1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Transforming Tent Model IX, Helm Door & Fillets

Tent Model IX served its winter-time purpose extremely well, holding up without a hitch when Hurricane Sandy came calling and providing lots of space to get work done on the interior. Model IX was the culmination of years of shrink wrap tent-making failures and successes. With winter finally past us (maybe! It is, after all, only April!), it ‘s time to transform Model X into a paint shed.

I began by adding scaffolding aft and working my way around to the other side.

Since we’re not doing any heavy longboarding on the hull this time around, the scaffolding deck is down around where the water line will be. This should give the painter sufficient access to apply nice, wet coats of Awl Craft 2000.

Time to build the second story scaffolding.

The second-story scaffolding is just below deck level.

This scaffolding will allow the painter to step off the deck and paint the exterior of the aft deck enclosure, then step back onto the boat at the transom. A couple of cross braces make a huge difference in stability. The tent plastic itself will greatly add to stability, too, once it’s shrunk.

Reusing concrete forms for the scaffolding deck.

Back in 2008, when we first got the Roamer, I got a good deal on phenolic-faced 4×8 sheets used in concrete forms that are made with waterproof, boil-proof glue. I planned to use it as sub-flooring throughout the boat. But after buying it I found that the phenolic isn’t smooth and doesn’t stay attached very long–it cracked and peeled after a year or two just sitting inside the boat while I was straightening out the paperwork SNAFU. So I ripped it into 24′ x 96″ pieces and used it for the scaffolding deck.

The scaffolding decking is supported lengthwise with two 2x4s per section and more lumber at the ends. You can dance on it! I used screws so it will be easier to sectionally dismantle. If anybody needs a portable paint shed at a bargain price in a couple of months, let me know!

Scaffolding around the bow

There’s a step up in the right side of the pic that allows the painter to reach all the way to the rub rail at the top of the stem.

The long view down the starboard side looking back.

The step up at the bow.

Reused the old bow seat for scaffolding.

The white section of the scaffolding deck is the old bow seat that I cut off and replaced with something better. It follows the curve of the hull pretty good!

From the bow seat to the stern, the decking is all phenolic-faced plywood.

Putting up the paint shed skirt.

I’ll put a new sheet of shrink wrap over the top, but I need a skirt from the ground to about 12″ up because shrink wrap doesn’t come in 60′ wide rolls… and it would be extremely heavy if it did!

I cut this clear shrink wrap plastic off of our 1968 Chris Craft Commander 42 last weekend, in preparation for a spring cruise to see the cherry blossoms. The cruise happened but the blossoms have been delayed by unseasonably cold weather.  By splitting the Commander tent in half, I got enough plastic to do 2/3 of the skirt. Once all the pieces are in place, I’ll weld the plastic together with the shrink torch and tape up the seams. That should happen next weekend, unless the wind continues to blow like the dickens.

Meanwhile, on the inside of the boat…

The helm station door openings are now ready for fiberglass.

Since I last reported on the helm station door openings, we added strips of marine plywood to the steel uprights to make a pocket into which the doors will slide to keep out the weather.

Ready for FRP and fillets!

At the helm station, the dashboard fillets are also done and ready for sanding and primer.

Before: original dashboard pod seam–a great place for dirt to gather and hang out.

After: a nice and smooth fillet

FRP tape and epoxy holds the pod to the cabintop under the fillet.

That’s it for last weekend. Next weekend I’ll finish converting the tent to a paint shed, sand the fillets and prep the helm roof for primer.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Helm Station Door Openings

Since 2007, when I cut off the old aft deck enclosure with a chainsaw, I’ve been developing a vision for how the helm station side door openings would work. Finally, over one week in 2013, the vision coalesced into pretty much exactly what I had in mind. I love it when a plan comes together! 😉

The helm station entry circa 2007 when we first got the boat.

The helm entry on both sides had been radically altered back in the 1970s. It was cut off vertically where the big C-channel beam comes down from the roof after that looooong 45* run.

