McMillan donor RIB

[Daniel]

A new refurb thread !

Here is the McMillan donor RIB nov 2011

[Daniel]

Apart from stripping the electronics (sold one / scrapped the other) this has sat (covered) for basically 12 months.

The tubes are excellent. Virtually immaculate, although after 12 months a bit grubby.

For those that weren't about a year ago, a recap:

I bought (made a donation) to the McMillan fund for this hull almost exactly a year ago. The engine and trailer were both excellent and fitted to the McMillan SR5.4 which we sold at SBS 2014.

This 1990's Southampton built ribtec 535 had a bodged up transom and a badly repaired deck but not beyond saving.

I've quite a backlog of projects and hope this will be a rapid turn around.

[Daniel]

A Frame off.
Console out.

Here's the deck. You can just about make out the badly repaired deck/hull join around the front 1/3rd - 1/2 of the deck

[Daniel]

Deck up (it's in two pieces and perfectly dry)

[Daniel]

Bare hull.

All very solid in here. It's a completely sealed compartment and bone dry.

The underside of the plywood deck had been resin coated and I was pleasantly surprised the ply is 100% solid (it's 20 years old remember) and really no reason not to refit !

[Daniel]

The boatbuilder doing the work commented the layup used is extremely strong using a weave Matt as well as CSM. That's beyond my knowledge but can report more if people are interested.

He reinforced internally behind the top chine where the deck sits. This is badly cracked and badly repaired on the outside.

We flipped the hull over.

[Daniel]

Then this afternoon they have lightly ground out the previously repaired / cracked port chine and repaired with an epoxy filer.

On close inspection the stbd chine is suffering in an identical location in an identical way. Also ground out with a die grinder and epoxy filled.

(Sorry no photos of this yet)

[Daniel]

I must add I can't take any credit for this.

Apart from hired muscle pulling up the deck and flipping over the boat my shipwrite friends / colleagues / neighbours at Ramsgae are doing the work.

I now need to make a decision. Opinions invited but need to decide in next 12 hours and work commences at 9am !!

The hull appears to be previously painted. Possibly from new.

The chine repairs will be obvious. We could flo-coat, and live with them.

Or shall we rub down whole hull & key up and 2-pack paint ?

Perhaps antifoul the hull ?

I really can't decide.

[biffer]

Do the repairs as best you can then have a good look at it, my personal opinion would be paint at the last result


Sent from my iPad using RIB Net

[Daniel]

Hey biff. Do you mean last resort, IE explore all other options first?

Thks for input.

[chris.moody]

If I am buying a boat and its painted, I'm thinking why and what repairs are hidden under that paint. So I think painting will affect the resale value. Also a painted hull is higher maintenance than gelcoat as eventually the paint will need to be redone.

[Daniel]

Yes.

But this is a bit different - I not hiding anything, I'm posting photos on the Internet of the work that's done !!

I share the same opinion but don't see that this small hull (not worth a fortune when done) justifies the effort / cost of trying to get a perfect gel coat finish.

Hmm...

[chris.moody]

Sorry missed the fact it's already painted, are you stripping off the existing paint?

[chris.moody]

I know you are not hiding anything but a prospective buyer that does not know you may be worried about what's underneath that paint.

Just a thought, how about coppercoat for below the waterline?

[bedajim]

Have you got somewhere warm & dry where you can paint it ?

[Daniel]

Chris, yes if it were for me coppercoat for sure.

In reality I want to recover my donation to McMillan plus costs to do this and probably pass this on as an unfinished project. I've a lot of projects que'ed up and need to make space for more !!

Budget therefore pretty essential as ideally I don't want to be out of pocket but on the flip side someone will want a cheap project to continue on with...

[Daniel]

Originally Posted by bedajim

Have you got somewhere warm & dry where you can paint it ?

Yes.

We've decided to key up for refinishing of some sort. I just think it'll spoil the job to leave the repair obviously showing (and no way will we match gel or paint colour).

I'm thinking we might have a go at re-gel'ing. A buyer has contacted me (Paul from the other thread) so if he's keen it depends on his budget to some extent !

It occured to me this is an opportunity to change the colour too...

[Daniel]

Here she is. Half prep'ed. Few small previous gel repairs (in white).

[Daniel]

Here's the epoxy'ed chine area which was starting to crack the gel as a result of deck movement.

[biffer]

I'm doubtful that just epoxy will stop the cracks come back