After purchasing my 1960's German built early fibreglass speedboat (of which i think it is a one-off, unless anyone can correct me!!) in april 2010 i started to restore her and wanted to share my progress!
The boat itself seems to be a one-off although she looks similar to a Broom. She has no company’s maker’s plate or any evidence of coming from a large speed boat manufacturer. I purchased the boat from Hythe Sailing club in Southampton for a small sum of £600 and found a plate screwed to her with text in German! I translated it (with the help of Google translate) and it said "Owner - Rudolf Keitzl of the Gerhard Hauptmann School". This is the only clue i have to its origins!!
Heres the boat in the state i bought her.
And heres the engine - a 1970's evinrude 18hp. Which slips out of gear!
I stripped all the boat bits and turned it upside down! The boat itself was in a sorry state (not that the photo shows it!) It had loads of gouges on the underneath and the red topside gel coat was very weathered and ballooned (with the red going almost milky in colour) so i then knew it was going to be a Proper restoration!
Heres a photos of the underneath.
This was going to take alot of filler and sanding!! and there was no other way round it but to antifoul the bottom!
As she was upside down i took advantage and painted out all underneath the topside with white blidge paint, cut back and polished up all the yellow sides and refurbed the original snipe trailor!
Now what to do with the topside as they where WELL past it. Out came the sander and my red boat became PINK! But look how shiney the sides are!!
I had to do a few small jobs like repairing the transom with new glass and filling all the hideous hull to deck joins again with lots of filler!
I had a master plan for the topsides but it first meant restoring the original colour to parts of the topside and transom with two pack paint!
Im getting the hang of this photo uploading stuff now!! Anyway, my topside master plan comes in the form of a REAL teak deck with black caulking, which started off as carboard templates and we also invested in a boat shed (in the form of a marquee off ebay!)
The marquee didnt last long though during the winter!!
The boat was fine thank god!! Anyway the templates made the decking easy to cut to size and fit.
And once caulked came ALOT MORE sanding!!
Then came the 11 coats of varnish! Yes with rubbing down inbetween!!! I had no finger prints left!
I then went on a bit of a spending spree buying lots of stainless steel deck fittings, including pop-ups cleats, horns, bow roller, rear boarding ladder etc.... all of which where attached to the boat using wooden washer and aluminium washer pads - Not just for show! I also re-fitted the original nav lights.
I then turned my attention to the engine and sorted out the gearbox - which turned out to be a worn clutch dog and refurbed the engine and cowling with home made decals!
As a student at the University of Portsmouth studying Marine Technology, i thought this would be a good project for my third year dissertation! This has now been accepted by the University and with just the interior left to complete on the boat, i have started to 3D model the boat and interior to see what the finished boat will look like!
As i said before i have only the interior left to do! I will carpet the sides and fit pockets to each side and then upolster the cockpit with red upolstry.
One thing i havent decided on is a name??? Im thinking Rhubarb and Custard, beacuse of the colour?? What do you guys think?? I need ideas!!!!
I hope you've enjoyed reading this and i will keep this feed updated as much as possible! Theres also loads more photos on my facebook - follow this link
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... 9ac&type=1