Circa 2008: Reconfigured steel C-channel beam supporting the helm roof.

After cutting 3′ off of the sides of the fiberglass cabin-top as part of the deck and aft enclosure project, I cut and rewelded the steel C-channel beam so it’s vertical over nearly all of its length. This makes a stronger structure than original and also provides the forward edge of what will become the door opening.

Circa 2008: the stbd helm door opening

Fast forward to March 1, 2013.

Not much had changed here in the intervening years, but by 2013 I had a definite plan for how it would look in the end. The large, curvy block of wood is 8/4 mahogany stock that Chris Craft used to provide vertical structure to the sides of the cabin top. I’ll end up using it for molding somewhere. 😉

Weld area, FRP cut and rotten mahogany

When we replaced the teak side decks with new aluminum plate, we had to cut some of the fiberglass from the sides of the cabin top so we could fit the new plate and access the weld area. When we removed the old teak deck and rotten plywood underlayment, we found just a hint of rot in the bottom edge of the 3/4″ x 4″ mahogany board that the bottom edge of the cabin top screws to where it meets the deck. This rot, which was much worse in the bulkhead below it, was the result of the seam failing where the aluminum side deck transitioned to teak–a poor design if ever there was one.

2 sheets of 3/4″ Douglas fir marine plywood make up the filler piece between the fiberglass exterior and the helm door opening.

The fiberglass piece we cut out to weld in the new aluminum deck in 2008 is back where it should be…in 2013.

Ideally, we would have fiberglassed the plywood at the same time as the FRP panel, but the carpenter needs to finish making the “3rd side” of the box surrounding the steel upright. Once that’s in, we’ll FRP the whole thing and put in the final fillets.

Marine plywood frames out the helm station door opening in late March 2013.

Rather than using 8/4 solid stock like Chris Craft did to make up the filler piece between the side of the cabin top and the steel upright, instead we sandwiched two layers of 3/4″ doug fir marine ply bonded with US Composites 635 epoxy and wood flour/cabosil. The filler piece is screwed and glued in using the same wood flour epoxy mixture.

For the boxes around the steel uprights, we’re using 19mm okoume marine plywood that’s also screwed and glued in place. We have one more piece of okoume to cut for each side, then we’ll fiberglass and fair the entire thing in preparation for paint. On the inside, we’ll use solid mahogany stock rather than plywood and finish it off bright.

The window track drain is cut out and all edges are radiused for FRP coating.

The inside surface of the sides of the FRP cabin top is ground and ready for 1708 FRP.

The epoxy gluing the plywood to the sides of the cabin top is strong, but the joint will last forever if we put a layer of 1708 bi-axial fiberglass cloth over the joint.

The top o’ the box is bonded to the helm roof.

We will fiberglass this joint, too, but first we need to put a 3rd side on the box–a piece of 3/4″ okoume plywood on the steel beam that the door will slide up against when its closed. The 4th side of the box–on the inside–will be a solid piece of African mahogany. The outside face of the box and the solid mahogany facia board inside will be wide enough to provide a pocket into which the door will fit when closed.

Window track drain made of 1708 bi-axial fiberglass cloth wetted out with US Composites 635 epoxy.

All that remains to do is fiberglass and fair the plywood at the helm door.

With wet epoxy all over the boat, it was time to go home. I’m beat.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fillets!

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fairing the Cabin Top (cont.)

It’s been a very busy two weeks. The weather gods suck…windiest winter ever, and what’s the deal with two snow storms in March, including one just before the Cherry Blossom Festival???

Oh, also, if anybody thinks up how to produce 20cfm of air at 90psi with only 120VAC on a 20 amp breaker in the boatyard that services 16 power pedestals, drop me a line. 😉

The fairing work continues on the cabin top, though you wouldn’t know it by looking at the end-of-the-day pix. We’re also taking a different approach to the cabin top-to-deck joint than Chris Craft did.

