Quick Update...

It's now just over a year since 'Gina' hit the driveway and it seems the finishing line is now in sight! While the current financial climate dictates that a trailer and engine will have to be deferred until next year, at least that will be a simple 'bolt on and go' job (why don't I quite believe that).

Our brief Indian Summer has allowed us to get the bunks lined with vinyl and to start the interior fit out. The Helm unit is now installed as is the switch panel and passengers grab-handle. The side panels are also now firmly bolted in place, along with the front seats. Sitting in the boat to identify the optimum seating position, it was easy to imagine cutting through the glistening waters of the Italian Riviera towards the twinkling lights of a waterside hostelry - but I digress...

Carpeting the interior is next on the 'to do' list and all materials are to hand, when that is done we will be almost there. The only other job is - yes, you guessed - that wretched screen!

July 2007

September 2008

Screens & Screams
Another half a dozen or so local 'fabricators' have informed me that it is not possible to bend a piece of channel for a screen surround - hey ho, the search continues...

In the meantime I made a decision to install the new screen anyway to prevent it getting further knocked around in the shed. Regular readers will recall that I had a replacement made in Polycarbonate (Lexan) as it will take a cold curve. A helpful CMBA member advised that 'you just start in the middle and work out towards the edges' - accurately finding the middle was a little challenging, but overall the whole process went very smoothly.
Have to shout out a big thanks to my Brother at this juncture - he lives and works in Oman and had dropped in on his way to Paris for a few days R&R - instead, he ended up hanging on spanners, upside down in the fibreglass hot-box in order to help me get the thing on - cheers Jon - hope the subsequent fluid replacement didn't do any lasting damage to the liver!

Next time around I hope to have that carpet down and striping tape and boat names ready to apply!

Fixtures, Fittings & Fun

With the paintwork finished, a few warm, sunny days allowed me to get the remaining varnish on the decks, which have had three coats now.

This is as much for appearance as anything else given they're laminate but the overall effect works very well (albeit a little difficult to photograph).


You may think that bolting on the deck hardware - cleats, fairleads, fendoff endcaps etc. would be fairly painless - think again! With all the fittings I used locking nuts and either washers (various) or washers and ply 'spreader' plates to spread the load under those items subject to stress and strain such as cleats and sidesteps. If you have ever tried to get a spanner/socket/anything on the nuts of a Broom rubbing strake bow-cap you will understand...

Luckily I was on the outside with a screwdriver, carefully aligning the screw heads, while long suffering neighbour, Tony, was folded into a peculiar contorted shape and posted into the fibreglass coffin under the front deck. To cut a long story short, after a lot of effort, all the deck fittings are now in place (even though I did hear some nautical phrases that were new to even me).


The bow light was particularly testing as I had made a ply plate with epoxied captive nuts, so the bulb could be changed by simply unscrewing the unit leaving the bolts in place - clever huh? So, another job out of the way and we've heard that Tony should be walking upright again within a week or two.


Up the Stern
Decided to re-visit the 'bit at the back' - the fuel/battery area. While I had previously done some work in there, there were nooks and crannies where water could get trapped, so I did some more filling and fairing to tidy things up.


I finished the whole area with 'Protectakote' - a polyurethane anti-slip paint with rubber granules. Did the job brilliantly.

Trim
All the trim panels are now finished and are in the process of being installed. After a few unsuccessful attempts at 'padding' the side panels I gave up - simply covering the marine ply with vinyl using contact adhesive, fixed round the back with stainless staples. The 'Grab Handle' panel used the same technique but the padding worked well on this.

The Screen Saga (continued)
I really don't want to dwell on this - suffice to say that the pile of mangled aluminium channel is getting larger. Hopefully off to a properly equipped workshop soon for attempt three - third time lucky? Let's hope so.

Informal CMBA Run
My long suffering lady and I had a great run up our local river (The Arun) the other day with some fellow CMBA members.

Although it was our first 'wet' meeting we were made to feel very welcome and fellow member Geoff deserves a special mention for handing over the helm of his beautiful Broom to me for the outward journey.


There was a good collection of interesting boats in evidence and (I know I bang on about this) if you're a regular reader here in the UK - you really should join up!

Next time round...
I hope to get that screen on - then it's finishing the trim, lining the bunks and working out the seating - 2009 is looking realisitic!

Painting and Decorating...

The continuing good weather meant there was no excuse - it was time to get the brushes out and the topcoat on.

Having flatted down the primer and masked off all that lovely laminate, the paint was duly applied. I used a combination of both roller with a brush to 'tip off' as I had on the hull and where this approach was impractical, a foam brush. Regulars will know that painting is not my forte - but the results are pretty good. She has had 3 x topcoats in total and with a little flatting and polishing should look very smart.


