16ft Bell Boy Restore

[Helmar]

Your lucky that your shop is so close. When I get my boat home, I'll have about the same setup as you. I'll have my shop and tools nearby. The reason I'm thinking about bringing home only the hull of my boat is "weight". I have a 4wd 1990 Toyota pickup (base model) with the r-22 motor. I keep it in very good shape, replacing whatever needs repaired. I like this vehicle and keep it because I can still work on it. I don't have the skills to work on the newer vehicles with all the sensors and new technology. The r-22 motor in my pickup is in good shape and strong enough to tow the boat, although not always at highway speeds. Plus, I'll be towing it from 3200' to 7000' where I live. It's a very long uphill pull, with long stretches of "middle of nowhere" highway. 107 miles between Tucumcari and Las Vegas, New Mexico without even a gas station, but it's beautiful mesa country. At any rate I'm trying to save weight. As for the bulkhead, I thought I would bring it home and use it as a template to cut a new one. I already have the bi-fold door at home. I'll do all the finish work on them at home, and re-install them when I take the hull back and put the topcap on. I have a chain fall hoist at my boat storage unit, setup ready to lift off the topcap. That's the reasoning behind bringing home just the hull. Although, I am still fluid on my plan. If I'm overlooking something please let me know as I want to be able to finish all the repair work (transom, stringers, floor, bulkhead).

I really enjoy your pictures. After seeing them and the progress you're making, I can almost see light at the end of my tunnel.

.
Are you going to use paint or gelcoat? How are you going to apply it? Spray, brush, roll it? Have you ever heard of "brushing liquid" for gelcoat (additive for smoothing brush marks).

Looking forward to your next post.....................

I am not sure as of yet. I have tried the spray route but without a paint booth, everything has to be just right in order to make it turn out ok. Normally, I will go three coats of two part epoxy paint, wait for it to Really Cure, then wetsand and buff it out.

I have also heard that tip and roll with the gelcoat comes out pretty sweet too but have not used it.

[Helmar]

Another update.
Slow but moving forward still. This would go So much faster if I was to put in full days but I only put in maybe 2 or 3 hours at a time on this.

So, on this run, I was able to dig out and clean the keel channel for the new keel stringer to set down in.

I think its the third and then last two pictures showing what I am doing to get my Top of the Stringer marks. Using a aluminum 1/8" angle square and a felt tip pen to put a mark just under the square. I will connect the marks and just use my worm drive skill saw as I can seem to control that so much better than the standard saws. I will leave enough meat with the skill saw and then take the rest down on the jointer. Only reason for doing the jointer is, I need a nice smooth surface to run the router down to round off both sides for the fiberglass stitched roving to go over the top.

Because that keel chanel is not the same forward to aft, I made up a small template out of a 2x4 with the sides rounded off to match the keel stringer and went all the way from the transom forward to see if I had any voids. I do....So, I will cut strips of the thick matt and lay them down in the low spots, then cut strips that will go under the keel stringer all the way from the stearn to the bow.. I will then pour in resin and set the keel stringer on the matt. Once that is cured, then I will go down both sides and make a fillet out of the fiberglass fiberfiller. This will make it easy for when I put the stitched rovering up to the striner, then up over the top and down the other side..

So, I just keep pecking away at this.

[Helmar]

Well, made a mistake today. I cut on the wrong side of my marks, but the good part was, I was on the side were I had to take more wood off. My head was somewhere else and when I turn it and laid it down on the table, I had reversed it. So, I was able to take it down with the power planer and did not use the jointer. I had to take about 1/6th more right about 3 feet from the transom.

I sat the stinger in and leveled it with the boat, then took my laser and set on it. How is that for eyeballing it in. You can see the laser just touches the tips of the other stringers on the way to the bow. I think part of this was just shear luck. Nothing ever goes that good.

Now I will cut strips of matt for the bedding to go under the keel into the keel chanel. Its pretty uneven but I did lay the straight edge down in it and got it as close as I could. Several strips of matt soaked in resin and then I will jury rig up some sort of weight system to add some weight to the keel stringer to make sure its seated well.
I also have that keep flat level as so any excess resin will just flow in around the sides of the keel stringer.

Just chipping away at it.

[Helmar]

Ok, another update...I am only putting in maybe 2 hours a day on this so like I said, just inching along on it.