Back at the Chris Craft factory in 1969, 1″ x 4″ mahogany boards were bolted to the deck structure all the way around the opening that will become the salon and galley. The FRP cabin top was then craned onto the deck, with the bottom edge fitting tightly to the mahogany on the inside.  Screws spaced 8″ apart secure the bottom edge of the cabin top to the mahogany. Large radius quarter-round mahogany was then screwed in place over the seam, with bedding compound to keep things dry.

It was a good approach except for a couple of problems that arise over decades of use: The coating on the wood fails eventually, so there’s a maintenance premium without as associated payoff. The bedding compound eventually gives up, usually in just a spot or two. This allows small amounts of water to leak in and go unnoticed, rotting out whatever mahogany it comes into contact with without a telltale drip to alert the owner.

So our approach has been to cover cabin top-to-deck joint seam with 1708 biaxial fiberglass, which we’ll cover with very nice, water-shedding fillets.

Circa 2008: quarter-round mahogany covering the cabin top-to-deck-joint seam.

This shot is from when we first got the boat, and shows the port side deck looking aft at the transition from aluminum decks to teak. The quarter round is broken from where the teak deck buckled, but you get an idea of how it worked. Also, note the paint has mostly fallen off the wood. It doesn’t matter how you do it, paint will not stick to exterior wood and stay there like it will to fiberglass or metal.

I think there’s a better, more modern way.

Circa 2013: heavy 1708 bi-axial FRP covering the cabin-top-to-deck joint seam where once there was wood.

As when we fiberglassed the cabin top, bowseat and dashboard, we use US Composites 635 epoxy for the FRP layup (with just a touch of cabosil to improve adhesion between the ‘glass and aluminum) and then hot coat it while it’s still tacky with fairing compound made of 635 epoxy, 3M microbubbles, and cabosil.

Though the deck was sandblasted in 2008, we ground it back a bit and also stripped the gelcoat from the cabin top before applying the FRP.

Same thing on the bow, where there was evidence of two old leaks at each corner that no doubt contributed to some of the rotten bulkheads we found when we first started the project.

Oh, my achin’ shoulders! Fairing work also continues.

It’s amazing how much fairing compound you put on compared to what remains in the end. The windshield base that had been previously repaired is now much stronger and straighter than it was before.

Fair lines from the bow seat to the helm.

We’re blocking the filler to sharp lines at the edges, which made low spots and wiggles very apparent. Before priming, we’ll sand the sharp edges down to a nice radius.

That’s a whole weekend worth of sanding and fiberglassing, but she just doesn’t look much different than when we started. We really are heading into the painting home-stretch, though.

Next up on our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Helm Station Side Door Openings.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fairing the Cabin Top

A potential buyer popped up for the Ford Lehman engines I had rebuilt for the Roamer back in 2008 before getting my wits about me and deciding on Cummins 450 Diamonds. So I spent two days over the weekend moving big pieces of iron around the State of Maryland, getting them back to the shop that did the rebuild for a quick check up in preparation for some videos.  On Sunday, the Boatamalans came by with their 30″ longboards and attacked the fairing compound we laid on the cabin top last week. While the guys were sanding away, I was out working on transforming Tent Model IX from a hurricane-tested winter work tent to a paint shed.

The dashboard is cleaning up nicely.

I decided to make the instrument pod part of the dashboard structure since the instruments have excellent access from below and there’s no benefit I can see in having it screwed together from below with an exposed seam above. All the joint between the two does is grab dirt. Once the dashboard is faired, we’ll put a nice fillet over the joint between the two after tabbing them together with lightweight fiberglass.

The bullet-proof windshield base.

There’s just a very fine line of yellow at the top of the windshield base to indicate there’s Kevlar bi-axial cloth below.

The previous repair area at the base of the windshield has been properly re-repaired.

Very little fairing compound was needed here, which is good since additional thickness here would increase the challenge of reattaching and bedding the windshield frame.

Shaping the starboard windshield base.
Everything looks very good here.

Process basics: apply expensive fairing compound to the surface, then sand most of it off!

