1964 Dorsett Catalina Restoration

[Mark Nagley]

Just picket up a 1964 Catalina with a 70's merc 500 for a winter project.

Need help with....
-gelcoat, eventually I'd like to change colors to a teal so how easy would that be?
-stringers, the whole inside needs to be gutted and redone. Any tips?
-Engine, how well does the 50hp perfom on the boat?

[media=youtube]2SgAZStzuy4[/media]

[Steve_Kiesel]

Welcome to the group Mark. Rather than gelcoat, I would just paint it with a good quality marine paint. See what Chuck (Skagitguy) did with his 20ft Skagit.

Personally haven't done any stringer replacement.

My Seafair is about the same size as the Catalina. I'm running a 60hp Johnson two stroke. With two people and not a lot of gear onboard, it cruises at around 23 mph. Forget what WOT gets for speed. So the 50hp may be enough. You will just have to run it a few times and see if your getting what you want for performance.

Nice Catalina, should clean up real nice. Have fun with it.

[Helmar]

Hi and Welcome to the group.
I don't remember were I had heard this, but the Dorsett Catalina was supposed to be one that when things come back, she would regain her value over others.

Tell me more about your restoration. Are you going to keep this boat, use it a fair amount ?
They have been known to take that boat out into the ocean and clear down Mexico way.
She was designed to run in rough chop (like the bay area were she came from) so this is one of the better riding hulls you will find, other than some of the newer design Classpars like Steve's.
Most of my other boats were built up in the northern part of Washington, Skagits, Bell Boys, Uniflites.
My Skagits, and Uniflite, well, think of a barn door with a boat motor on it. I get the bow up and then she starts riding on the flat bottom part of the boat and it can get pretty rough.
To solve that is pretty easy, just slow down is all..

Doing the Gelcoat, that can be tricky....Tim Jones knows how to do that as he did his 31 Skagit.
For the most part, we all have just used marine paints which seem to last a really long time. Especially if you get into the Interlux two part epoxy paints. Those, I think would out last our kids....
Some of us have retired but still know how.
Tim Mattson is still one of us that is still doing the work and he as well knows the Gelcoat.

Pretty much have to take her clear down for the stringer process. You really have to have as much room for fitting as you can. This normally means splitting the cabin off the hull.
The Dorsetts use a lot of what is called MDO plywood.
Now with those little laser levels, its not too bad of a process.

Take step by step tare down. Looks as most of the bulkhead was missing (I do know they have Really big doors and the Dorsett San Juan is almost All open).
Save pretty much all you can for patterns. I myself would transfer the old patterns to Door Skin which I write everything down I need to remember about the pattern.

Oh, one little tool I found that is almost prefect for the job, this Ridgid tool. Register it on line and it will come with a life time warranty.
Mine is a kit which came with the right angle drill head and then this.
https://www.ridgid.com/us/en/jobmax
I have used this to cut screws as its like a hack saw on steroids. Check them out at Home Depot.
I got mine with as the 12volt rig.

Get the floor up and lets see what you got.....
Might also check our Sister club as that is where your boat came from.

[Mark Nagley]

So far I got a lot gutted out of the boat and now its time to start thinking about building. Heres a quick video to show what I've done

https://youtu.be/CNJ2sSxjZ3Y

[Helmar]

Good progress. Epoxy resin or fiberglass laminating resin. Once i get back home (East coast right now) i can show you another way to put the transom in if you like

[John Nelson]

Epoxy sticks better the catch is you are going to need ten or fifteen gallons of resin and you cant use polyester over epoxy it wont stick. You don't need to add the cross braces. You are going to have to cut lip off where you pulled the old plywood out. There is no way to clamp it to the new floor and the new glass has to go all the way across the new floor. obviously the new transom goes in first. Consider using treated wood for new floor and stringers Let plywood weather on top side till it turns brown and checks trim and fit then saturate it with catlizied resin before glassing in. Spot repairs in gelcoat work fine. For a color change its just easier to paint.

[Mark Nagley]

Gluing in the Transom

So I started gluing in the transom this weekend!

-Pieces were cut from a cardboard template and traced on the plywood
-two pieces of ply were glued together with water proof wood glue then screwed together
-all sides have a coat of fiberlay p17 resin with the front having a combination mesh/fiber mat fiberglass

In the mean time the boat had been gutted / prepped and dried in the hot weather

The idea was to use the fiberlay/ stand pre mix as the glue between the transom and the boat. So I applied that to the inside of the boat and slid the transom in from the top. Once that was in we clamped and screwed the wood to the fiberglass

I left the top a little long so I could flush trim it with a router

Things left to do:
-fiberglass and trim the top cap after the router
-finish peanut buttering the cracks of the transom in the inside
-peanut butter all the holes on the outside

Mark

[Mark Nagley]

Almost done with the floor

https://youtu.be/CYjln74CpI8

After months off from working on this project, I've gotten back to it in hopes to get the floor in before the weather goes bad. Got all the ribs / stringers in and now finishing up the fiber glassing and pouring some expanding foam.

Take a look at the video to see why i made some of the decisions/mistakes I did