Rubbing Strake
I then turned my attention to the rubbing strake. I placed the rubber insert in a bucket of hot water to soften it slightly and it was then a relatively simple job to persuade it into the aluminium section.


There can be a little shrinkage - so I left the ends over-length, giving the rubber a few days to settle down. The ends were then trimmed and the section itself tweaked so as to provide a good fit for the previously refurbished end and bow caps.

A Little Trim...
The Broom interior has two padded side panels. I've started recreating these using a salvaged original as a template and cutting them from 6mm marine ply.


I also shaped a decorative panel for the passenger dashboard, which will ultimately sport a grab handle. These have all had nuts countersunk and epoxied in place so - following covering - they can be attached 'blind'. Some grey edge trim has also been sourced to cover any unfinished fibreglass edges within the cockpit area.

Screen Problems
...well not actually the screen - more the surround. I have had a new screen made up in polycarbonate, which will take a cold bend - and it's all ready to get itself fixed in place. I am having a problem with the top screen surround though. This is quite simply a length of suitably curved aluminium channel. First attempts were not successful - now a former is under construction and Neil (my chum and local friendly metal guru) is going to assist - the plan being to fill the channel with mild steel, do the bending and then pop out the insert. I'll let you know how we get on with this!

Finally,
Thanks to all the people who have emailed me recently and for the encouraging comments I've received about this blog site. It's good to know that some of you have found it informative and I'm always happy to help out where I can - just email me direct. You should now find contact details in my profile.

Decking!

A long overdue change in the weather provided the perfect conditions to lay the laminated deck surfaces.
Just to recap, this model used a laminate (Formica) inlay on both the fore-deck and side-decks. I opted to re-instate this and after casting around chose a Teak effect cabin flooring laminate with a light Holly stripe.

With the templates made, cutting could get underway. I tried many different methods and had a lot of useful suggestions as to how to cut this - after experimentation I opted for... a pair of scissors!

Working 'to the line' I was able to perfectly cut the required curves with no splitting or chipping of the edges.


The downside? - it was a long, slow, job and it took a couple of days before any feeling returned to my fingers.

I turned to the collective wisdom on the CMBA Forum to find the best way of bonding the laminate to the deck surfaces.

You may remember that I had covered all these surfaces with primer - well, all this had to be removed for a start. After a session with angle grinder and sanding block we were ready to go. With everything clean, dry, dust free and wiped over with acetone, I coated the laminate with West Systems epoxy and then added filler to the mix to produce a good consistency for a 'bed' which was applied to the deck surface. The first of the two sheets was positioned and even pressure applied until the epoxy mix oozed from the edges (I had previously protected the adjoining surfaces with masking tape). Using various blocks of timber, lead weights and anything else that came to hand, even pressure was maintained until the whole thing had set off.


The same operation was undertaken for the next sheet and it was time to grab a coffee and admire the result!


The Dreaded Side-decks...

Problem - the side-decks needed the same treatement, but the Teak and Holly stripe was not going to look right and no suitable alternative could be found.

Solution - Wielding the trusty craft knife I set about carefully scoring and stripping out all the holly stripes from the remaining laminate. About this time I began to doubt my sanity, but after many hours I ended up with enough laminate 'planks' for the task in hand.


Duly edge sanded and shaped, these were then affixed in the approved manner. The edge to edge joins were better than I could have hoped for, but I filled the seams with a dark oak stopping, which really enhanced the appearance.

I applied a couple of coats of varnish to all the surfaces - not too worried about the mirror finish at the moment - but maintaining a varnished surface is easier when removing paint splashes, masking tape, filler etc. than the raw 'grained' finish of the laminate.

While the epoxy was out, I also reinstated the support posts for the bow rails and faired them in.

For the photographs, I also put the 'deck candy' in place.


It took about four days to see this job through - and not something I would relish doing again, but hey, I think the results speak for themselves!

Back to Work...

It's been a while - but we've been busy...

For those of you who have been following progress, you'll be aware that we had a minor setback when the 'boatshed' blew away. Well now we have a rather splendid (and much more substantial) construction:


This was erected by John and Will of Sussex Logs who deserve a shameless plug for the great job they did - thanks chaps!

During the extended period of grim weather, a new transom plate was fabricated by my good friend and neighbour, Neil.


Heavy, mirror finish, A4 stainless and engineered to perfection, it certainly looks the part. It was designed slightly oversize compared to the original, to avoid using the same screw holes.

An additional smaller plate will be made up for the inside of the splash well to spread the load of the outboard bracket fixings and avoid those neat little rings being punched into the transom.