The 30″ longboards are very good at finding the high and low spots in the fairing compound. Most of the dark lines here are where there were overlaps in the 1708 bi-axial fiberglass layer, creating high spots. Others, though, are high spots from where the original hard top shape simply wasn’t fair.

It’s anybody’s guess whether it was that way when new or if the wrinkly bits were caused by the monster Super Seamaster engines wracking the superstructure by bashing along at much faster than original design speeds.

Some of the original frames create high spots in the salon top roof.

Once it’s faired to this point, the fairing compound filling the low spots isn’t especially thick.

Salon roof frames create high spots all the way across the cabin top even far forward of the salon hatch roof repair.

The guys are doing a good job making the cabin top lines straight.

They faired the turn of the cabin top to the cabin top sides to a very sharp edge. We applied the second coat of fairing compound to the low spots and will do the final fairing next weekend. Once that’s straight and all of the low spots are gone, we’ll come back through and put a nice radius on it.

Nice radius on the brow.

This is a subtle styling spot on the bigger Chris Craft cruisers, but it’s notorious for developing cracks and pocks in the gelcoat. The guys did a great job reproducing and blending in the radius at the brow on the leading edge of the cabin top, now vastly improved with a continuous layer of 1708 bi-axial FRP.

Ditto on the port side.

The lines are really looking good here.Just a few touch ups were needed with fairing compound.

Meanwhile, I was busy transforming Tent Model IX on the outside.

I need to widen the aft section so we can prime and paint the aft enclosure, put a “cap” on top so we can paint the helm station roof, and drop the sides to the ground all the way around to keep paint fumes under control.

Basically, I’m turning it into a big paint spray booth.

The tent transformation is nearly done on the starboard side.

1.5″ PVC hoops will go over the helm station roof from the long uprights aft to create a new tent roof frame 5′ higher than now. I’ll then cut the existing PVC film and raise the whole aft section over the top of the new hoops. Then, with lots of shrink wrap tape and the torch, I’ll weld new shrink wrap film to the old so it goes all the way to the ground and secure it along the sides of the tent structure all the way around.

I’ll be begging the goddess of the seas for dead calm on that day, let me tell you!

Next week, we’ll finish longboarding then put some nice fillets around the dash pod and at the cabin top to deck joint. Time permitting, we’ll also get the fairing work done on the fore and side decks. I’ll continue transforming the tent and hope to have that done by Sunday, when the forecast is for 5mph winds!

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fairing the Cabin Top (cont.)

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Helm Station Dashboard

The same problems we saw on the cabin top were apparent on the helm station dashboard: completely degraded enamel paint over old gelcoat with some cracks, pock marks and blisters. The plan was to strip off the gelcoat, fill blisters with wood flour -thickened epoxy and apply a single layer of light boat cloth fiberglass over the whole thing. While stripping the gelcoat, we found that a previous repair under the windshield was completely inadequate. So we shifted gears, brought out the Kevlar and 1708 bi-axial fiberglass cloth and made the whole thing much, much better than new.

The gauges will come out and go to Kocian Instruments for reconditioning.

“Roamer Cruise Control”
Gotta love the ’60s!

Cruise Control-ometer…how cool is that?!?!

None of the instrument shops I spoke with had ever seen one of these before, but Dale Kocian said he should have no problem making it as good as new.

With the gauges out, it was time to strip the dashboard.

Preliminary stripping revealed some trouble.

Shabby previous repair on the port side.

In fact, the repair under the windshield on the dashboard side of the cabin top was even more poorly done than it was on the exterior side. When we started, the only visible problem was a crack running top to bottom immediately under the port side center windshield upright (on the right side of this pic). As we stripped away the old gelcoat, the sander went straight through the left side of the repair! Turns out there was only ONE layer of light boat cloth here and it wasn’t wetted out very well. The gelcoat and paint over the top didn’t show any hint of what lay below.

