A New Floor...

...or should that be sole? Let's not get too nautical here! Anyway, it was decided it would be better all round to tidy and strengthen the existing, rather hacked about floor by overlaying it. The modifications to the existing floor where the seats had been removed were checked for water-tightness and re-glassed where necessary. A new floor was fashioned from 12mm Marine Ply and epoxy coated on both sides.

This was then laid on a bed of foam expanding filler with marine ply offcuts filling any large voids to avoid any flexing.

A Closer Look

Well here it is in all it's glory!

The first job was to clear out all the rubbish and get down to a bare GRP shell. Rummaging around in the boat turned up a Teleflex steering system and a pair of original bow rails in very good shape. Pretty much everything else was consigned to the tip!

This model originally had back-to-back seating, which somebody had decided to modify. This involved removing half the seat podium - hence the untidy floor!

The deck was completely covered in very thick anti-slip paint. This was removed with a chemical stripper - being extremely careful to avoid any more than momentary contact with gel coat! During this operation a bizarre discovery was made - there was no gel coat on the deck surfaces - just bare GRP. This caused a fair amount of head scratching and was a bit of a mystery... well it transpires that some of these Saturns had a laminated surface!

A decision was made to re-instate this using a teak and holly laminate - should look good.

Any remaining hardware was removed and filling and fairing on all the numerous holes got underway. A two part epoxy filler was used, with the larger ones first being back-filled with GRP mat.

Welcome Aboard...

Greetings all! I'm here to keep an on-line diary of the restoration of my Broom 'Saturn' Speedboat. Built by Jack Broom of Brundall, on the Norfolk Broads. There are still plenty of these craft around - although some earlier models are looking a little tired now.

My boat was puchased for 70GBP - I bought her 'blind' from this picture...

The seller sounded genuine and said the hull and transom were solid - he was honest and I was lucky!

I have to say that I am not an experienced boatbuilder - but this will be my third 'project' and I learn something new every time. I know there are many fellow 'backyard' builders and restorers out there - hopefully you may learn something from my mistakes - and any exchange of ideas and advice would be welcomed.