14 ft. Tri-hull Boat Total Rebuild

[singinout]

Hi guyz!
I found iboats not terribly long ago and I'm really impressed! There's tons of advice on everything boats. I only wish I had found it sooner! I think I would have did some things differently perhaps. Some of that is beyond backing up and redoing so we'll just move forward from here. Hopefully nothing I've done so far will seriously hamper or endanger the boats performance.

So here's my project....it's a fiberglass tri-hull boat that is about 13' 8" long. We got it off a craigslist ad. In hindsight we probably could have done better by waiting for something else but past is past and we have too much in it to stop. Actually, I rather like the boat and am anxious to get it done so I can get it on the water once! I've had the boat for about 2 yrs now so its time to get it done!

One "problem" I have is - I have no idea of the manufacturer or model of the boat. It had a sloppy repaint job on it when I got it. On the side there were white stickers that said "whaler" but I dont think that was a manufacturer name. I have since sanded the paint down and on the original paint I could make out the word "International". I have no idea if that is related to anything or not. I'm posting some pix and if anyone has any idea what make this boat is, I'd appreciate any info you could share! I'll try to post some pix of the project in progress as I have time. To get started, here's some pix of right after I bought the boat with NO work done yet.

 

[singinout]

Re: 14 ft. Tri-hull Boat Total Rebuild

Ok took me a little to figure out how to post pix. I think I got it now...

P.S. (I resized the pix)

 

[singinout]

Re: 14 ft. Tri-hull Boat Total Rebuild

 

[singinout]

Re: 14 ft. Tri-hull Boat Total Rebuild

I dunno wat the deal is...I preview my post an it shows my pix fine. I post em and one or so of them just shows as a little box with an X in the center. Is it just my pc? Can you guys see all the pix?

 

[cdyer77]

Re: 14 ft. Tri-hull Boat Total Rebuild

I can see all the pics. Looks like a fun little project. GL!

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 14 ft. Tri-hull Boat Total Rebuild

Yeah I can see the pics too. I like those old tri-hull fishing boats. Nice stable platform. Good luck with your project. Where do you plan to use it when it's done?

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: 14 ft. Tri-hull Boat Total Rebuild

Please resize your pictures to 640 x 480

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Re: 14 ft. Tri-hull Boat Total Rebuild

hello singinout

Dont really know if/doubt thats a Boston..if it is dont let it go.


PS..

Welcome to iboats bobin..

I dont know if its right or wrong for me to ask..but Im gonna say it..

Why would you register with a name like that ?? is it possible to change it ? ( Its a family thing.. dont like to see " she gives H**d" for a user m8.. ).

YD.

 

[57chris]

Re: 14 ft. Tri-hull Boat Total Rebuild

Cool boat! looks pretty good allready, can't wait to see what you have in store.

 

[singinout]

Re: 14 ft. Tri-hull Boat Total Rebuild

Ok...cdyer77 - Thanx for the gud luck!

ezmobee - I plan to jst use it for fishing reservoirs and taking along to bigger lakes occasionally. (I dont have real big water close to my place. 2 hrs is bout closest w/out hp restrictions) Nothin real fancy but i want it nice! ;-)

Bob VT - I'll see wat I can do.

S.B.O.T.K. - Thanx! On the brand...I personally dont think its a Boston Whaler cause it does not have the double hull as I understand Whalers do. It's jst a solid fiberglass hull.

57chris - Yeah I'll try to post more pix soon. I totally gutted the boat and started over.

 

[singinout]

Re: 14 ft. Tri-hull Boat Total Rebuild

Ok here's the very first thing that happened. I ripped the old carpet out to see what it looked like under...

 

[slvrwolf1]

Re: 14 ft. Tri-hull Boat Total Rebuild

looks like a fun project. I just started one myself with a 16 foot sea sprite. I will probably make a thread sometime this weekend. I will definatley follw this one to see how it turns out. Good luck

 

[singinout]

Re: 14 ft. Tri-hull Boat Total Rebuild

In the beginning stages of my project I didn't take an awful lot of pictures so things may look like they really hustled along. Not necessarily so....

Here I got the boat moved into our shop to work on over the winter. (sorry bout the image quality...it's the only one I had like it). As you can sorta see in the pic, I got the whole interior ripped out of the boat. Carpet, deck floor, casting platform, all the hardware, and I also sawed off the side console thing. I didn't like it and it would have been a total pain to work around. Saws-all made quick work of that! ;-) Also in the front, I had started sanding the paint down. The ugly green underneath is what I presume was the factory paint.