When we found this, I made the decision to ramp up the new FRP schedule for the dashboard to the “bullet-resistant” standard we used on the rest of the cabin top: Kevlar and 1708 bi-axial fiberglass.

It is now absolutely certain that the missing fasteners I mentioned in my article on removing the windshield were, in fact, not the fault of Chris Craft. This windshield has been out before to repair a pretty significant break in the fiberglass at the base.

My guess is that the boat was significantly faster after the 1973 repower from 427 Fords to 534ci twin turbo and intercooled Super Seamasters. Bashing through rough seas, something Roamer hulls excel at owing to the deadrise that carries all the way back to the transom, the higher speed put more stress on the FRP superstructure than what the relatively low-powered 427s were capable of dishing out. Something had to give, and that something was the resin-heavy FRP layup at the base of the windshield uprights.

Other areas of the dashboard needed help as well.

Even places where the gelcoat showed no imperfections before being stripped revealed voids and dry fiberglass cloth once we hit it with a grinder. You simply cannot see these things without grinding off the gelcoat.

Small cracks at every sharp corner revealed problems in the FRP below.

The edges of the dashboard had been damaged back when the boat was in regular use.

Resin-heavy FRP layup resembles prehistoric amber.

With the gelcoat removed, the resin pool at the underside of the base of the windshield lights up to reveal all of the fractures in this brittle material. It’s a shame, really, since there were spots where the original fiberglass mat could have used a bit more wetting out.

The underbelly of the windshield base repair area.

For the life of me, I can’t figure out why the people who repaired this even bothered leaving this piece sort of hanging there underneath. It’s only tabbed in place in a few spots with 9oz boat cloth. It serves zero purpose.

Pock marks…no surprise what’s below that.

Pits under where there used to be pock marks in the gelcoat.

Starboard side windshield base repair.

This repair, which is under the starboard center windshield upright, is nowhere near as extensive as on the port side.

Stripped and ready for a new FRP skin.

First, we brushed US Composites 635 epoxy thickened with wood flour into all of the seams and across every blistered area.

We used the same mix to fill any voids that remained, then we rolled on unthickened epoxy to wet out the old FRP layer.

Next came the Kevlar, but only at the base of the windshield where it’s strength is needed most.

Next comes the layer of 1708 bi-axial fiberglass cloth.

After rolling the air bubbles out of the Kevlar layer, we brushed more wood flour-thickened epoxy across the edge of the Kevlar to make a smooth surface for the 1708 layer.

Rolling the air bubbles out from under the new FRP layer takes time.

Bullet-resistant windshield base.

Fairing compound “hot coated” over fresh FRP on the dashboard.

We used the same approach with fairing compound on the dashboard as we did on the rest of the cabin top: using the same US Composites 635 epoxy, we mixed 3M glass bubbles with Cabosil to make fairing compound that we applied over the still tacky 635 epoxy in the FRP layers. This results in a perfect chemical bond and eliminates the need to sand the fiberglass after it cures and then apply the first layer of fairing compound.

Unfortunately, I ran out of 3M glass microballoons, so I used some phenolic microballoons I had laying around, which is the red fairing compound you see in this pic. Phenolic microballoons are somewhat cheaper, but we find they don’t sand as nicely as glass.

The dashboard is ready for sanding and a final coat of fairing compound in the low spots.

This work on the dashboard took place on March 1, 2013. Since I’m only able to work on weekends and holidays, this means we’ve come to the end of all of the historical work on the boat. Things have come a long way since we first acquired this 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46. I’m reasonably pleased with the progress I’ve made since clearing up the paperwork SNAFU that almost sank the project. Since August 2012, when I finally got the paperwork cleared up, I installed the Cummins 450 Diamond engines and have completed almost all of the necessary major superstructure repairs and revisions:

• the bow seat is vastly improved over the original;
• the salon roof hatch is stronger than anything Chris Craft originally built into any of their various models;
• the cabin top is bullet-resistant and will almost certainly never crack again; and
• now the windshield base is fully bullet-resistant, too.

