Beginning my 1987 Fisherman 20 Restoration

[Myfathersson]

Well I didn't go outside at all on Sunday. It was just too hot to think about jumping in that bunny suit and cutting away glass. So I ventured downstairs into my nicely air conditioned workshop and prepped a PVC sleeve for the bilge drain and a "split ruler" to position the drain.

I took a piece of 1" PVC pipe and turned the outside diameter down to 1.240" on the lathe and then relieved the inside diameter a bit before finally pocketing one end to 28mm to match my new drain plug.



Then a scrap of plywood and 2 lengths of 2x4 to make 2 legs to gauge the location inside and outside of the hull, and a couple scraps of ply to provide a starter guide for my 1.25" forstner bit to start perpendicular to the exterior of the transom.





Got home from work this afternoon, laid out the desired location, drilled the hole and mixed up a batch of mayonnaise consistency epoxy, coated both the hole and the sleeve and tapped it in just proud of the exterior and made sure there was a good lip of excess epoxy on the inside. That can cure up till tomorrow evening when I will sand away the excess to be nicely flush and contoured with the inside glass and proceed to power washing the whole thing without worries that there are any exposed edges for moisture to take advantage of.





Since I had the forstner bits out I grabbed the 1.375" and cleaned up the thru hull holes. I ordered the new stainless thru hulls yesterday even though they'll sit until I have patched all the gelcoat and wet sanded and buffed the hull.



I also took some time to grab a chisel and remove the drips of epoxy. I'm not sure if it's the highly honed edge I keep on my chisels or that the gelcoat was still waxed and never abraded (or a combination of all of the above) but the epoxy came off really cleanly from where I didn't want it.

[Destroyer]

Great job!!! THANK YOU for all the pics and descriptions Love the progress you're making on her. Keep up the great work.

[Myfathersson]

Thanks Destroyer! Lots left to do!

[phatdaddy]

very impressive build. imagine how easy that would have been for wellcraft to do 30 or 40 years ago.

thanks for the photos and detailed descriptions

[SkunkBoat]

love watching this stuff.

[Myfathersson]

Originally Posted by SkunkBoat

love watching this stuff.

Thank you! I'm glad my contributions are being enjoyed!

[Myfathersson]

Yesterday evening after work I took advantage of the drop in temp to climb in the suit and cut a bit. Got the sole partially stripped. As expected all of the plywood was rotten and delaminating.







And then today I stripped a little more before deciding the wind was too high to cut and grind without perturbing the neighbors. So once I power washed the cap down I pulled out the stringer stock and started on the stringers. I started with my laser pointer setup to get my heights:



Look close and you can make out the green dot back on the transom:



I set the height by a couple of strings through screw holes in the hull transposed from their matching holes in the cap where I measured precisely to the underside of the sole, and compared it with my records of dimensions before cutting the stringers out:





Took new measurements from the hull to line and transposed those new dimensions onto the stringer stock:



And traced the tail and utility cutout profiles from the original stringer shells:



Cut carefully and set it in place for a test fit:





Measured to make sure I had the right offset from the reference laser line, made a few adjustments and then repeated for the starboard side. Voila - two accurate fit stringers:







Then carried each one downstairs to the router table and put a 1/4" radius along the top edge to ease wrapping the 17oz biax around the profile:



Tomorrow I hope the weather (specifically the wind) cooperates to let me grind and wash down the hull so that I can proceed to bedding these two in place.

[Myfathersson]

Originally Posted by phatdaddy

very impressive build. imagine how easy that would have been for wellcraft to do 30 or 40 years ago.

thanks for the photos and detailed descriptions

Agreed! Especially with plenty of supplies at the ready, very little extra material or labor would've been involved! But I guess then they wouldn't be able to sell you another one quite as soon...

[Myfathersson]

And here's the bilge drain sleeve all cleaned up on the inside.



Then my friendly UPS driver backed all the way up into my driveway to help me B.O.A.T.:



13.3 gallons of epoxy, more Cabosil, microbeads and gel colorant, and 40 yds of 17oz biax. I think that'll be the biggest single ticket order until I get to replacing the leaning post, adding a t-top and whatever I decide to to with the outboard.

Made up a mount to hold one of my high power laser pointers for laying out the stringers, then after the underwhelming storms powered through I power washed the whole thing. Could've gone a little lower on the drain hole but it's still much better than it was originally. Right now I'm just glad to have all the current grinding dust washed out for the next step. Cheers!

[Blue_Runner]

I'm amazed at the progress you've made. Can't wait to see splashdown. I tip my hat to you sir!