New member introduction and my Islander 32 project

[suntreader]

This is the group I've been looking for!

I am about to start in on my new project boat. She is a 1963 Islander 32. I found it as an insurance salvage, got a good deal, and just had it delivered last weekend. So now I have an enourmous boat in my yard (just what I've always wanted) and have started to tear her apart for the restoration.

The plan is for a two year refit and restoration including every surface and system. The engine is a Yanmar 2QM that will be pulled for a rebuild (which I'll be doing myself), the mast is gone save for the bottom six feet, the boom and pole are present. The previous owner had made some major modifications including a 3' bow sprint which may or may not stay, external chain plates, lots of tankage, covering the saloon windows with opening ports, some odd plywood stuff in the cockpit, and all the other things that happen along the way to a 44 year old boat.

At this stage we are stripping the hull down, pulling the engine, and generally getting it clean and tidy to get the real work started. So, here is my first question for the group. I've got an oily bilge, oily, nasty, generally gross. There is oil soaked into a lot of the lower woodwork around the engine compartment and bilge area. How do I go about cleaning this completely, to ready it for paint?

If anyone is familiar with the Mark I Islander 32s I would love to hear some comments. I am on the Islander SailNet list, and have some information from the Islander Owners group, but anything else would be helpful.

Tim, your Triton site will be a constant reference for my project, right along with Dan Spur's books, 'This Old Boat,' 'Good Old Boat,' and all that other good stuff.

I am a graduate student with a major passion for sailing. A few years ago I had rennovated a '77 Hunter 27 and lived on board with some friends, tooling around the Bahamas so I do have some practical experience. I am a decent woodworker, decent mechanic, and have read most of what is available on designing/building/restoring old boats. This will be my biggest project to date, and I'll be asking a lot of questions here, hopefully I'll be contributing as well.

Here's the boat in all her glory, the staging will be build in the next week and a shed over it all soon. And, yes, my boat rode in on a short bus.

David

[jpmathieu]

WELCOME ABOARD.

I've got an oily bilge, oily, nasty, generally gross. There is oil soaked into a lot of the lower woodwork around the engine compartment and bilge area. How do I go about cleaning this completely, to ready it for paint?

My quick suggestion is simplegreen, buy a gallon or two. Pour it in the bilge and let it soak, mop it up and do it again. I find the simplegreen binds oil in grey gunk but is cleans it off everything. With a fair amount of elbowgrease and a pile of papertowels it can clean everything. Simplegreen also makes it smell much better in the boat. (as much as you find simplegreen's smell pleasing).

[Tim]

Hi David,

This is the group I've been looking for!

You bet it is.

Welcome! It sounds like a fun project you have on your hands. Freeimagehosting seemed to have some issues this afternoon, so I could only see two of your photos. I do hope you'll keep posting progress photos and updates as you get going, though. No photo or update is "too boring" for the fanatics that populate this forum, myself included.

I will second the recommendation of Simple Green. I have used it with great success on grimy, gross bilges. Let it soak, and it removes pretty much everything. Keep the solution very strong for best results. Do whatever it takes to clean everything throughly, not only for future paint adhesion or what have you, but because it makes such a profound difference in the comfort of the boat--less damp, less grime, and sweeter smelling.

Good luck with the project. I hope to see more of the work as you get going.

[dasein668]

Take out stock in Simple Green. Really.

I love the delivery truck! I want one!

Looking forward to seeing this project develop. Oh, and Welcome!

[suntreader]

Simple Green has been a faithful companion for quite a while. So far that has been my approach, splash some SG in the bilge, hose it to a froth and pump it out. I will try letting some soak in overnight. In my last boat I swore by Castrol Super Clean. That stuff is wicked, would take the finish right off of wood, could eat through aluminium, cleaned very very well, but I'm not going to spray it on anything I can't completely observe and completely rinse (like the current state of the bilge.)

We spent the evening taking off the window coverings on the starboard side, 90% came off in my hands, just rotted into sludge. Nice to see the original window openings are still there, totally intact, in fact the old plexi was still in place as well. The plexi is shot of course but getting new pieces cut to fit is easy and will look great when the deck is ready for it. Also cut out an extra water tank and generally cleaned and stripped hardware.

Still trying to find some identifying marks on the engine. All I know for sure is it is a 2 cylinder Yanmar; and I only know its a Yanmar by the paint color. It is certainly not a 2gm, and it looks a lot like my old SB so I'm pretty sure it is a 2qm. They made two models, the 2qm15, and 2qm20. Without figuring out which one it is I can't really order manuals. Any ideas on identifying marks?

I ordered a whole mess of sand paper today, will place the order for my PC DA in a few days. This weekend will be building a gantry and pulling the enigne. I'll get pictures because it will be quite a sight! I'm working up plans for the combination staging and shed that will go up in the next few weeks. Right now we're climbing a 6' ladder and hoisting ourselves up, fine for a few dozen trips, but if I keep that up for two years I'm bound to fall one day.

Freeimagehosting was pretty flaky for me uploading and viewing today, but it seems to be working fine now.

David

[jpmathieu]

So far that has been my approach, splash some SG in the bilge, hose it to a froth and pump it out.

I have found you can use it several ways. Besides having a spray bottle for general spot cleaning, just about everything in the boat, I keep a gallon in the boat for the bilge.

I recently purchased a JARVIS NEWMAN SURFHUNTER 25. (gotta say that quietly around here). Anyway I pulled the engine and went to work with the simplegreen and a brush. After a good soaking I drained the bilge, poured strait simplegreen in and brushed it, I did this a couple of times. Everything came out completely spotless ready to start refinishing.

Good luck.

[Hirilondë]

Welcome Suntreader. She looks good sitting in the back yard. But....she will look better in the water. Hurry up or that little sappling in your side yard will become too big to get her back out ;>)

[rshowarth]

David-

Please take and post more pictures.