The next steps in the project will be to:

1) transform Tent Model IX from a winter storm tent that survived Hurricane Sandy to a paint shed;

2) finish the wooden structures for the helm roof supports and sliding doors; and

3) fiberglass the wooden structures around the helm roof supports and tie them into the cabin top structure.

Once that’s done, we fair the decks, prime the decks and superstructure and then…paint with Awlgrip starting at the helm station roof and working down to the bottom paint.

Unless something catastrophic happens (hey, it’s a big project and I’ve got grandkids–you never know what life will throw at you 😉 ), she should be painted by the end of May.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fairing the Cabin Top.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Engines! (the wrong ones…)

Our Roamer came originally outfitted with Ford 427 gas engines–the same basic engines that powered the famous GT-40s that won Le Mans. While the mighty 427 is a great motor, with 300hp each side, even the relatively lightweight aluminum Roamer hull is a lot to push around. The original owner had the boat repowered in 1973 to Super SeaMaster marine power: 534 cubic inch Ford Super Duty engines with twin turbos and an intercooler. The Super SeaMasters developed 400hp at a relatively low 3200rpm and 657 ft/lbs of torque. Very wild stuff for the early 1970s!

The Super SeaMasters were trashed from water ingestion when we obtained her in late 2007 and, having always been a diesel boat guy, I decided to repower the Roamer to diesel. While many of these 46s came with Detroit Diesel 8V-71 power, and I like Detroits, they’re not very economical, clean or quiet. I was interested in trying something else, especially since we do most of our cruising at hull speed. My thinking at the time was, why put three tons of Detroit in to get 600 max combined hp, most of which I don’t use? After talking this over with some yacht club friends, a world-cruising sailor recommended 120 or 135hp Ford Lehman engines. According to online calculators, combined 240hp is more than enough to push the hull along at 9kts @ 6gph. That sounded pretty good, especially since Lehmans with gears could be had for relatively cheap compared to newer, higher powered engines.

So, Lehmans it was!

The 1973 Super SeaMasters were truly beautiful things. But dangerous, too.

The carburetor sits at the back of the engine, just above the marine gear on a water-cooled plenum. The turbos, which were only oil-cooled(no water cooling jackets!), drew air-fuel mix from the carb and pressurized it, pushing it through hoses and chrome tubing up to the water-to-air intercooler on top of the intake manifold, where the carb would normally go. If any hose clamp let loose on the pressure side of the system… Hold onto your britches, Ethyl, we’re goin’ to the moooon!

The original invoice for the Super SeaMasters

An online inflation calculator tells me that $6,480 in 1973 equals roughly $33,500 today…and that was the price for EACH engine.

The Super SeaMasters engines had lived a hard life

Most of the damage to them was caused by being unloved–especially the part about being drowned repeatedly–while in Purgatory Row at the southern Maryland boatyard for two decades. I tried to sell them on ebay and craigslist, but got no nibbles; not surprising, since they were long-since obsolete. So I loaded them up and took them to the scrapyard. Since I’m a big fan of neat, old mechanical things, that was a sad, sad day.

The view from the rear of a Super SeaMaster looking forward

The blue thing in the lower part of the picture is the watercooled carb plenum, which sat at the back of the engine over the marine gear. The blue thing with the two holes in it at the top is the intercooler.

The raw water-cooled intercooler

All of the SeaMaster castings were things of beauty.

By contrast, the extensive water damage from rainwater that filled the bilge to well above the oil dipstick tube was a sad sight.

Removing the spark plugs revealed that each cylinder was packed full of rusty sludge. These things were never designed for submarine service.

Honey, do the turbos sound kinda funny to you?

Again…even the best turbo hardware on the planet (circa 1973) wasn’t rated for submerged service.

On October 18, 2008, I rented a high lift and moved heavy things again

Out came the galvanized steel original tanks (diesel and zinc don’t mix).

