In the last 2 weeks we have have had -15C weather, a wedding,  a chest infection and a boat show but still managed to start sanding off the anti skid from the deck.  I know that the deck had been painted with house latex paint so knew it had to be removed.  Only after I started did I see how thin the gel coat was, before I sanded to the bottom of the diamond pattern the under layer of resin began to show.

This image is of the coach roof after sanding , the dark area's is resin .  The next one is a close up of same area.  Not much to look at but does show the diamond pattern in gel coat.

Have to start the deck but before I will identify wet areas that have to be removed ,no point in sanding these parts.  I have also started to sand off the old Cetol from the teak trim pieces and cupboard/door frames.

The rebuilding of RTIME our 1971 Irwin 37cc sailboat.

This  started in 2004 when I made my first trip down the East coast and the ICW to Florida in my 1969 Alberg 30 sailboat.  Leaving my wife at home, I traveled solo aboard my sailboat in company of another Alberg 30 from our yacht club.  I repeated the trip again in 2007/2008 with a couple in their CS33 sailboat, this time getting to the Bahamas.  I plan to do this again but not alone. The next time my wife will be with me.  I found the Alberg the right size for me alone but feel it would be too tight for the both of us since we hope to do a multi-year cruise.  With this in mind, we talked about getting a larger sailboat and refitting it to our liking. Thus the search began and we found this Irwin 37 centre cockpit model.  It fitted our needs and we felt we could upgrade it successfully  and so our journey began.

In the spring of  2010, we purchased this boat in an "as is where is" condition knowing I would be rebuilding it from the ground up during the summer/winter of 2010 and spring of 2011.  Before I purchased it, I did the usual walk/crawl through in -15C weather and checked for any obvious problems. Not finding any, I made my offer.  A few things were noticeable right away. This, in no way, reflects on the previous owner or owners. First, the Plexiglas and aluminum dodger had to go as did the steel dinghy support.  Not only because we did not like them, but  because the height when on the boat movers trailer was above the legal limit.  Second, there was no cradle. Boats can be moved without a cradle but I felt that,for the amount of time and security I needed, a cradle was purchased.   So started my first of many frustration with the cradle. I ordered a cradle from a well known builder in Ontario. It was delivered to the yacht club where the boat was located ready for their spring lift in.

  Loading the boat was not easy because the cradle being 16ft long and 8 ft wide did not fit the boat correctly.  The aft and centre pads were at their lowest and the fwd  was maxed out. I still had to use too much blocking.  The cradle, being 8ft wide, caused some concern but was promised by the builders that a boat mover can handle a cradle this wide.  I had no reason to question them as I had called a local mover who said that their rigs will expand to 8ft. I scheduled a pickup and delivery. When the trailer arrived a few days later, the  trailer was fully expanded to 8ft  when we found it would not slide down the sides of the cradle.  We measured every thing and indeed found that end of the rig was 8ft exactly. \unfortunately, the wheel end was only 7ft 10in max.  So, the trailer goes home and I call the cradle company to come down to remeasure for correct post height and asked for a new cradle.  Two weeks later a new cradle, now 7ft wide arrives.  The  crane lifted the boat from one cradle to the other. The boat mover arrives and finally the boat is moved  to its new home for the next year.

We knew at the onset that some things would be done. We needed to paint the hull with a two part polyester  paint, repaint the deck with a single part polyester paint, redo the bottom with ablative bottom paint, rebuild the Westerbeke 4-107 engine, install a new dodger and full enclosure, upgrade the electronics, and redo all the wiring .  Here is an expanded  preview of what has to be done during our year on the hard.  Here are some photos of the boat before I started and others after most of the tear down occurred. 

Engine

The engine was removed early on in small pieces since it had to be done by hand because of the boats location.  The rebuild was done by our local Carquest machine shop.  This involved a full strip down, hot acid wash of all parts, checking all parts to factory specs and replace parts as needed.  The mechanic who did the word said all parts were within specs.  I want a reliable engine so instructed him to replace everything: valves,valve guides, pistons, rings, sleeves, bearings, gaskets etc.  We also had the crank polished and cam shaft checked; the injection pump and injectors sent out for test and repair as needed; alternator and starter sent for checking with bearings and brushes replaced in both units.  It now resides inside the shop at the boatyard  waiting for spring  installation. In the meantime, I am cleaning out a very dirty and oily bilge.

Main cabin

 Another area we did not like was the main cabin layout and the location of the electrical panel and electronics. These will be moved and the cabin re-designed to better reflect the original layout with one change, the companion way steps are off set to port which I find strange when going below.  I plan to centre them and build the lower section around the relocation of the hot water heater. The space opened up below the seat that housed the water heater will support a portable freezer.  New cabin windows to  replace the cracked ones currently there, and better storage behind the settee shown in this picture.

These two  photos are of the cabin when I purchased the boat.  While it is functional, we found the bench  seating difficult to get in and out.  The white panels are plastic covering the liner and the centre panel covers the water intake hose. 

Strange things appear when you start taking a boat apart. Here is the filler and vent for the fresh water tank located it the middle of the cabin floor.  This location requires that a platform be built over it for protection. This had the effect of lowering the headroom in this area. 

This  view of the forward bulk head shows two lockers. The outboard locker will house the fresh water filter, pump and the new location of the water tank filler and vent hose. The white hose is the forward head waste discharge hose leading to the holding tank, this hose is over 10ft long and to me is not satisfactory.  The inboard locker will house  6 x 6 volt deep cycle house batteries with a disconnect and fuse.