Lets see if I can get the pictures in order.

So, the keel chanel was uneven so looking to get a Super Bond, I needed to fill in some of the voids.

I cut the strips to lay down in the channel. I cut one narrow and then the wider ones. I also had a few voids that I could see, so laid in a small hung of heavy matt in those first.

Next, I mixed up 16oz of resin and poured half of it into the keel channel, coated the back sides of the heavy matt and laid it into the channel, poured in more resin and got it really soaked in real well. That was not enough for me to get all the matt in so another 16 oz pot was mixed up.

And, here is were I was not able to stop and get pictures other than when I was finished.

I coated the bottom of the keel stringer with fiberglass resin and due to the keel being level, mixed up yet another 16 oz pot of resin and poured it into the changel, then, set it into place. Checked for plumb, clamped it into place as so not going to move one side or the other.

Now because of the possible voids, I covered the keel stringer with the visqueen stuff as I was going to lay some weight on top to help seat it down good and tight. I had just a tiny bit of bow in the keel striner but found with some pressure, it would set in real well.

The 6th picture shows were I had put small shims under the plywood with the weight on top of it to help press it down real well.

7th picture is the bow and I used weight up on that area as well.

Once I put the shims in, added the weight, I notice, Uh, yeah, I have enough resin for no hollow or void areas. So, pictures 8 and 9 shows you how much resin oozed out of the channel. Pretty sure I got it seated real well.

10th photo is the matt I was using and its just time to put that away and put out the Stitched roving to cover the keel stringer after all this kicks off and cures.

The last couple of pictures are the PCV foam board that I plan on using for the floor and transom bulkhead and splashwell. Still not sure if I want the front bulkhead made out of the PCV ...

[Helmar]

Another update. After I got the main keel stringer bedded down into the fiberglass matt, I used the fiberfiller and put a fillet along both sides of the keel stringer as so when I put in the stitched roving it would be fit in without leaving a air pocket.
It worked well, and now the Keel stringer is in and now covered as so its also a fiberglass stringer. No air, water or moisture of any kind can get even close to the wood so I expect this to, well, last forever. Even if the wood did go bad, makes no difference, the stringers are fiberglass.

Now some clean up, maybe some scraps running in between the stringers as I have a roller trailer and not taking any chances of Anything moving. Once the close cell floatation adhesive foam goes in, nothing going to move any how. But, does not add much weight and will be stronger this way.

This boat build will outlast my great grand kids.

[Helmar]

Now that I am waiting to start on the floor, I was checking out what its going to look like putting the Bearcat on the back of it.
I do remember that Marty Loken had a Bearcat on his little Bell Boy he had and then I also remember when he got his 4 stroke Honda 50 and put on it. He had Lots more room with the Honda 4 stroke.

So by making this splashwell bulkhead and splashwell I can see what I want to do.
You can see in the pictures that they had the splashwell leaning back and a bench seat in front of the bulkhead. I will go with a fold down side boarding seat I think but I know I will not put the bench across the back.

The first picture were I put a yellow line, will be the bulkhead and splashwell. The plan is to have it just up high enough that If I decide to make a floating gas tank out of the boat, I will be able to slip either a couple of 6 gallon tanks under the back as well as have two 6 gallon tanks forward. If I think I need more, I would stuff them up in the cabin but not planning on make a trip like that.

The next picture shows were the other splashwell and bench seat used to be.

The third picture with the two red arrows is were the arrow pointing down, the bottom of that stick will be the top of the bulkhead that is the PCV foam board. The arrow pointing up, I will use mahogany plywood to raise up the splashwell so it will be even with the top of the combing of the gunnels. That will give me a extra 6 or so inches of protection of taking a wave over the stearn.

In the last picture, you can see the two different colors of wood and the darker cap piece is what I am going to raise up like in that picture.

My seats will be fold down, not on those posts like you see there.

[Helmar]

Well, we had a Lot of Snow down here so things have kind of slowed down, but back at it now.

I was to the point were I was going to make a template for the floor and get started on that, But, being inside the boat, walking around between the stringers, I stopped. I went out to the Skagits and pushed up on the hull and well, nothing moved. I went back to the Bell Boy and did the same, its Moved.
Then I remember even the Reinell boats, those were paper thin for the most part.

