Avon inflatable S something? Advice req

mrquattro · 25 January 2016, 15:22

Hi Everyone after a few years without a boat i have bought (proper cheap) and avon inflatable either s100 or s250? and i got some questions that some of you might be able to help with and pics
1) i have the old A4 valves with no covers so im going to replace these, is it a case of cut them out or heat gun unglue them ? and what newer valves should i go for A7? or B7? or C7?
2) The floor is 3 square pieces and a front triangular bit which by the glue residue may have been permanently in the front of the boat even when rolled up, I have no Stringers so ill be making some out of Aluminium U channel and 45' chanfered wood backed to fit against the tubes, my floor boards around the outside are 30mm thick! Now i'm not sure if this boat had a thinner floor originally as the transom has screw marks where the guide wood that slotted the floor in was, however i think it has had an additional piece of wood screwed to the transom where the engine mounts which goes nearly all the way to the floor bar about 30mm (thickness of the current floor), so i'm wondering if someone upgraded the floor and transom for a beefier engine. So apart from making stringers or being cheeky and maybe just putting hinges on the floor boards and sanding and re-varnishing the floor.
3) does anyone know how i tell the difference between an s100 and s250 when there is no id plate?
4) outboard - with the s100 being rated to 15hp and the s250 being rated to 25hp i was thinking about a 15hp as its still light but got a lil bit of ooomph to it, any thoughts?
Lastly i would like to thank you all for your help.
Mr Quattro

mrquattro · 25 January 2016, 15:57

just found this in wickes and thought this could be good, a non slip floor paint for exterior wood and comes in diff colours, i would probably go for white as a white and grey boat will look good.
Coo-var Suregrip Anti-slip Floor Paint White 2.5L | Wickes.co.uk

raymillard · 05 February 2016, 16:49

The Avon S100 and S250 were both the same size, but the 100 was more lightly built. The S250 had anti hogging strips along the tops of the tubes and may (I can't remember!) have had a red foredeck as standard.
Both are brilliant long lasting boats. My S100 was new in 1977. I don't own it now but I bet it's still going strong.

mrquattro · 06 February 2016, 02:05

cool thanks for the info, i will have to get a pic of the boat up on here see which one people think it is, but i know one thing they are almost indestructable no matter what age, they can be repaired almost forever as well. no other make comes close to avon.

mrquattro · 16 March 2016, 20:32

its 285cm from bow to sponson line, 250cm to transom
finally worked out the floor goes flat side down.
am i missing an inflatable keel? and stringers ( which i'm making, have just ordered ali u channel and a piece of wood), also can see a bit of wood is missing of bottom of transom so will use a bit of ali u channel for that.
Also is the front triangular bit of floor supposed to attach to the first main board or just rest up against it??
Then its time to replace 3 valves from A4 to B6

Then fresh coat of varnish on floor and stringers

WDI · 02 May 2016, 01:14

Hello Mr Quattro,

I've got a lot of love for an old Avon!

I've got an S100 myself.

I wonder if you might be able to help me with something please?
Mine came without the original floor. Someone has cut a very crude deck out of thin ply at some point in the past but it's really not ideal to say the least.

I'm quite happy with the construction of the floorboards but what I lack are the dimensions.
If it's not inconvenient, would you mind measuring yours at some point please?

I rather suspect that the boards are slightly longer than the internal dimensions of the boat would suggest to allow for a little stretch when they're inserted. Quite how much bigger though would be a complete guess for me.

Many thanks!!

Gareth

mrquattro · 02 May 2016, 10:16

my floor measures 71cm wide and 143cm long plus there is a triangular bit that goes in front of this main floor section

mrquattro · 02 May 2016, 10:18

2 coats of wood stain and 3 coats of outdoor varnish

mrquattro · 02 May 2016, 10:19

my floor measures 71cm wide and 143cm long plus there is a triangular bit that goes in front of this main floor section

mrquattro · 02 May 2016, 10:22

pic of floor in boat with stringers

WDI · 02 May 2016, 11:08

Thank you.

It looks cracking all refinished.

raymillard · 02 May 2016, 15:39

See my reply re hogging strips. If it's got them it's a 250.

LucasHartong · 03 May 2016, 20:59

Really like all the work you put into this! Great job.

mrquattro · 04 May 2016, 03:31

raymillard, what are hogging strips? sorry to be dumb but i cant see any thing on top of my tubes so i'm guessing i have an s100 lol, do you remember what the s100 was rated to take up to hp wise? Many thanks

WDI · 04 May 2016, 13:48

Hogging strips have an inverted T cross-section and usually have grommets for safety lines. As seen here:

Yours looks a lot like my S100, but there are some slight differences with attachments, valve location, and transom shape.

The S100 is rated to 15hp.

Also interesting is that I note you mentioned yours doesn't have an inflatable keel and wonder if it's missing.
Certainly my S100 has a keel but the original floor would have had a hole in the front "triangular" board to allow access to the keel valve which your board obviously doesn't have.

WDI · 05 May 2016, 18:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrquattro

my floor measures 71cm wide and 143cm long plus there is a triangular bit that goes in front of this main floor section

I've just measured the "quick and dirty" floor that someone had made for my S100 and the equivalent three boards measure 86cm x 153cm. Plus the triangular board.
They are noticeably too loose in my boat so I reckon the three should be nearer 88cm x 160.

Considering the differences in transom, the lack of an access hole for a keel valve, and also that yours has two less attachments for the bow dodger than mine has, I'm now wondering if yours is something else, slightly smaller than an S100?

I'm certainly not an expert on old Avon boats though.
The S100 is 3.2m. If there was something which came in 3 or 3.1m that could easily account for your floor being at least 10cm shorter than mine.

It'd be interesting to hear from someone else with an original S100 or S250 floor for comparison.

WDI · 05 May 2016, 19:08

I've done a bit more digging...
I reckon you have an S60 there.

The one in these photos is slightly newer (note the valves) but the lack of a keel, the fittings, and the transom shape all fit with yours.

It's a shame that data plate doesn't list length and beam. A private listing somewhere else quotes the length as 8' 6", or 2.6m

To test my suspicion a quick bit of maths says that 2.6m is 81.25% of 3.2m.
Taking that percentage and scaling up from your measured floor would give:
71cm scales to 87.4cm
143cm scales to 176cm.

Allowing for the likelyhood that it's not a direct scale in all dimensions I reckon those calculations are close enough to my S100 floor estimate to assume that your boat is quite probably 2.6m.

mrquattro · 06 May 2016, 22:30

hi thanks for the info, i remember seeing an s250 where the front triangular bit of wood is glued into the boat into the floor gusset where it meets the tubes, mine had the remnants of the glue on it. i would be surprised at an s60 just based on floor thickness and transom thickness, mine went really well with a 12.9hp on it. In terms of keel i would have thought that it should of had one however when i tried to make a small one with a diameter of 2 inches from pipe lagging foam there just doesn't seem to be enough room under the wooden floor against the fabric, i.e the fabric is already taught tight .
would like to say a big thanks to everyone who has helped me on here.