1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Repairing the Damage from the Big 2018 Nor’easter

This is the third time the project has been hit by disaster (fourth if I include the paperwork SNAFU). There was the bastard thieves who grabbed all of my portable tools, materials, and original Chris Craft parts in 2014. Then there was the boat next door that blew up, damaging the tent and my paint in 2015. There were some lesser disasters, too, but the next big one was that Nor’easter in March 2018 that whooped Tent Model XXX and damaged my brand new Awlgrip paint. After a time consuming and irritating claim process, we finally settled this week. The repairs have been ongoing for a while, but I wanted to wait to write about it until the work was basically done. After long four months, we’re almost there.

Step 1: wash the boat

A lot of dirt blew in through the gaping hole in the top during the storm, so washing the boat was the first thing I did.

That’s cleaning up rather nicely

I do like that Matterhorn white Awlcraft with the tinted windows

Next, the top skin was split so the roof could be raised

There was damage to the shiny paint as well as the nonskid on the cabin top and the hard top. I don’t want to re-skin the whole tent just yet, because once the nonskid gets sprayed the whole interior surface of the plastic skin will be covered with very coarse overspray. So instead I had the roof over the hardtop raised so there would be plenty of room for the guys to do the work.

The top skin over the hardtop is gone

That’s only the third time the sun has hit this paint directly.

Sunlight in the salon!

The tent frames over the hardtop need to be raised

Up go the frames

The new top skin got draped and battened by late afternoon

Next day, the new shrink wrap top got tensioned

Ventilator and filter box got set up

Then a lot of very expensive materials started showing up

Three cases of 3M 233+ tape, and and a bunch of Mirka Abranet  in various grits

With all of the prep work done and materials on-site, the repairs could finally begin

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fixing the Nor’easter Damage