I felt I wanted a Skagit Hull so, checked the free board, checked the stock weight, did some comparing and decided its time to get out the matt and do some fill in.
Always keeping the weight in mind for what I am doing, I also took some measurements to the best of my ability (measured the thickness of the Matt that I had) Seems that the heavy stuff is at least Three times the thickness !!.

I looked at the chine edge and noticed that the hull was quite a bit thicker down to just were the old floor was. So, I built that up with matt between the stringers as I will have this on a roller trailer and well, I don't want that hull moving at all. So with the matt in place and already kicked, I tried to mash down on the hull to see if Any movement, and nothing, solid like the Skagit hull now.

Where you see the Blue on the sides, that is were the hull was thicker so now, its the same thickness down to the stringers were they are even thicker fiberglass.

I remember how Skagit and Bell Boy were sneaking back and forth stealing ideas from each other but I was not pleased with the thickness of this hull so Now, she should bounce over rock croppings if I ever hit one.

Under the PVC fiberglass floor will be close cell flotation foam which is pretty hard as well so I am pretty sure Nothing is going to move on this nor will it ever go bad..

Just a few photos of what got done today.

[Helmar]

New method figured out....
Working with the PVC foam board has been tricky making it fit like I want.

With the foam board, you can cut it with a band saw, skill saw, sand the edges to make it fit were you want. But its been a learning process that I think I have figured out now.
My problem seemed to be that I was putting that in the boat, marking it, taking it out to sand more off, over and over and over. Its just too easy to make a mistake and take too much off.

I solved that problem by having to build up the edges were I had taken too much material off. That was not such a easy task.

The game plan is, all the stringers have to be level or within say 1/8" or better yet, less than a 1/6th.

I created a template, cut it out, then had to shave the edges to lay up towards the chine edges. That angle changed every few inches and well, I had it laying on the stringer just fine, but the outer edges, I was not getting what I felt was enough contact once it was glassed down.

I got the first one to fit like I wanted, then you lay strips of matt after you drowned it with fiberglass resin on top of the stringers. You then lay a 2 or more inch strip on each side of the floor and the trick was, get the angel just right as to get as much contact as I could possibly get.
The main reason I want as much contact as possible is, I plan on foaming between the stringers and well, you don't use screws to hold the floor down on top of the stringers, Its Fiberglassed down to them using the strips of matt that you have soaked in resin..

It seemed like the first one too Way too long getting that angle that I needed. And, I did it the hard way, in and out, testing, in and out until I got it right.

Now for the second one I learned a valuable trick.
You will see that I marked the PVC with the lines so I know right were the dead center of the stringers are. I used the template and got it close and then I was back to the same problem as before, getting that angle just right on the edges for maximum adhesion once fiberglassed down.
This is were I got out the oscillating tool. I was able to hold the PVC in place and were it was touching the sides, I was able to take the cutting blade, lay it right on the hull and run it the length of the PVC board until I had just the blade width of a gap between the hull and PVC floor.. I got the angle right the first cut !!...Now, I needed to have a 16th of a inch between the PVC and the hull. This is were I took the other sanding oscillating blade and was able to get that 16th I needed for the matt to go between the PVC and hull.. One of the pictures shows the really wild angle that I needed.
Now I am not so worried about the foam process and blowing the floor up off the stringers..

Using the oscillating blades, I must have saved myself 10 trips in and out of the boat and 4 or more hours getting it to fit in what I would call close to 100%..

I have two more to do as I am taking the floor all the way to the bow and foamed all the way back to the transom.

The process again is, fit it, flip it, use the heavy matt and put a layer of that on the bottom of the PVC floor. Then trim any excess matt off, flip it and its ready to go into the boat and get glassed down. So, putting the fiberglass resin soaked strips on top of the stringers and the 2" soaked strips on the outer edges between the floor and hull..

Once all those are in, I cover the top of the PVC floor with a layer of matt, and then a layer of cloth. Then its off to do the transom bulkhead and splashwell, then the cabin splashwell and map dash.

Here is were I am torn on what to do. I could make the whole insides out of PVC and just paint it all and it will last Forever. Or, I can jazz it up like I like doing with mahogany paneling and trim . Right now, I am leaning towards the mahogany cabin bulkhead and map dash, the the upper area on the splashwell in mahogany paneling with 20 plus coats of varnish.

