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It’s been a quiet winter for me on the forum. But don't let that fool you! I've been diligently working away on boat projects. The most recent is a floor repair on the ‘61 Marathon, Jammie Dodger. The boat came with a so-so floor and I've been boating with it the last two seasons. This year, however, I intend to sell her in the Fall to help fund engines for the Bell Boy project. With that in mind, it was important to me to fix the floor up so I could sell it in good conscience (not to mention to have a solid platform for this seasons crabbing, cruising and fishing [the 3 C’s]). The issue was that the previous owner had attempted to repair a bad section of floor but really didn’t do a good job. As a result, the floor was lifting in some places and cracked through to the bilge in others. Not an ideal situation. I had tried a re-glassing of the cracked area last spring but it didn’t last the summer.
So, with trusty tools in hand, I stuffed her in the garage and me and a friend pulled the engine about a month ago. This was a required element because the bilge drain was seized in there and I wanted access to the entire floor so I could remove the old fitting and replace. My plan was to pull up the floor and replace about half of the floor. From the rear seats forward the floor is in great shape and shows no sign of weakness so there was no intent to replace that. Also, that would have required lifting the deck off, which I don’t relish doing on that boat due to her ‘classic’ interior layup.
Off went the engine, off went the splashwell. Off went my plans. ? First thing noticed was a good deal of rotten wood on the transom. Not the whole thing, mind you, but about half the way down. It is the original transom and even with the rot was still pretty strong. However, someone at some point installed a kicker bracket but didn’t seal anything, so water got in through that space and did its best. So for the first 2-3 weeks of the project, I was chipping out old wood down to dry, solid areas. Again, the deck removal was not something I wanted to do, so a complete replacement was not on the list. However, 3 layers of overlapping ½ inch birch later, and the transom is more solid than it was when I started. The attached pics are 1 of the 3 layers of ply that was resined in.
So, with trusty tools in hand, I stuffed her in the garage and me and a friend pulled the engine about a month ago. This was a required element because the bilge drain was seized in there and I wanted access to the entire floor so I could remove the old fitting and replace. My plan was to pull up the floor and replace about half of the floor. From the rear seats forward the floor is in great shape and shows no sign of weakness so there was no intent to replace that. Also, that would have required lifting the deck off, which I don’t relish doing on that boat due to her ‘classic’ interior layup.
Off went the engine, off went the splashwell. Off went my plans. ? First thing noticed was a good deal of rotten wood on the transom. Not the whole thing, mind you, but about half the way down. It is the original transom and even with the rot was still pretty strong. However, someone at some point installed a kicker bracket but didn’t seal anything, so water got in through that space and did its best. So for the first 2-3 weeks of the project, I was chipping out old wood down to dry, solid areas. Again, the deck removal was not something I wanted to do, so a complete replacement was not on the list. However, 3 layers of overlapping ½ inch birch later, and the transom is more solid than it was when I started. The attached pics are 1 of the 3 layers of ply that was resined in.
Future classic lover!
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