I also had a rethink on my helm design. As opposed to just bolting everything to the existing fibreglass dash, I shaped, routed and vinyl-covered a piece of 12mm ply on to which to mount the helm and instruments. Prior to covering, I epoxied countersunk screws into the board which will allow blind fitting from the rear. This will make removal, adding additional instruments etc. much more convenient - it also looks quite attractive.


Following a wealth of useful advice gleaned from the CMBA forum, I've now removed all the paint from the foredeck, ready for application of the teak and holly laminate. A template was made and the laminate has been cut to size (pictures to follow).


This will be bonded using West Systems epoxy of the appropriate consistency. It's the next job on the list but is very weather/temperature dependant.


I was lucky enough to win the CMBA 10th Anniversary logo competition - and spent a pleasant day at the National Motorboat Museum at Basildon, to receive my reward and meet fellow lunatics - sorry - enthusiasts at the same time. There are some fantastic, historic boats there - well worth a visit.

Finally, we have settled on a name for the Broom - she is to be called...
We quite liked the Italianesque (?) feel and it's short enough to fit on the limited transom space (or it could be my wife's penchant for expensive footwear from a certain manufacturer of the same name:-))

So, let's hope the better weather is finally here and work can continue apace.

If all goes well the next update should not be too far away and will detail the fitting of the aforementioned foredeck laminate.

It's been a while since my last update but the weather hasn't really been ideal for outdoor boatbuilding.

Activities were also brought to a halt during a particularly windy period when the 'Boatshed' decided to break free of its moorings. I could see it was straining against the teeth of the gale, decided to don the wellies to go and open up the sides to decrease resistance - and then BANG! The wind lifted the structure up, which snapped its mooring lines and disappeared up the driveway, swiping my car on its way out to the main road. This runaway spinnaker was luckily arrested by a stressed looking member of the local constabulary who was attending to a previous accident on said road. It took a few of us to wrestle it back in and to cut a long story short, we were lucky to get away with only superficial damage to cars/boats and people. A decision was made not to re-erect until more clement weather was expected and the Broom has since been shrouded in a boat cover to keep her warm and dry. I've used this downtime to gather together a few more bits n bobs including this rather gorgeous bow light, complete with hole for burgee. The laminate for the deck covering has also been sourced and hopefully work can start on making templates for this and cutting it ready for fitting in the spring. My good lady wife also turned up trumps by buying me a few metres of turquoise vinyl as a Christmas present - yippee! This enabled me to get on with covering the rear panel which hides the battery/fuel compartment.

Incidentally, the vinyl was obtained from www.atmlabel.com in Germany - great service and price.

Covering went smoothly and I grooved the edges of the board and then trimmed them with a white uPVC section to cover any unfinished edges and offer some protection as the board is slid in and out. I'd like to put a word in here for the Classic Motor Boat Association - joining has probably been the best investment I have yet made. There are a number of Broom owners amongst their membership and they have already provided a wealth of information and even an old windscreen as a template so I can fabricate a new one! I have yet to attend any of their social events, but the forthcoming fixture list looks very enticing. So, if you have any interest in old speedboats (which I guess you must as you're reading this) then click the link on the right to head on over to their forum.

I hope you all had a good Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!

Bits n Pieces and the 'Bay...

Spent some time doing those annoying little things recently. Unlike the last update, this time there's been a fair amount of effort - but nothing much to show for it. This included strengthening the side 'lockers' by backing them with marine ply, rummaging around in the bilges to fit a new drain plug and pulling apart the old Ultraflex helm unit. This was found kicking around in the bottom of the boat when I bought it and was in need of a good clean up. The unit was stripped down, cleaned out and re-packed with grease. Sadly, the cable was not in such good shape and was not worth trying to rescue. Luckily, eBay came to the rescue and an exact replacement was found in great, unused, condition from the National A1 Marine eBay shop - a bargain - and Jon was a good guy to deal with. The helm unit was duly fitted - so another job out of the way. The steering wheel was another eBay find and will fit in well with the revised colour scheme of White, Teak& Holly, Turquoise and Grey - think Riva!

Moving astern... I couldn't resist the polished finish stainless bilge outlet (found you know where) - overkill maybe, but I think it looks so much better than the standard white plastic offering. One thing I am still seeking inspiration for is how to pick out the raised 'Broom' logo.

I originally thought this would have been a separate item but on my Saturn it is moulded into the hull. If anybody has any ideas I'd be pleased to hear them but I think it's going to be down to a sharp eye and a steady hand...