[Helmar]

More going in on the floor project, just slow due to other things going on, such as Mr Lawn Mower, Mr Weed Wacker, that kind of stuff. But I am gaining and still excited about getting the Bell Boy ready to go play and fish from

[Helmar]

I did get a little more done on the floors. I put in a front bulkhead for the air/foam box. All the matt has been put onto the bottoms of the PVC board. The first two have been glassed down.
I have the thicker Matt that I cut into strips that lay on top of the stringers and against the hull. I slobber them up (saturated) with resin, lay the floor down and put 4x4 and 4x6 posts on top for the weight to hold them down.

I did struggle with getting the angles cut for the sides were it lays up against the hull but finally figured out how to do it and saving Many trips in and out of the boat trying to match the angles to get the best matching surface. I was able to take pattern and just cut it a little wide, lay it down into the boat, use some weight to hold it down on top of the stringers and then just run the oscillating blade right across the hull surface. Works Nice !! No more sanding blocks, files or belt sander. This works Slick !!!

There is also a little area just below the drain hole for a bilge pump to mount.

[Kelly]

Where'd you get the pvc board from? The weight benefit alone is worth looking into. My seating is all 1/2 mdo and I gotta say, the weight really adds up.

[Helmar]

Where'd you get the pvc board from? The weight benefit alone is worth looking into. My seating is all 1/2 mdo and I gotta say, the weight really adds up.

This was some of Johns stock he had stashed so I am not sure were he got it. By the time you put the fiberglass mat on both sides, then cloth over the top, it still much lighter then the wood. That was the whole idea behind this bell boy. I wanted to keep it as light as possible as I added weight by making a Skagit Hull out of it with fiberglass stringers. We have a scale shack close by that I know what the trailer by itself weights so hoping when I take the boat over on the trailer to weigh it, I am not much over the factory weight of approximately 575 lbs. That thing should be a bullet on the water with the Bearcat on the back.

[John Nelson]

Where'd you get the pvc board from? The weight benefit alone is worth looking into. My seating is all 1/2 mdo and I gotta say, the weight really adds up.

what you are looking for is nida core/ board I've had trouble finding it lately Fiberglass supply seemed to at least know what it was. 509 493 3464 .

[Kelly]

Hey John, I did look into nida core and it seems like the way to go. I found a young guy on YouTube (neon swell) that uses it all over his sailboat and it seems really strong.

what you are looking for is nida core/ board I've had trouble finding it lately Fiberglass supply seemed to at least know what it was. 509 493 3464 .

[Helmar]

I am ow getting ready to add the foam under the floor but was thinking....I just can't get my head around sticking two 6 gallon portable fuel tanks up against the outside of the cabin bulkhead and use them for a foot rest. Maybe in a box ?

Here are some of my other options. Right now the one I am thinking of is two of the 6 gallon tanks up in the bow area were it used to be all air box. From the Blue on the chine edges forward was a air flotation box.
The game plan was to put a porta poddy up in that area, split and fold up births and if I wanted to sleep in the boat, pull the porta poddy out and just move it to the back of the boat.

Now I am pondering the idea of doing the split birth lids, but if I want to lay down, I would have to move both tanks out and towards the back of the boat, or at least in the cockpit area when the birth is to be used.
I think the idea of having two 6 gallon tanks is a lot better than me trying to life in and out the 12 gallon fuel tank.

For the most part on Any of our outings, I have Never used more than 6 gallons, but for long range (make a floating gas tank out of the boat) I would be able to put the 2 six gallon tanks up side by side, then put the 9 gallon way up in the bow for a total of 21 gallons.

I could hide the whole thing by going a custom tank built by Razorback boats (builds aluminum boats and tanks) that would be no more than 6" tall x 22" x22" which would give me 2904 cubic inches or 12.5 gallons. This would require a fuel hose and vent hose but would have a fuel gauge in it too. If I wanted the rear of tank wider, pretty sure I would end up with about almost 24 gallons.

Then again, Kelly, what were those two tanks you are going to use on the Skagit 20 ? What is the name and model number so I can get a size reference.
Those I might put outside the cabin bulkhead in boxes like you are going to do.
I just not sure how high my seats are going to be yet. I am thinking just my head to clear the top of the boat as I will have a Full Northwest top on it.