Restoring my first boat

In October 2008 I retrieved my  Ian Proctor designed Blue Peter dinghy from a long term loan to some friends. It was my very first boat, bought in about 1986 and I have kept it whilst acquiring and disposing of: a Mirror Dinghy, an Optimist, a Drascombe Dabber and my recently sold Winkle Brig. I kept her in Ireland on a sliding mooring for 13 years, using her first as my only boat and then as a tender to my Drascombe. She was rowed back and forth to Beetle Island in Clew Bay, County Mayo more times than can be counted and was called the "Beetle I'land Ferry" (we had run out of stick on letter s'es). She has been on the river Frome in Stroud for the last four years, but now is back in my shed, looking pretty sorry for herself.

Whilst awaiting the construction of a new Swallow Boats BayCruiser, I have decided to give the poor boat a much needed major renovation, so that it can act as a tender to my new boat next year. Find out more about the Blue Peter here.

Stage 1: Repairing holes in hull

Stage 2: Repairing damage to interior moulding

Stage 3: Repairs to the skeg and stern

Stage 4: Buoyancy chamber access hatches

Stage 5: Painting the interior

Stage 6: Painting the exterior

Stage 7: Painting complete and rigged to sail

The work starts. First week in October, 2008

The poor boat in the shed in October, with repairs starting. Three large holes had to be cut out and patched and the front edge of one bilge runner completely rebuilt, but that is just the start.

As can be seen, the whole hull is so abraded that it will have to be painted to restore any sort of appearance.

Fixing a hole where the water gets in. There were three serious holes in the hull. One looked like a bullet hole. A large rectangular hole was jig-sawed out around each of them. Edges sanded and cleaned with acetone ready for patching. The patch is a rectangular piece of stiff card, narrow enough to fit into the hole. It is covered in three layers of fibre glass and resin. Whilst it is still wet, a U-shaped piece of copper wire is pushed through it, to use to pull it up on the inside of the hole. Resin was applied around the inside of the hole, the patch inserted, twiddled around and then pulled up tight as shown next.

Looks crude, but it works. The patch is inside hull and  pulled up tight to it with twisted wire and bits of wood. Extra resin and small bits of fibreglass stippled around the edge and allowed to go off really hard. When it is cured, the wood is removed, most of the wire snipped off and the remainder then pushed through into the inside. Three more layers of fibreglass and resin stippled over the patch and lapped over the edges of the hole. When it has all set it is rough but very solid.

The completed patch, but still needing finishing. The edges of the hole are now gripped between the patch on the inside and the further layers of cured fibreglass on the outside. The two holes for the copper wire can just about be seen, but these are now full of resin and covered by three laminations of fibreglass so are completely water tight. The patch is now rock solid but very rough and still below the finished surface.

The patch was sanded down with a disk sander and then fibreglass filler applied. This is full of random fibres and sets in about 10 minutes. This fills the bulk of the depression and is then sanded flat. After every stage, the work must be brushed free of dust and then cleaned with acetone. It looks a mess, but is very solid.

Finally (not quite actually) the rough fibreglass filler is rubbed flat, and any depressions in it filled with epoxy marine filler. This again is sanded smooth. This looks really rough in the photo, but is in fact completely smooth to touch. There is still a visually perceptible dent where the patch is. I may try to fair it smooth before painting, but I think it may be easier to do this after the first painted undercoat.

One bilge runner was smashed in at the front. I cut out the whole damaged area with a flap-wheel sander, filled the space with rough strips of wood and then fared the whole thing with fibreglass filler paste. This took several applications, each followed by lots of sanding until I got the original shape back. Then any hollows were fared with marine filler. The white area on the hull was an area of serious cracking which I could not cut out, so it was ground down with the flap wheel and filled.

On to stage 2 >>