The weather has put paid to any painting jobs at the moment, but there is still plenty to do and many more bits and pieces to unearth. I'll finish this post with an appeal to any Broom owners out there to please get in touch and to John who left a comment - please let me know how to contact you so we can compare notes.

Rivetting Stuff...

Many boatbuilding jobs take a lot of effort for little visible reward - but this was not one of them!
The Broom uses an overlapping joint to hold the Hull and Deck together. Integral to this is the aluminium section that holds the rubbing strake:

With the existing rivets quickly drilled out, the new section was pre-drilled with evenly spaced holes - carefully calculated to avoid the locations of the old rivets.

It was then a simple matter of offering up the channel, drilling through the holes and popping in an aluminium rivet.


In no time at all the section was fitted - the results far outweighed the effort involved!

Paint and Cradles...

Following on from my previous post, I flatted down the hull with wet or dry and gave it another coat with the roller, laying it off as I went - it was definitely worthwhile. OK - it's not perfect, but most acceptable - I've even had the comment "You really did that by hand...wow" which did bring a glow of satisfaction:-)

I let the hull stand for a couple of weeks so the paint had time to cure and harden off. During this time some cradles were knocked up ready to support the boat when it was turned back over. These were lovingly crafted by my friend and neighbour Tony, (whose vast collection of power tools I have to admit to plundering regularly) - thanks mate!

With the hull paint dry it was time to turn her over and my good lady wife employed her press-gang tactics to 'rustle some muscle' to assist. The whole operation went smoothly (I like to put it down military precision in the planning stage).

The elegant lines of the Broom design are shining through now

One of the next jobs is to replace the aluminium channel which holds the rubbing strake. The original had been removed and long lost (obviously leaving 100+ rivets needing to be drilled out...) An almost perfect match for the section was found from 'Seals+ Direct' and duly ordered.

Luckily the original finishing caps for this were lurking in the box of bits - 1 x for the bow and 2 x for the stern corners. Needless to say, these chrome on brass parts were in pretty bad shape. I looked into the possibility of getting these re-chromed - but this was not really an option due to time and expense. Instead, I cleaned them up, filled the gouges with an epoxy filler, sprayed them with aluminium paint and gave them plenty of coats of lacquer.


So... we got the paint on just in time as it's getting too cold now to get a decent finish - and I'm off to find out about the wonderful world of pop-riveting!

Paint!

With all the repairs made it was time to prepare the hull for paint. The existing finish was flatted down and dings and bad scrapes filled. In keeping with my usual practice a coat of primer was applied, followed by further filling and fairing.

I think I've mentioned this before, but I don't consider myself to be a great painter. I used a close cell foam roller to get the first gloss coat of Blakes Enamel on (decided to go with good old white in the end...). This went OK, but there was no way was it going to be a 'mirror' finish. I decided to apply the next coat the same way but 'laying it off' with a brush in the recommended manner. Hmmm, maybe a slight improvement - but I think the use of the roller for the previous coat had produced too much in the way of orange peel. To be honest, it's not a bad finish and would probably look quite acceptable when polished up.

However, I've decided as there is never going to be a better opportunity than now to see if I can improve on it, I'm going to flat down everything above the waterline with wet or dry and then I'll have another go using the 'laying off' procedure - let's hope the weather stays OK...

I'll keep you posted!

Over she goes...

With the help of some of the local 'muscle', we carried the boat out of the (ahem) 'boat-shed' and rolled her over - using some pontoon fenders to cushion the blow (thanks Tony...) - it was then carried back in to the shed and placed on the same fenders, the front benefiting from the addition of a judiciously placed milk crate.

This was the first opportunity to inspect the hull/keel in detail. Remember the hull was said to be 'in good condition'? Well, apart from a very suspicious repair it didn't appear too bad - just the usual scrapes and dings that are to be expected for a neglected vessel of the 70's. The repair was to the keel and consisted of a couple of sheets of chopped strand mat (CSM) laid over the paintwork and soaked in resin. A little gentle persuasion with a screwdriver and the whole lot just broke away revealing... a hole! There was also evidence of a previous, but much more substantial (and correctly executed) repair.

As I have said elsewhere, these boats were constructed with a sealed 'buoyancy' tank, making access to the interior of the hull impossible without opening an access point through the floor. I had made this even more difficult by adding a further wooden floor - hey ho...