In went the heavy stuff

The new Fischer Panda 12 Mini DP genset fit very nicely in half of the space used by the original 6.5kw Kohler gas one

 

Next the rebuilt Lehmans went in

And another…

The view from the Reach Lift cab.

And finally, after sunset we got the new fuel tank in through the salon hatch hole

And with that, we (mistakenly) put a check in the box entitled Install Engines…but more on that later. One teaser hint: never, ever trust a sailor when the topic is repowering a planing powerboat! 😉

Next up: 1969 Chris Craft Roamer Refit: The Exterior Hull.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Deck Enclosure Demolition — Enter the Chainsaw

Two weeks into Step 1 of our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 refit, and it’s time to demolish the aft deck enclosure — a cobbled together mish-mash of home-grade plywood that had long-since rotted, scratched up plexiglas windows and aluminum extrusions that worked but weren’t made for the job. It was a truly ugly thing…and it had to go.

Here’s what we started with. You can see the rot.

From the other side, the rotten plywood broke away with one kung fu kick

Some of the mahogany framing was still very solid, though.

The view from the inside wasn’t much better

In contrast to the rotten plywood, the mahogany framing was still in surprisingly solid shape

Time to break out the tools and get this thing gone.

Ugly and rotting aft deck enclosure, meet Mr. Chainsaw…

With the rotten wood out of the way, sources of leaks into the aft stateroom became abundantly apparent

This really exemplifies why screws should not penetrate a teak deck–eventually, the sealant lets go and water wicks in, rot starts and then…

Same thing on the other side

In no time, the rotten aft deck enclosure was in the large and growing junk pile beside the boat

A quick shot with a hose revealed that, for all of its faults, the aft enclosure had done a good job protecting most of the teak

It’s beautiful and appears to have never been sanded. The original seam compound is very tight.

Ah, now that’s better!

A bit more dejunking and the helm station will be ready to use again.

Remember, this is what we started with!

 

 

Next up on our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: more interior demolition!

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Step 1– Dejunk, Disassemble and Demolition

The economy in 2007, when we first found the Roamer, was still on fire, and even used boats were quite expensive. After doing the math on “engines and a paint job,” it looked like it would be cost effective to restore the Roamer. We had also found that every boat we looked at had features, layouts etc that we would have to change to make it the way we like. I’m also inclined to take on big projects as sort of a hobby; for me, this sort of thing is fun. So, with that in mind we started dejunking and disassembling the boat.

But the more we disassembled, the more problems we discovered and the more demolition we did of the interior. I think of disassemble as a process that will be done in reverse later to put it back in the same basic shape as before. Demolition, by contrast, is just getting stuff out of the way, destructively if necessary, to make a blank palette for a new design. The more disassembling we did, the more rot and other issues we found that, in turn, required more demolition. Somewhere along the way we realized that gutting the boat and starting anew would yield the best result in terms of what we wanted.

So by January 2008, the refit plan had grown to “engines, a paint job and a whole interior.”

Dejunking is the first step in any large project–be it an old house, car or boat

Everything that isn’t bolted down goes.

Careful where you grab, though…abandoned boats make great wasp and hornet sanctuaries!

Some things are best kept until you know if you’ll need them again

In this case, the original mahogany chest of drawers from the aft cabin might clean up nicely if we can get that nasty paint off of it some day (some day being the operative term).

The helm area cleaned up fairly well, but it had been painted with enamel 20+ years ago, and the paint was well past the point of failing

But all of the helm switches and gauges are functional, and the chrome isn’t too badly pitted. This should clean up pretty well.

I removed the headliner around the cabin top hatch, since it would have to come out to do the engine swap

I also suspected the hatch would need to be repaired, since the seam in the fiberglass on top showed evidence of breakage. If only I knew…

Disconnecting the Super SeaMaster 534ci twin turbo engines and gears in preparation for their removal

The exhaust risers are copper, which is wonderful material for that application EXCEPT if it’s in an aluminum boat. Copper ions interact with hot exhaust and leave the inside of the risers, settling downstream on the aluminum exhaust tubes. Since it’s a wet environment, the copper and aluminum make a small battery that consumes the aluminum. The result is extensive pitting. But more on that later…

And just like that, the engines are ready to come out

Actually, it took about a week to get to this point.