Like Tim suggested,

I do hope you'll keep posting progress photos and updates as you get going, though. No photo or update is "too boring" for the fanatics that populate this forum, myself included.

You wrote:

We spent the evening taking off the window coverings on the starboard side, 90% came off in my hands, just rotted into sludge. Nice to see the original window openings are still there, totally intact, in fact the old plexi was still in place as well. The plexi is shot of course but getting new pieces cut to fit is easy and will look great when the deck is ready for it. Also cut out an extra water tank and generally cleaned and stripped hardware.

Still trying to find some identifying marks on the engine. All I know for sure is it is a 2 cylinder Yanmar; and I only know its a Yanmar by the paint color. It is certainly not a 2gm, and it looks a lot like my old SB so I'm pretty sure it is a 2qm. They made two models, the 2qm15, and 2qm20. Without figuring out which one it is I can't really order manuals. Any ideas on identifying marks?

Please post pictures.

Thanks,

[Tim]

They made two models, the 2qm15, and 2qm20. Without figuring out which one it is I can't really order manuals. Any ideas on identifying marks?

Can you post some pictures of the engine? That will help with ID.

We're brutal with the photo requests here!

Nice to see the original window openings are still there, totally intact, in fact the old plexi was still in place as well.

So are you saying that those round ports are actually installed through the old, still-in-place plexi? Weird. I would love a chance to crawl inside the minds of the people who make these sorts of "improvements".

BTW, I like the bowsprit, and it even seems (from here) as if it were relatively well executed. I think it adds to the boat (but then I almost always think that bowsprits add to a boat--I love them). If the sprit is in decent condition, I hope you save it. You even have a real dolphin striker!

Maybe the thing is a horror show, but it looks pretty cool from here.

[Robert The Gray]

That looks like a lot of fun. Do you have a clear goal for your boat. Ocean travel, daysail picnic, family fun boat?
Now if there was room for a mizzen mast you could fly five sails with that bowsprit.........hmmmmmm..........

"We got the bow wave at the stern captain"
"Never mind the bow wave you scurvy wastrel dogs, put up the assym spin".

"She looks fairly pressed sir"
"she can handle it you crimsom culo cowards!, MORE SAIL!!!!
I WANT MORE SAIL"

"Honey, if you don't slow this boat down right now you will be sleeping on it when we get back to the harbor."
"Yes Dear".


Hello My name is Robert and I am a Sailaholic.
Welcome to the forum.

r

[bcooke]

Hey Robert, when do you plan on starting your bowsprit project?...

And welcome to the forum. Don't mind the tangents. Sometimes we (I) get carried away but we always come back on topic with a little prodding.

-Britton

[Mark.Wilme]

Robert - pay not attention to this crowd about bowsprits, you should have seen some of the photos they were posting the other week ! what was the boats name now ? swordfish ?

[suntreader]

Okay, I've got some more pictures of the sprint, engine, and the freeing of the saloon ports from their rotten cocoons.

First off, here's the engine, any ideas? It's Yanmar grey, the oil cap sure looks like the one on my old Yanmar, and the instruments in the cockpit say "Yanmar" so I know its a Yanmar of some kind, with two cylinders. Definitly not a GM, so probably a QM, but which one, the 15 or the 20?




The ultimate use of the boat will be weekend to week long cruising around the Gulf of Mexico, from the Keys on up to Mobile, that type of thing. In the long term we've got some big, several month long trips to the Bahamas planned, and one day we may take her across the Atlantic to Europe for the summer. So, basically this will be an off-shore boat, but not a survivalist type boat.

The aft round ports in the saloon are in fact installed through the original window openings, and through the original window plexi. The original plexi wasn't even attached when I tore out the wood, they were just sort of hanging out in the old space. Wierd. One of the original windows has a Coast Guard Inspection sticker dated 1968. Here's the windows before I tore them out, exterior and interior:




And here is after, I'd say that out of the thirty or so screws and bolts holding the plywood and dimensional lumber in place over the windows I wasn't able to get our more than half, the rest of the stuff just came off with a lot of pulling with my bare hands.




It is amazing how open and airy the cabin is now, I can't wait to be bobbing at anchor over in the islands with that amazing view all around!

The sprint does look to be in good condition, the platform and rollers need work, but the basic sprint is heavy-duty. The dolphin striker certainly adds to the cool factor. I was worrying about dinghy storage today and having the sprint would make davits on the sterm almost look balanced. We'll see about that. Here's the sprint:



That's it for today. I'll get some pictures of the interior tomorrow, she's a real mess! I'll get some of the makeshift boat stands the driver and I knocked together from 4x4s and 2x4s, the boat is the most stable I've ever been on, no wiggle or sway at all.

This weekend I'll be building a gantry to get the engine out, that is going to be quite a sight and I've got a good design ready to go. I'll post detailed description and pictures, assuming the engine doesn't fall on me, if it does I'll have my wife post the description and pictures.

David

[Tim]

I'm sorry...forgive me, but that boottop makes my eyes ache. It's as if one person painted it as far aft as the chainplates (where it looks OK) and then handed the brush to someone else (with a poor eye, evidently) to finish the after portion.

I'd agree that your engine is a Yanmar 2QM series. Here's a nice little drawing of a 2QM15:



I'm not sure offhand how to tell whether it's a 2QM15 or 2QM20. I take it there is no ID plate? Often on those old Yanmars, the ID plate is on the rear of the engine housing, above the transmission. If you can find even a serial number, you can probably determine which model it is for sure. This may all be easier once you pull the engine out of the boat and can truly look around the entire engine.

I can't wait to see your removal! Don't get any dirt on yourself when you unbolt that engine...