So there I was, an upside down Broom with a hole and no easy way to access the hull internally. An evening trawling around the net threw up a couple of useful articles about patching a hull from the outside and I decided to have a go at this option. To cut a long story short, the hole was opened up to ease access and the surrounding area chamfered down to produce a 'dish', everything was then cleaned with acetone. Luckily, the structure was dry - if there were any moisture it would have to have been dried out completely before work could start. I made a patch consisting of layers of glass cloth and CSM, this was soaked with resin as was the hole. I threaded some old bootlaces(!) through the patch and introduced the whole thing through the hole, using the bootlaces to pull it up and manoeuvre it into place. When it had almost 'set off' I started building up layers of CSM, each overlapping the last and also including a strengthening layer of glass cloth. Finally, the whole area was overlaid with a fine glass 'tissue'. I tried to get the contours as close as possible - but a little light filling was inevitable, again this was done just prior to the whole lot setting off - in order to provide a chemical bond between all the components (well that's what I've been told).

With the repair complete, it was sanded down and a light coat of primer rolled over it to reveal imperfections. A little further sanding and filling and the job was done.

The patched area is now clean and smooth and the repair appears to have been highly successful.

The moral of this story is to check that hull/keel for bodged repairs. It's only taken a paragraph or so to write this up but it was a couple of days of hard graft to get the thing properly repaired and seaworthy!

Planning Ahead

Remember those Bow-rail supports? Well they're all finished and the rails themselves were given a dose of steel wool and elbow grease. Couldn't resist balancing them in place to get an idea of how things will look:

...and while we're still dreaming of the future, heres a small sample of the Teak and Holly Laminate that will be used to cover the foredeck:

Hopefully we'll find a matching Teak only version for the sidedecks. At the moment the plan is to finish her in Blakes Pearl White, with a stripe (as per the original) in 'Bordeaux'. The plan is to fit out the inside in White, Grey and Bordeaux with a few highly varnished burr walnut veneered panels for the dashboard area.

Tents and Topsides...

The English summer continues and over the past few weeks the most effort has gone into pumping out collected rainwater and debris hurled at the Broom blown from the trees by the high winds. Outdoor boatbuilding has its drawbacks - something had to be done.

Trawling ebay turned up the perfect solution - a party tent! Although the driveway now looks as if we are hosting a small wedding reception at least work can carry on whatever the weather as the Broom has its own 'boat-shed'. The tent is pretty substantial and since its erection has guaranteed that there has been no rain and unbroken sunshine. One bright spark did point out that it cost more than the boat though...

The first job in the new boat-shed was to finish tidying up the transom well. This required some cosmetic filling, sanding, filling etc. Finally, a 'reveal' coat of Blakes white primer, followed by more detail filling and a light sanding. There will be more work in this area as fittings for the engine and steering control cables will need to be made along with the stainless strengthening plate referred to in a previous post.

The (almost) completed transom well
and the slide in cover that will hide the fuel/battery etc.

The rest of the 'topsides' have also undergone a similar treatment.

It'll look worse before it looks better - Don't be disheartened!

Plenty of sanding, detail filling and the use of fingertips to detect any rough areas - and it's ready for a primer/reveal coat.
Finally, following a wash down and a wipe over with thinners and a tack cloth, (the boat, not me...) the paint is applied. I have to admit I'm no great shakes with a brush and have found I get the best results from a close cell foam roller - these are also cheap and 'chuckable' (hands up all those that enjoy cleaning brushes). When this first coat of primer is applied it makes all the tedious preparation worthwhile - it's beginning to look like a boat!

Topsides in primer

Apart from the odd small job, work is now going to stop on the topsides. The plan is to slide the boat out, flip it over, carry it back in to the 'shed' and carefully place it on milk-crates / car-tyres / whatever... in order that work can start on the hull (and I bet that won't be as simple as it sounds).
Rummaging around on the ground I've already discovered a small - but not very well done - patch in the hull - let's hope there's nothing too nasty under there.
The plan is to complete the hull entirely - right down to final finish, flip the boat back over, place it on a cradle and complete the topsides and fit out - simple. When this is finally done, the overcoating times for the topsides primer will have been exceeded, but this will be lightly rubbed down and a futher coat applied. I'll keep you posted!

Take a seat

Marvellous! a day without rain - the perfect opportunity to get the rest of the major 'carpentry' out of the way. A decision was made to have all four seats facing forward, so a 'podium' for the rear seats was constructed.

This will take a pair of the readily available 'Plastimo' seats in white vinyl. They fold forward allowing easy access to fuel etc.

Front seating has yet to be finalised - so it's down to keeping an eye on ebay and trawling round a few boat-jumbles for inspiration. The old moulded supports for the front seating were also enclosed, providing a solid platform on which to mount the seats - all looking a lot tidier now.

One thing that has caused some head scratching is the way all these seats seem to be mounted. Typically, they are bolted through from the underneath, so if I fix all the top surfaces in place there's no way to get the seat attached - hmmm...