Beginning my 1987 Fisherman 20 Restoration

[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]

Hoping this is a VERY productive Labor Day Weekend here. Here's what I was up to this week.

Took the stringers back down into the shop and worked on glassing the curved features on them. Glad I elected to do it in the comfort of the shop instead of in place. I was able to experiment and get a feel for how to conform to the curves. First one wasn't the prettiest and required lots of additional sanding but it is covered. Here's the second one where I started to get the hang of the right approach. Still room for improvement:



Yes - the shop needs for it to rain one day (or 7...) so I can straighten things up - it's even more disorganized than what you can see in these photos.









Then spent a night sanding them clean. With that out of the way I laid them in the hull, aligned the top edges and tacked them in place with peanut butter.

Came back the next night, lightly sanded the tacks and filleted them in 100%:









The boards clamped in place aren't the bulkheads, just spacers to align the tops and spacing and keep everything parallel:







That wrapped up the work week. This morning I took a 90 mile road trip and snagged a new (to me) tandem axle trailer:



Might have to make a small adjustment to the bow roller and winch mount but other than that it is sound and pulled like a feather on the drive home. Brakes on both axles and the bunks and carpet are in great shape for a salvage yard find. Just need to get 2 new tires.

Once I got back to Louisville I dove into sanding the fillets in preparation for glassing. I've been watching Boat Works Today videos on youtube and Andy recommended a handheld belt sander. He uses a Makita that retails for around $250. I couldn't (at the time) justify that pricetag so I snagged a smaller Wen off Amazon for about $35. I gotta say - this is an EXTREMELY versatile tool. Made easy work of sanding the fillets and tight areas between the stringers and strakes a relative breeze. If you're thinking about tackling a project like this I can't recommend one of these highly enough. The only draw back to this is the belt being so narrow makes it wear pretty quick. The dust collection isn't perfect but it's leaps and bounds better than using the grinder, and removes material almost as effectively. I just might pull the trigger on that Makita in the near future to get a little wider belt and larger radius on the head:



They're all sanded, vacuumed and washed down now:









Tomorrow morning I'll start cutting my sections of biax to prep for glassing. My goal is to get the starboard side glassed in tomorrow. If things go smoothly the port too, but I'm not holding my breath! I've slightly modified my layup plans. I had grand plans to do the whole length in a single piece but I think now that the time is nigh that plan was a wee bit overzealous for my experience level. So instead I'm doing 50x50 sections, overlapping the joints and staggering the layers.

Hope everyone else is enjoying their long weekend, hopefully out on the water, or like me - watching the long awaited triumphant return of college football - especially the University of Michigan! GO BLUE! HAIL HAIL!

[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...