Save-A-Boat - The Forum for Plastic Classic Rebuilds!

Here's the scraper we've used for the mast, cabin trunk and bottom.


Here's the mast head with 8 coats:


The cabin trunk with 3 coats:


The cabin trunk sides used to be white like the mast but once varnished-so we lucked out when we stripped![/img]

Looks nice!

I have an old friend who built a steel boat with a wooden trunk cabin and mast, both finished bright. When he decided to head south to the Caribbean, he put on a fresh coat of gloss varnish, then lightly sanded and painted the lot white. That way the brightwork was no trouble in the tropics but could be brought back later by taking off the coat of paint. Sounds like that's what your boat's previous owner did (maybe by accident?). Good to know it actually works, as I've never tried it myself, but always figured that if I didn't feel like maintaining varnish, I'd rather do the varnish/paint trick than use oil or some other coating (such as Cetol).

One thing is that your photos didn't show up for some reason, although I was able to look at them when I clicked on them and then selected "view image." Then it loaded them onto a seperate page, although they were still very small (perhaps 2" x 2"). I'd love to see them again, a bit bigger.

--- Rachel

Well I am tech challenged when it comes to this posting stuff:)) Thought I was wicked good just to get 'em there. Tell me how & I'll try again.

Actually last spring when we bought Muskrat we did a quick paint job of white and I threw (litterally-sp???) a coat of varnish on the bare wood just in case the only thing that screwed the bright work up was where we painted.... But it turns out the only bad spot is on the bottom of the main boom - right over the cockpit where you would sit-there's a big blotch of bond-dough (we actually call it tug-boat-in-a-can). I think we'll just put a bronze plate rolled to the proper shape over it and pretend that was there for a reason!

You should be able to click directly through to the freeimagehosting images. They show up at something like 800x600 or so.

Freeimagehosting images never show up (as thumbs) for me on this forum however. Strange, but I think we've been over this in the past.

Oh you're so right Nathan, thanks. Looks like my computer handles them the same way yours does.

J, I probably shouldn't have said anything as I'm the last person to ask for image posting help :-)

As for the photos: Gorgeous! If I were two people, and had a shop, I would want a Challenger.

Drool,

--- Rachel

JSmith,

Was your boat in Freeport at Brewer's? If so, I've been aboard her. I looked at her on behalf of some fellow from WA state late last fall or winter sometime.

I'm glad to see you're restoring the brightwork. I thought it was a shame someone had painted out the cabin, though I figured it could be restored.

I hope you'll keep posting photos of your progress! She'll look great when you're done. Those are beautiful boats.

I assume you are Southport on the Challenger website? Tims site is a great place to post your ongoing project. I hope you keep it up, they are gresat boats that require special owners with the right mindset.

Tim, I think the Challenger you looked at in Freeport was a different boat. I can't think of the name but it's been for sale a while. I talked to the owners a few years back. The cabin was painted white like several I've seen.

What sort of condition was the boat in when you looked at it? The ad said it needed some cosmetic work.

Yes I'm Jon Smith from Southport and yup- she is the boat from Freeport and she definately needs cosmetic work.

In the last 3 years a new Westerbeke 44B was installed, all the wiring and plumbing replaced and new electronics- radar, chart plotter, 2 GPS, depth, speed, wind vel &dir., and an autopilot!

To me I would have worked on the cosmetics and then the systems- I think people expect to see tired wiring/engines in elderly boats & when it came time to sell the price might have reflected that. However I'm really glad they did it the way they did! Made her more affordable and we can always deal with cosmetics.

Once the weather cools to sub-varnish temps the next project is a holding tank which she totally lacks. I'm leaning towards one up under the fwd berths- not sure of the real geometric name but something like an orange road safety cone with the pointy end chopped off and then run over so it was flattened on one side looks to be the general shape.

I remeber one of the last owners name was Heidi. I think they got exasperated. Those are some good investments in the boat, you should reap the benefit of those Jon.

She's a beauty and I'm so glad to see you take the paint off the cabinsides! There's almost nothing that can't be repaired under there. These old boats don't need to look the way they did when they came out of the building sheds 40 some years ago. They should look nicely aged.

How are the spars coming out, they look fine in the photos?

The spars are all stripped- the mast has been varnished w/ 7 coats since it won't fit in the basement!

We plan on sanding the others as wx and time permit. We must also have 100 ziplock bags all labelled w/ various parts that need to be cleaned and reinstalled as well.

Here is a pix of the main boom with what I think must be one of the original hook & eye systems for furling with shock cord rather than sail ties. Alden didn't specify this but said Robert Derecktor often came up with little extras.

This is the hook part,


and this is the eye,


They alternated down the boom so you can stretch the shock cord over the furled sail and hook it on the other side. We're going to try her out next summer.

roller furling boom I suspect. That makes sense. My boat came with an old standby of ties on a line with one hook on the end of the boom. I'm getting closer to having new sails built for the boat. Then I plan to decide on an easier handling system. These mains are a handful for one to furl but until the roller furling boom is "disabled", there's little you can do to make them easier to manage.

Your boat looks great, I'm glad you got it.