Re: 1980s Coastworker 180 transom core replacement questions/advice sought
Another little update.
Hydraulic steering cylinder fitted now - super easy to fit!
You can also see the splash guards here that I made:
Couple of problems to sort out though. On the test trips it was evident something was still damaged beneath the deck on the port side.
I knew it couldn't be where I'd done the repair to the lateral brace midships, so it was further forward than that. I've reluctantly had to cut the deck open again to gain access. Each wave would cause a slap sound which sounded like loose fibreglass, and sure enough it was exactly that.
Here's what I had to cut out:
Here's what I found - more of the original factory fibreglass that was broken. Annoying that I hadn't found this first time round but short of cutting the whole deck out this was always a possibility. I don't mind too much as it's an easy repair. Shame it means another scar on the deck though afterwards:
Quality construction as shown in this little video!
I'm going to reinforce all of this to make sure I don't have to worry in future or have this hassle again.
At the console where the new helm is going to fit, I'm not happy about the strength of the top panel of the console. It's not an overall issue for the boat itself, but I don't want the helm coming away in my hand so I will make a backing plate to make it robust as it should be.
On another note, I need a whole new trailer axle.
When I bought the boat about 15 months back it had brand new bearings. Great I thought! Unbeknownst to me, the previous owner must have used a grinder to remove crappy old bearings off the stub axles, and also used it to 'clean' the stub surface so the new ones would go on. The result? The very first moment I backed the trailer into the water those shiny new bearings were doomed.
Water has gone in through the rough stub axle/inner race surface and pitted them already. They're too rough to use just a few months since the first dip in the sea thanks to the monkey that I got the boat from. So I have to find the money (about ?300) for a whole new axle.
That's boats for you I guess!
