bar to the out side as the bolts were in contact with the fiberglass? so no wavy line now down the gunwhales.

 

dont let anyone say this is an easy fix it isnt, i also found a split in the hull floor in the engine bilge as she has been completely over plated in the last couple of years (still cant find out when?) there was another tiny split in front off bulkhead allowing water to get between the skins and surface under the cabin, tilted her up, drained all the water welded a plate over both splits and sorted ? not easy this boat tidying up thing is it just about got the foundations done now for the build !!!!!!

a couple of other pics bit of a tidy up aswell

 

 

 

 

[Black Country Lee]

Coming along nicely Can't wait for the next installment.

 

Lee.

[NickF]

Only just found this thread, really impressive stuff ... before and after of the engine bay is amazing ... I look forward to following your progress! Good luck!

[Peter Reed]

This is good information for all boaters. Please keep on updating.

[Neil2]

Hi UKDB just a few thoughts FWIW - I know this type of boat it's a Teddesley from the yard on the Staffs & Worcs canal and I reckon they were one of the last to be built with a glass top. Most of them came with a Lister 3 cylinder. We had one built in 1982 (I think) though in ours the engine had been replaced with a BMC.

 

A weak point as someone else mentioned is the handrails which are simple square section wood strips screwed into raised mouldings on the roof. You could improve on this I'm sure if you're ripping out the roof lining.

 

If you haven't done it yet, be careful with the ballast - you won't need a lot of it at the stern with that heavy old Lister. You can see how much she trims down at the rear from the waterline so I'd bias the weight up front - ours had a load of bricks chucked in the bow locker to try and square things up. The water tank isn't that big to compensate as it does on a lot of boats.

 

The main issue with this design though is there is practically no way water can drain from the cockpit, it goes straight into the engine bilge so you reply on a bilge pump to dump it. But the engine bilge is "open" in that the stern gland drips into it - most boats these days have a separate bilge under the gland so the engine bilge doesn't get contaminated with grease. As you seem to be in for the long haul with this boat, and you have gone to a lot of trouble with sorting the engine bilge, it would be prudent to have a look at both these issues. Our boat had had some attempt made at draining surface water overboard but it wasn't totally successful.

 

On the positive side, these boats are very "low profile" with a lot of tumblehome so they go through bridges and tunnels easily. We found ours handled quite well too and she was very happy on rivers such as the Thames and the Aire & Calder. That high bow is quite reassuring if there's anything of a "chop" but you would have to be careful with the engine air intake in such conditions, I'd be inclined to resite it, personally.

 

Best of luck with it though - and do keep us posted.

[ukdiggerboy]

Hi Neil

 

thanks for that just got back from a week on the basingstoke so just seen your post , i have a plan for the hand rail going to cut the top out of the up stands take out the timber and fill with resin, then screw a new rail to that it seems the water gets into the timber inserts freezes or just swells and splits the grp,? the lister is coming on nicely there's a bit about it in the engine topics. the boat had both sides of the engine bilges full to the top with ballast im not going to replace that will leave it out. the engine has its own bilge now and im going to raise the rear bulkhead to the gunwales as its only about 160mm high hence all that oil in the cabin we found. having just hired a boat out of galleon marine we have found out a few things to do and not to do on ours it has been really helpfull to see as i was looking to moor on there ,

 

Going to replace the water tank with a new one and was going to leave an area around it to trim up the ballast.as for the cruiser stern at the mo it all drains into the bilges so im get a delivery of channel to make a new draining deck, as for the long haul it didnt start out that way but i think its worth doing

 

Many thanks Gary

was going to fill the floor with one layer of blocks you can see in pics any thoughts to much or not enough?

[Neil2]

Hi Gary - must admit I'm surprised she needed extra ballast in the engine bay I thought those Listers were pretty heavy lumps. Ours with a BMC 1.8 didn't need any extra weight, mind you there was also a skin tank in there and a calorifier tank so that would have increased the weight.

 

It is difficult with a glass top boat as clearly it doesn't weigh anything like as much as an all steel vessel so you would have thought quite a lot of ballast was needed. But IIRC ours only had one layer of concrete slabs under the main cabin area. I think your approach is spot on, I'd put one layer down under the main floor and try and leave plenty of space to load up the pointy end. Goes without saying that you want to leave as much access to the bilges as you can so you can make further adjustments if nec.

 

The raised bulkhead issue has cropped up before and there's no pressing need to raise it but on this boat it would be a good idea if only because it will provide some much needed sound insulation. On our boat the majority of the bulkhead was a timber partition and even with sound insulation the noise of the engine was very intrusive. A proper steel bulkhead will improve matters no end.

