1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Strengthening the Salon Roof

While installing the hatch and 1/4″ marine-grade Douglas fir plywood that underlays the FRP skin on the salon roof, I cleaned the old fairing compound off of the cut edge of the original Chris Craft fiberglass. What I found was…disturbing.

The previous weekend, I put in the salon roof plywood.

When putting in the battens, I finally “saw” something that had been obscured by fairing compound.
See the wavy FRP layup?

Catchin’ the wave now?

See the little dude on the surfboard? 😉

What we have here is three layers of fiberglass. The top layer follows the shape of the mold, as does the bottom layer (presumably, so the boss wouldn’t notice what was going on in between).
But in between, they thickened up the layup in a high stress area at the base of the windshield by mooshing the middle fiberglass layer into a corrugated pattern. Thing is, resin rich FRP layups like this are extremely brittle. Which might explain the cracks we were seeing at the base of the windshield. The FRP layup here is almost 1/2″ thick. On the leading edge of the hatch, where they didn’t corrugate the middle layer, the FRP layup is only about 5/32″ thick.

To make up the depth in the FRP layup, we decided to start with another layer of 1/4″ marine plywood.

Since the salon hatch hole measured 5’x10′, I had to scarf three sheets together to fill the space. The upper layer of plywood is oriented longitudinally, whereas the lower layer was transverse. This cross-oriented, two-layer 1/4″ plywood underlayment is reportedly the same layup Weaver Boatworks uses on their multi-million dollar sportfishermen decks.

Vacuum bagging would have been the best approach, but the hillbilly method of laminating works too.

After wetting out both layers of plywood with US Composites 635 epoxy, I coated them with a bonding agent of 635 epoxy and wood flour (wood dust and cabosil). After laying the top panel in place and squeezing out as much air as possible, I started carrying heavy things up the stairs and put them on the salon top. The whole time I’m thinking “I am getting too old for this $4!t”. 😉
The idea was to not have any nail or screw heads on the top layer, since they have a tendency to “print through” the fiberglass and top coat.

On the inside of the boat, I felt I could strengthen the salon top with additional longitudinal pieces.

The original Chris Craft design only had longitudinal pieces around the hatch opening. Weaver Boatworks uses a similar frame structure for the boats (though in laminated plywood rather than solid mahogany), but with longitudinal pieces running down the entire length of the structure.

I added two strakes of 3/4″ plywood longitudinal stiffeners to the salon roof.

The panels are each cut to fit very tightly between the frames, then are edge sealed with US Composites epoxy and glued in place with wood flour-thickened epoxy. I’ll put additional longitudinal stiffeners in all the way from the aft salon bulkhead to the forward-most roof frame before I take down the supports I’ve been using to hold the roof level.

Final bonding of the longitudinal stringers.

After putting a nice fillet on the wood flour-thickened epoxy glue, I used 9oz boat cloth to make the longitudinal stringers a permanent part of the roof structure.

With the path forward worked out for strengthening the salon roof substructure and framing, the next topic in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Stripping 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.