Greetings from Northern New Mexico

[pats]

Hello everybody,

I'm Pats,



I'm from a small community in Northern New Mexico (population 11). I'm retired and enjoying it. I'm the proud owner of a 1964 Dorsett Catalina. I have been working on it since I bought it, about 5 years ago. I have been doing some upgrades and building some add-ons for it. Although I live in Northern New Mexico, I keep the boat in indoor storage at Ute Lake Reservoir, Logan, NM (near Tucumcari) about 300 miles away. It's a beautiful boat, and I really enjoy having it. I wish I could keep it here at home, but the winters are harsh with to much snow. And the lakes in my area tend to freeze over, and aren't very large. So, I keep it at Ute Lake. Its a fairly large lake that was made by daming the Canadian River. The weather there is fairly moderate, and with a little preperation I can use my boat all year long. I especially enjoy going in the winter, I've learned that in the winter, I can have the lake almost entirely to myself. It makes for quite an adventure, as most of the lake is very remote, with no outside access or roads. I don't know if you've tried it, but the Dorsett Catalina makes a great winter boat. Sometimes I will stay out for up to 10 days, the most limiting factor being: fuel. I am in the process of researching some type of a (safe)permanent tank storage system, with at least 30 Gal. capacity.



The last time I used my boat, I damaged the transom. When I bought the boat, it came with a 115 hp Mercury Outboard, which is way overpowered. I have never been able to use full power/throttle, there's just too much power. I've always thought (but not sure) that the transom was a little weak due to age. Appearance-wise it looked ok, and seemed fairly strong. However, I must have pushed it a little to hard, and cracked the transom and outer fiberglass (there is no inner fiberglass layer, only tabbing), where the motor mount bolts pass through. I didn't realize at the time the transom was cracked, and the boat didn't indicate any change in performance. I spent the night in the boat up a small side canyon, with the starboard side of the boat tied to the shore in shallow water. During the night while I slept, water seeped in through the cracks, filling the boat with about 2' of water. To make a long story short, I had to climb high enough up the canyon to receive cell signal from Tucumcari Mtn., and called the Park Ranger. After about an hour and a half of pumping, we had the boat dry and floating, and made it safely back to the ramp.



I loaded the boat on the trailer and took it to the storage area and cleaned and dried everything. The next day I located a man that owned a small tractor with a front end loader. Together we undid the controls and trim pump, then lifted the outboard motor off of the boat. Then, I started taking pictures and did my best to assess the damage. The next day I headed home.



Since that time, I have been discussing the damage and repair with the techs at Fiberlay, Inc.. I had their help in putting together a materials list, that includes, laminating resin, hardener, chopped strand mat, 1708 fiber mat, structural putty, ribbed rollers, etc,. I have spent countless hours watching youtube videos about: transom repair, laying-up fiberglass, wetting out fiberglass mat, rolling out bubbles, tabbing, fillets, etc,. During my research, I found my way to this website (NWCBC), I looked at the forums, in the boat restoration topics, there is so much information and knowledge that I was almost overwhelmed. I now have many new ideas that I want to try, but can't until I finish these repairs. Some of the materials I can't get until I get there, due to lack of room in my truck, large items such as, marine plywood, door skin, etc,. I have bought several new tools, oscillating multi-tool, 5'' orbital sander, 4 1/2'' angle grinder, plus, bits, blades, grinding wheels, hopefully everything I need.



I hope to make my first trip to start the repairs on or about Oct 2nd, and I'll stay about ten days.. I'm not sure what I'll get accomplished, but if I can get the old plywood removed, the fiberglass shell sanded and faired, make a pattern for new plywood out of door skin, cut the two plywood pieces according to pattern, resin coat the two new plywood pieces, drill a screw pattern in the fiberglass shell & plywood pieces. then start laying-out and wetting-out mat and install the new plywood using sheetrock screws in the pre-drilled holes to support and clamp the new plywood,.....I'll be happy. I'm just going to go about it "slowly but surely". I am going to do all the prep work and have everything ready and laid out, before starting the laminating of the new plywood. I'm only going to mix small batches of resin at a time. Hopefully, everthing will go smoothly, and I have enough energy and stamina to get this far the first trip. If you have any advise or tips you think I might need, don't hesitate to let me know. I will greatly appreciate any information or advice you might have.