Forward head

The forward head will have the wood removed, stripped and re-varnished.  In the sink cabinet, there are 3 through hulls. My goal is to eliminate them.  To this end, I am planning to install a small holding tank (1-2 gallons) in the locker that will take gray water from the sink and use that to flush the toilet thus eliminating all fittings.






V-birth

Moving forward to the V berth,  it appears good. On closer inspection, the teak panel backing had, at some time in the past,  gotten wet then  dried out and crumble away.  These have to be removed  to gain access to the bolts holding the external teak rub rail that I am removing.  During the rebuild, all cupboard fronts will be removed, the orange-tinged varnish removed and a clear coat varnish applied.  When I worked the manual windlass (that will be replaced with an electric one), I found the chain bunched up too high inside the locker necessitating  someone to go forward and collapse the pile. This will to be addressed by making the locker deeper.

                  Galley

The galley needs a lot of work starting by replacing the plywood cabinet fronts and the Plexiglas cupboard fronts.  While we like the good access to the cupboards, these are quiet large with very small lower lips which may allow items to fall out when sailing. We plan to make the lower lip higher to stop this from potentially happening. 

This is the interior of the galley after removing the cupboard fronts and sink.  The galley sink had leaked sometime in the past causing the core to rot away completely so it will have to be re cored.  The black pipe is the fuel inlet hose that I may relocate further aft.








Access to aft cabin 

Looking forward from the aft cabin  on the left with the sloping front is the 12 volt fridge. Extra insulation as well as a better insulated top needs to be done.  I plan to use this top as my nav station and the electrical panel and location of VHF and SSB radios plus other electronics.   On the right is the engine access door and engine shutoff pane. The interior of the engine compartment is heavily contaminated with oil and exhaust soot so all panels will be replaced and re-insulated.
 
 Aft Cabin

 The current aft cabin had an athwarthship Pullman style double bed. Based on our current boat that has a similar setup, we found it difficult to get in and out of especially for the person near the aft bulk head  in the middle of the night.  Our plans call for us to use the V birth for our sleeping quarters and the aft cabin as a media/ lounge room with TV  and occasional guest quarter berths.  The aft head will stay the same with a small holding tank for gray water to feed the head.  The storage cupboard on the right will be retained but I plan to separate it into a lower storage area and an upper storage area. This will also be done with the forward locker as well.

Current boat interior

  As you can see, all of the interior bulkheads have been removed  to gain access  to bolts holding the rub rail, the chain plates, rotted plywood bulkheads and   bulkhead tabbing.  Some of bulkheads had rotted at the bottom but the main reason for removing the bulkheads is to eliminate the plastic laminates used and replace them with a more traditional teak or mahogany finish.

 This photo shows the cap shroud loosely bolted to the hull. I find this very disturbing and it will be corrected. The lower photo  shows the forward lower also through bolted to the hull.

The upper photo is of the coach roof chain plate that is bolted right at the edge of the bulkhead, and shows signs of being stressed.  The lower picture shows how all the bulkhead tabbing was. It appears that in the manufacturing, all tabbing was bonded to either painted wood or to plastic laminated bulkhead sides. Over time, all bonding failed.







Exterior 

As mentioned earlier, I plan to paint the deck and hull.  At sometime in the past, the deck had been painted in what appears to be household latex paint. This has to be removed.  The teak grab rails are a little thin so these will be replaced.

The scupper drains and deck fillers will be repositioned and the drainage groove will be filled in. Right now, it is nothing but a collector of leaves and dirt.
 

This is a view of the hawser pipe for the docking lines.  The cover was in two pieces with no sealant in the middle. As a result, the boat leaked.  I plan to put a filler inside  before  replacing the cover.  As mentioned earlier, I will replace the manual windlass with an electric one but before that, I have to remove some soft spots on the foredeck.

 

A number of sealed cut out access holes in the cockpit will either become glassed in storage or will be properly sealed with fibreglass cloth.

 This caption is the spreader touching the mast base and extends out 43 in.  You can see the cap shroud chain plate at the spreader tip and the other two chain plates aft of the mast.  This is a strange setup as the single lower shroud connects to the coach roof chain plate and a shroud mounted half way between the spreader and the mast head is fastened to the chain plate on the outside of the hull. I have no idea if this is original or has been adapted.  This brings up a question of what sort of rig the boat was in the past.
 

 Right now it is rigged as a sloop with no indication that there was ever a bowsprit for a cutter rig although it does have a mast tang 6 ft from the mast head that supported an inner fore stay nor is there any indication of having a deck fitting.  Another curiosity is on the stern. The bask stay is split. This is normally associated with a ketch rigged boat but again, there are no external signs of a mast or mast base. 

In the inside of the aft cabin there are signs of having holes for shrouds and stays.

 

 Finally an image of the housing I made to shelter the boat while the work is being done.  I used mostly 2in x 4in x 10ft lumber, 2 - 20ft x 30ft tarps and 3 -14ft x 20ft tarps for the end covers and floor (to keep down moisture) plus a few other random lengths of lumber.  With the interior stripped out, I will start major re-construction in the new year.  I hope to have the boat in the water by July 2011.  Updates will be posted at least on a weekly basis until done.

The journey begins.