 

Those handrails are just really bad design, what you propose should do the trick but I was thinking bolts right through the roof simply because it's more secure than screws. You do need to have a serious hand hold as you will have noticed the gunnels/side decks are a bit narrower because of the grp/hull joint taking up space.

[ukdiggerboy]

i should have took pics of the engine room it was full to the table deck with bricks all covered in thick engine oil of course,

 

it had broken concrete slabs in to start with but again smothered in oil and crap funny thing was you couldn't smell it not till i started taking it apart , just aswell i did lol, i have found out the base has been over plated with 6mm plate something i dont think the previous owner couldn't have known about because of the price i payed for it?

 

as for the bulk head i would feel happier with it higher,and as yours it was timber but full of holes and not fitted properly at all,

 

The hand rails are going to be a pain, will try it out and will post on here the results , the trouble with bolts right though the roof is im trying to aviod drill right through as much as i can, another hole to seal up?

 

the gunwhales are even a bit narrower now with the extra steel i put on there,

 

im tring to find the best way to heat the water as at the mo we have a aidle heater not sure if its enough?

[ukdiggerboy]

not replied to this for a while as weve been out on the canal but today cleaned the fore deck up and gave it a coat of Vactan

 

[ukdiggerboy]

we are painting the front ready for the windows and doors so as they can be fixed as a finished item

 

[ukdiggerboy]

thought id add these as ive been at it in the evenings in the shed ?!!!

 

the engine as we pulled it out?

 

 

the clean up and a bit of paint

 

 

 

then for the gear box with i must say loads of help from Richard pointing me in the right direction and supplying me with much needed parts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

not quiet finished but hoping to have it running again over christmas ready to be put back !!

[Neil2]

Good to hear from you UKDB keep up the good work!

 

See there's an old Carlton Ten in your workshop - yours?

[ukdiggerboy]

yep had it since i was 12

workshop to get a tidy up on sunday

[jenberi]

Wow, that is a massive job, looking really nice though. How well did using cork between the grp top an the hull work?

Edited November 30, 2014 by jenberi

[magnetman]

Must say that last picture makes my engine room look 'tidy'

 

nice job on the engine - is it an SR3?

[ukdiggerboy]

Wow, that is a massive job, looking really nice though. How well did using cork between the grp top an the hull work?

 

Hi jenberi the cork was a help taking out the unevenness of the GRP along with using the steel strip all stuck with a marine mastic

 

and yes magnetman an SR3 and i do really need a muck out in the shed lol its getting it monday evening

[jenberi]

arr I thought it was as a waterproof insert, that makes more sense. Like the problem solving.

[ukdiggerboy]

the worst bit was the joints between the three sections i got them to shut together lovely its the profiles all over the place lol

[jenberi]

I'm going to have a look at a 45ft steel hull with a grp top this week,( I hope not in such as state as yours was originally ) Been really useful to have a read of your blog to get some ideas of how much work I could practically do or not do on this one (advertised as requiring TLC although on talking to owner hull decent on survey 4 years ago) Thankyou for sharing and good luck with the rest of the refit, looks as if its going to look great

Edited December 1, 2014 by jenberi

[ukdiggerboy]

watch out for cracking on the grp and as mentioned earlier the hand rails that has to be the worst bit the water gets into the timber inserts through the cracks and swels the wood breaking open the fibre glass ? dont think an older boat with grp would take to much walking on the roof either hope all goes well let me know how you get on

 

Gary

[ukdiggerboy]

its been a while, but i have been busy dodging the weather the engine and gearbox now stripped cleaned painted and rebuilt ready to go back in.

 

while ive been doing that my dad has been making the new frame and windows for the front.

 

 

before

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ukdiggerboy]

now for the rear deck, as you see all angle iron so im wanting to try and keep the bilge as dry as poss so ive done this with some channel

 

 

 

 

[Neil2]

Hi ukdb - a tidy bit of ironmongery there, hope it works. My old tub had a similar arrangement which didn't...

 

If I had kept that boat I think I would have ended up fitting a pram cover even though I hate the look of them but that cockpit was just such an efficient water collector. The other idea I had was making a flush deck which would also have made the boat quite a bit quieter. If you are going to just replace the deck boards you might want to think about lining them with mild steel sheet or the lead sandwich type soundproofing which is really expensive but worth it I think. I wasted money on the ordinary heavy foam/plastic stuff and it hardly made any difference.