82 Midland skiff restoration

[Rkrough]

I had a deal with my wife that I could build a wood boat if I built her a new house first. I built the house and then not long afterward my wife showed me a picture of a skiff on an Ebay charity auction, knowing that I'm a sucker for commercial boats in general and Downeast style in particular, she knew I would be in love with it. A couple days and $610 later I brought it home last October.

The boat had been used for inshore lobstering and fishing since new so everything was pretty worn out, The 70hp motor had 60lbs of compression (later found the block cracked around #1 cyclinder liner) The deck was soft and the bilge was wet

As bad as it looks the stringers were not rotted except for a 2' long section of the top 3" of the keel stringer

I built a shelter over her and stripped her down to the stringers I ran a fan 24/7 for the next two months getting her dried out

Once dried I used a sandblaster with Black Beauty media at 90psi to clean up her bilge and give some tooth to bond new fiberglass. The rotted section of stringer was where I planned to install a 27 gallon fuel tank. I header-ed the keel stringer on each end of the tank. I added 3 layers of 1708 under the tank to keep the bottom stiff and then added a layer of 1708 between the stringers and over the stringers for the rest of the hull. I put in new PT doug fir floors.

I foamed filled the bilge with 2 part urethane (9 gallons) topped with 1/2 MDO

I'll post the rest this evening

 

[Rkrough]

Re: 82 Midland skiff restoration

After screwing and gluing down the new deck I bored larger holes for the deck scuppers. The transom I thought was solid had rot between the outer glass and the plywood. I cut the glass with a die grinder wheel and carefully removed the outer transom glass. I replaced the plywood and glued the transom glass back on with epoxy. I also raised the transom 2" to match the splash board, I taped and finished the seams

Back on the deck I put down layers of 1.5 oz matt and then topped with two coats of thickened Gel-coat rolled on to give a non-slip surface.

Cabin, console and sides are finished in Gelcoat, steering wheel was a $10 Ebay find

I stripped the bottom paint off and wet sanded the hull with 220g. I rolled 2 coats of gelcoat on followed by 8 hours of wetsanding and buffing. Rub and splash rails were painted to match.

 

[Rkrough]

Re: 82 Midland skiff restoration

I found a good 60 hp Johnson with a working VRO for $300,With some help from the local old 2 stroke expert We rebuilt the carbs, replaced the water pump assembly and lower unit seals.Pulled the water jacket covers and cleaned out the salt and debris from the cooling passages,installed new thermostat and relief valve/springs. The original VRO still works but we disconnected it and am using premix since the malfunction warning horn is not working on the control box. I'll repair the horn and put in a new VRO pump this winter. I spent about $200 in parts to bring the cooling and fuel system to new condition.

I put her in the water last weekend and put over 30 miles on her, ran excellent ,26 mph at 5000 rpm. Except for a few odds an ends of hardware she is all complete!