There are times that I feel "overwhelmed" by the size of the job I have ahead of me. I will try and take some pictures of my progress, and post them when I get home.



Here are some pictures, so that you can see why I like this boat so much:

[Helmar]

Welcome to the Forum. That is a nice looking Dorsett you have there. Mine is a little older, 60 I believe and the hull design is a tad different. I got this boat from a very dear friend who pass away a few year back and who was one of founding members of this club. His name was Chuck Carrey.
Mine needs it all, right down to the stringers. What got me was working on the Farallons, i seen they used MDO plywood, same as the old stop and traffic signs from years ago.

It sounds like you have been talking to the right people about glass (Fiberlay) but I always take mine a little farther such as I Really like using the closed cell adhesive flotation foam that Fiberlay sells. It seams a much better option for around me and the Columbia River as that has big rocks sticking up that you really can't see and well, had one boat that I hit the rocks and punched a hole in the bottom. Almost didn't make it to shore. After I started using the closed cell foam, the rock would have to come all the way up though the floor before I would take on any water. Plus, if I ever did loose one, I had something to be able to climb up on out of the water.
We did one Farallon with the foam and I remember from the cabin door, you would step down two steps and the deepest part of the boat. It was 18" from the door opening to he keel.
I do own a bunch of Skagits, three 59's, sportster, skimaster with the top and then the 20 foot offshore. I also have a 17ft Uniflite and 16ft Bell Boy cabin boat. Oh and a 58 20 ft Skagit Express. Lots to do between them as only two of them are runners right now.


In fact, it was Chuck Carrey that started the 12 step program that was No More Boats due to all of our collections. Me, I got confused and thought it was NEED More Boats.
Never the less, it seems that I enjoy working on them more than running them. But, reality check, its time to thin my herd.

I have done a fair amount of work on the Dorsetts and yes, you are over powered.
We used to Split the cabin top from the Hull but unless your replacing all the wood, not necessary at all. Because of how the splashwell is, its hard to get to that area to even do the glass work so I did the last one by doing some cutting with a hack saw type blade, was able to build the transom up to 2" for these more powerfull and heavy 4 strokes.
I will attach some pictures of what I did.

Its too bad that you are so far away from her. Also make sure you are using Fiberlays P-16 laminating resin. I think I was mixing 8oz between layers. Brush it on both sides that are going to stick together. then normally, over night and you can start on the next layer..I would only use the fiberglass matt between the transom fiberglass and the first layer of marine plywood. After that, just plywood to plywood. Then the last cover was using fiberglass cloth.
I would use the door skin and Popsicle sticks with hot glue to get my pattern as close as I could as it would save me several trips in and out of the boat I cut the bottoms at the same angle as the tilt on the transom so I was as tight as I could be. Any voids, I would mix up the FiberFiller from Fiberlay.

I can blame this on age but I am having trouble remembering the difference between the Farallon, San Juan and Catalinas transom.
From what I can remember, the cockpit floor went all the way back to the transom so it needed opened up in the back to get to the lower part of the transom that is below the floor.

I can walk you though all of it once you start sharing your resto pictures, no worries. Just don't throw anything away as it might be used as a pattern.. I will explain that later.

So, getting late and will attach my cut pictures that I did on the last one. I did the cockpit floor up to the cabin bulkhead and this made things Much more easy to do.

When you start on the repairs, you can start a new post in the Boat Restoration area as well as asking questions which I am sure you will have.
Helmar
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