 

[singinout]

Re: 14 ft. Tri-hull Boat Total Rebuild

Maybe I'll add in here what my general plan was when I began the project. First of all, I got the boat cheap and the plan was to get it in nice working condition so I could use it to fish reservoirs. For the time being I was only planning on an electric trolling motor with the option to add a tiller steer outboard at a later date. I wanted to build a casting deck in the front and a bench-like seat storage compartment at the back which could be used as a seat if/when I got an outboard for it. The rest of the boat would remain relatively open with a pedestal seat in the midsection and one on the casting platform. I wasn't planning on spending much or trying to make it look fancy. Just fix it so it would work and paint it. Somewhere along the way, I got a bit derailed and revamped my floor plan. Some things stayed the same some changed. For now, the first plan is what is happening on the pix.

P.S. The 1st plan of a quick fix also probably contributed to some early on things that I perhaps should have spent more time on....

 

[singinout]

Re: 14 ft. Tri-hull Boat Total Rebuild

Ok...the two fiberglass stringers (i think that's what their called) that run from front to back. I discovered that inside these were plastic rectangular shaped cubes. I suspect they were supposed to be for flotation purposes. Similar things were up under the top rail on the sides of the boat. Anyway, we discovered that alot of these had become brittle and had holes and were filled with water....GREAT!!! So we needed to extract these things. We cut two holes in each stringer, one in the back and one about in the middle to extract them. Now unlike what I'm gathering from other boats, these were not fiberglassed wooden stringers. They were simply a U shaped housing with the floatation things inside.

Now according to what alot of you are doing, maybe I should have just cut them out and totally replaced them? Well, I didn't. I got all the plastic things out. Then, I cut 2 lengths of 3/4 inch exterior plywood and glued them to the top of the stringers with builders adhesive. One reason I did that was - the very outside edges of the hull where my decking would go was a little higher than the stringers in the center. It also gave me something solid to fasten the decking to.

I didn't know how much stock to put in the floatation things I had pulled out. So I decided to add my own. I had looked online but couldn't find anything that was the right size. Then I struck on the the soda bottles idea. I parked empty (tightly sealed) 2 liter bottles end to end in the center space between the stringers. Then I used expanding foam to hold them in place and somewhat fill the space between the stringers. I also used expanding foam and sprayed inside the stringers to replace the plastic containers that had been there, and also to give it some structure underneath.

P.S. The plywood is partly cut off on the left stringer because part of that stringer was higher than the rest of it.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: 14 ft. Tri-hull Boat Total Rebuild

Thanks for resizing

Hmmm soda bottles and spray foam We have spoke of that stuff quite a bit here. Did you leave a spot for drainage under the bottles? So...if water does get in it has a way to get to the stern to get out????

 

[keepNitreel]

Re: 14 ft. Tri-hull Boat Total Rebuild

In the beginning stages of my project I didn't take an awful lot of pictures so things may look like they really hustled along. Not necessarily so....

I saw the 4hr apart pic's & said to my self man you move quick!

 

[singinout]

Re: 14 ft. Tri-hull Boat Total Rebuild

Thanks for resizing

Hmmm soda bottles and spray foam We have spoke of that stuff quite a bit here. Did you leave a spot for drainage under the bottles? So...if water does get in it has a way to get to the stern to get out????

That's interesting! I guess I must not have read through the topics enough yet to have seen it. No, the foam is not totally sealed down against so i dont think water drainage should be an issue.

 

[singinout]

Re: 14 ft. Tri-hull Boat Total Rebuild

An inevitable part of a project....a SHOP VAC!! It struck me funny while looking through all you other guys projects...nearly every single guy somewhere or the other had a shop vac! Hey, you need one - it's VERY useful!

So...starting a project?? PREPARE TO BUY A SHOP VAC!!!

 

[singinout]

Re: 14 ft. Tri-hull Boat Total Rebuild

Since my original plan involved an open floor plan, I decided to add rod storage on the sides. The boat was too short to store them between the back bench and the front casting deck, so I made openings in the front face of the casting deck to accept the rod tips. My dad helped alot on this and he mostly designed this part. Here's a jig he was using to get the whole thing level.