1950's Cabin Cruiser Sea Babe

[cybersniper]

I thought id introduce everyone to my current project.

I believe the design itself is a 1950's design however i cannot date the age of the boat itself as the Cabin Cruiser Sea Babe plans can be found on the internet for free these days.

I picked up this boat for free off a guy that only wanted the trailer the boat was sitting on. So i thought why not! ill give it a go.


Heres the boat when i got it home.


Cutting out the Rot


Adding strength to the frame


All Patched

 

[cybersniper]

Re: 1950's Cabin Cruiser Sea Babe


More Rot on the side identified


More re-enforcement after removing the rot


All patched


Dont like a flat nose on a boat


Thats better, just need some shaping.

 

[cybersniper]

Re: 1950's Cabin Cruiser Sea Babe


This is the boat as it as right now in my backyard. Looking forward to more work on her.

Any criticism or feedback is most welcome.
Ill try and keep this thread updated as i progress with the rebuild.
I should mention i cant take all the credit here i also have my dad helping me along the way. I'm very appreciative of his knowledge of boats and its definitely helping me in the repair of my first boat.

 

[Slacker411]

Re: 1950's Cabin Cruiser Sea Babe

Looks like you have already made a great start. It appears as though you've already ground down most of the outside. What kind of materials do you plan to use for the resto?

 

[cybersniper]

Re: 1950's Cabin Cruiser Sea Babe

Thanks Slacker411.

Most of the outside has been tackled however i know there's a few more spots that i need to work on still. All in time, im kind of working around my dads schedule at the moment. While im waiting though i have plenty of sanding to go on the inside of the boat.

In regards to the material i intend on using on the boat, once we have repaired the hull my dad and i intend on fibreglassing the hull. However i would like to keep the deck in timber. The original plans for a Cabin Cruiser Sea Babe show that the boat has a cabin on it, im going to be changing up the design a little and making it an open runabout.

Ive got a picture of the original boat design here.


Heres a few mock up images of what i intend of doing for the boat. (These images were actual images of my boat turned into sketch form. The rest i have drawn by hand on the page)


What do you think of what i had in mind for my boat?

 

[cybersniper]

Re: 1950's Cabin Cruiser Sea Babe

Polished up my outboard today, in preparation for pulling it off my parts boat.
Came up excellent! not bad at all for a 1971 model outboard.

See for yourself heres a few photos.

 

[Slacker411]

Re: 1950's Cabin Cruiser Sea Babe

Thats a beautiful looking outboard there! It came out great! What did you use to polish it up? I want to try and clean my cowling covers as well and have thought about painting the lower unit and driveshaft housing myself.

 

[Bayou Dave]

Re: 1950's Cabin Cruiser Sea Babe

That is a great project boat. I like the changes you are going to make it open. How long is the boat?

 

[cybersniper]

Re: 1950's Cabin Cruiser Sea Babe

Thanks Slacker411, i just used some of the polish i would normally use on my car. Think it was McGuires, in combination with using a buffing pad. Theres a few spots around the motor where the paint has come away, ive also considered trying to repaint these sections but im not 100% sure if im going to or not yet. Im also still trying to polish up the front section of the cowling where Thunderbolt is printed. Its proving to be a little more difficult cause its more of a chrome effect. Ill get some photos up when im done.

Thanks DRS4164, the boat is 15ft.
I opted for the open run about because i had no intention on sleeping on this boat (apparently the design used to sleep 2), only wanted to use it for some fishing and cruising in with friends so i figured a bimini will help if i need some shade and at least that free's up some space in the boat.

Ive also acquired these back to back seats for the boat as well. I think these will look very nice in the boat, and also very comfortable.

 

[cybersniper]

Re: 1950's Cabin Cruiser Sea Babe

Some more work done yesterday on the boat.