The next step was to remove the hatch…not an easy job for one man

But I started thinking like an Egyptian and before long there was light at the end…er…the edge of the hatch.

Et voila! A moonroof!

Just in time, too, because a crane was coming the next morning to remove the big, heavy stuff–the engines, genset, air conditioner and refrigerator.

Salon floors out…check
Engines and generator disconnected…check
Salon hatch out…check
Refrigerator…all stop

This had to be the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen in my life, and that’s saying something

Note the empty yet unopened packs of frozen sweet corn on the cob with just a bit of brown liquid left in them? See the maggot zombies? mmmmmm

Maggot zombies and egg casings were everywhere in the fridge!

The brown goo at the bottom of the fridge was the same color and consistency of the liquid in the unopened sweet corn packages

I’m guessing that what we’re looking at here is some fully processed sweet corn. I mean, there wasn’t even any cob left. All I can think of is: 1) gak; and 2) thank the lord above that it was the middle of winter and the fridge door seals had worked.

Then the big boy showed up

And a one-a…

And a two-a…

and a three-a…

and a genset…

and an electric stove…

and a NASTY fridge…

and a massive R-12 marine AC unit, just because there was still time on the clock

Done!

Super SeaMaster 534ci twin turbo and intercooled marine engines and gears

Installed in this vessel in 1973 when the Roamer was only three years old, they weighed 1850lbs each with gears. 400 hp at the gear tailshaft @ 3200rpm. But destroyed by neglect and completely obsolete, so rebuilding was impractical. RIP

That was it for Phase 1 and 2 of Step 1: Dejunk and Disassemble. Next comes more Disassembly and Demolition…

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46: The Refit Begins

In late 2007, we acquired our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46. Sa Va had been sitting unloved at Colton’s Point Marina in southern Maryland since the mid-1980s. Fortunately, she hadn’t been molested in all of those years, and virtually all of the original bits and pieces that make old Chris Crafts special were still there.

“Just needs engines and a paint job” is what the seller said.

Indeed…

Pretty lines, but oh…so raggedy.

Not much better from the stern

That plywood aft enclosure and the crane on top don’t help.

The helm was modified but still had lots of original bits

The foredeck was maybe the nicest part of the whole boat

But the paint was in bad shape and the varnish had long since fallen off the mahogany toe rail. still…all the original bits were there.

The tattered curtains gave Sa Va a ghost ship vibe

The original owner cut the factory hatch out of the cabin so he could do a repower in 1972, but it wasn’t re-installed in a very good way. Still, the lines are classic Chris Craft, and we like that.

The salon and galley were cluttered and dirty, but things didn’t look too bad

Maybe all this boat needed was engines and a paint job!

All of the original cabinetry bits, light fixtures, etc were there

The interior cabinetry really looks pretty good

Nice ambiance with the ghost curtains, eh?

The woodwork, though, appeared to be in surprisingly good condition.

The aft cabin had the classic 1960s Ozzy and Harriet beds (what were they thinking???)

But the floors were in good shape and all of the bits and pieces were there.

Aft stateroom cabinetry was in good condition

But it had been painted with acrylic house paint that was peeling off. Where it wasn’t peeling, it was hosting an unhealthy population of mold. Yup…just needs engines and a paint job.

The aft stateroom had an en suite head and shower, but it would take a lot of scrubbing to clean that up

Maybe it’s best to just rip it out and start over…

The 534ci Super SeaMaster twin turbo gas engines were shot

They’d been getting wet from rain falling through the failed cabin top hatch since the 1980s. They’d have to come out.

In spite of all the problems, we saw potential in the old girl. So in November 2007, we got her and started what has become a long-term refit.

Step 1: Dejunk, Disassemble and Demolition.