Tackled some rot on the left hand side. You might also notice in the picture that we had to fix some of the framework for the boat as some of this was also rotten and we could not risk leaving it like this. Its very solid now, ready to take a pounding.


Managed to get it all patched up again but didnt get a photo because i had to pack up quickly and head off to see the potential parts motor for my power tilt and trim. Ill get some photos next weekend maybe..

Also did a little bit of work on the nose of the boat again.


Also identified a small rotten patch on the left rear of the boat near the transom. Thankfully after a check up the transom itself doesn't appear to have any rot.

 

[Slacker411]

Re: 1950's Cabin Cruiser Sea Babe

I'm glad to see your still plugging away at it. I think those seats you got will work out well. I am curious if you got a good deal on them? It looks like you've been repairing an area on the very front "nose" part of the bow. Did you use some sort of filler in that area to try and get it all to the right shape?

 

[cybersniper]

Re: 1950's Cabin Cruiser Sea Babe

Thanks Slacker411

Yeh i think the seats will work out well. I'm definitely hoping so anyway.
I think i did fairly well on the price, i paid $400 for them (that's the set)
In regards to the front, after building the nose up with some pieces of maple and shaping it there was some rot at the top that we needed remove and then fill in. Funny thing is i cant for the life of me remember what my dad put on there, probably because he did all of that while i was dealing with a tradie that had come around to give me a quotation. Ill ask my dad if its something you would really like to find out.

 

[cybersniper]

Re: 1950's Cabin Cruiser Sea Babe

Started working on the boat some more on Saturday as per usual, however this Saturday was a huge let down.

After finishing the repair on the front of the boat my dad and I started looking over the boat some more for more rot.

What we discovered was more rot on the stringers of the boat, pretty much every single one of them. We also noticed a repair job from the previous owner was done in thick Pine at the rear of the boat and we suspect it may have been done to cover rot. (In hindsight these checks probably should have been done much earlier in the project but unfortunately we didn't check)

My dad has concerns about the strength of the boat if we were to start replacing the stringers. I'm sure his also concerned about the amount of work involved to perform this task also. So as sad as it is for me to say this it has been decided that we are going to abandon work on the Sea Babe.

We now intend on building a Classic boat from scratch. Ive been looking at some of the Glen-L plans to see if there might be anything of interest that follows a similar design to the Sea Babe, or there may even be a possibility of building a Sea babe from Scratch also.

 

[DeepBlue2010]

Re: 1950's Cabin Cruiser Sea Babe

Sorry to hear that. I was looking forward to following this build. Best of luck to you/your father finding the right plan for the new build.

 

[sheboyganjohn]

Re: 1950's Cabin Cruiser Sea Babe

You want to build a Sea Babe you have the best plans you can get, the original boat. Heck, if all the structural parts are still in one piece, you could take it apart and use them as patterns. Her is a youtube video to give you an idea of what you can do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ur3_EH66N8

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: 1950's Cabin Cruiser Sea Babe

seems like a lot of work just to walk away from

 

[cybersniper]

Re: 1950's Cabin Cruiser Sea Babe

Thanks for all the input everyone

Well it looks like we have decided to build a new boat from scratch.
We have decided to build the Bateau Open Classic 17

In regards to the Sea Babe, i do still have a soft spot for it.
I'm considering striping back the plywood off the boat and slowly disassembling the frames so i can salvage them as templates. I may consider taking up the Sea Babe as a project for myself to complete at a later stage after the new build with my dad. I don't have the heart to destroy the boat as i still see it as a beautiful design.

 

[barbjmj]

Finally another Sea Babe owner...then I read your last post that you are abandoning the project. Made me cry. I am restoring one my father-in-law built in 1958. I have the original plans, plates and family photos to guide me. Still there are elements I struggle with. The wood is sound and I'm about ready to paint but somehow I find that process challenging.

Even though you aren't working on your Sea Babe right now I thought I'd share some photos of my project with you. Any advice you can give is appreciated!
~ Barb