Professional restorers

General chat about boats
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rme_01
Posts: 74
Joined: Thu Sep 02, 2010 4:57 pm

Professional restorers

Post by rme_01 »

I am looking for a professional for some advice and work on my vintage 14. I am loathe to do this myself as it lies beyond my skills and I don't think this is the boat to experiment on! Any recommendations? I am based on the Welsh borders (near Hay) so ideally Midlands or South.
Nessa
Posts: 2290
Joined: Sat Sep 27, 2008 3:16 pm
Location: East Angular

Re: Professional restorers

Post by Nessa »

My 14 is down at Chris Somners in Poole. It's taking a while, but he is doing a great job.
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davidh
Posts: 3166
Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2005 10:43 am
Location: Ventor Isle of Wight

Re: Professional restorers

Post by davidh »

As Nessa has said, Chris S down at Poole does a very good job and can be recommended.

Nearer to you is Phil 'Dirty Hands' in the Stafford/Litchfield area who has a number of superb merlin rocket restorations to his credit and might be well worth talking too.

D
David H
Michael Brigg
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Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2007 7:11 pm
Location: Gosport, UK

Re: Professional restorers

Post by Michael Brigg »

I am a great believer in getting a professional, or an expert, to do jobs that are outside your comfort zone, however there is a (sometimes) unpleasant price to pay.

It is vital that you are very specific about what you want to have done.

This especially applies to jobs in which a significant amount of preparation and finishing is required.

You can almost certainly strip or paint the boat yourself, but remember these simple tasks are without doubt the most time consuming aspects of any work. Stripping needs lots of hard labour, and may keep the boat in the workshed an inordinately long time. Varnish (or paint) needs numerous coats, each of which must be carefully prepared, the surface being sanded, cleaned, dried, then masked , paint applied, dried and then the whole process repeated six or seven times.

This is not a problem in your own garage, as it, and your time is free, (at least it is to you, though SWMBO may not agree!)

However, every hour in the workshop is money, and time spent drying paint costs as much as skilled carpentry in this respect. Even the unskilled labour of moving your boat out to a store while another job is done, will be costed to your account. (I speak here of my experience in using a boat yard, but any professional will have the same principles to stick to. Time is money!!

If you re using a professional, make sure he needs your boat "in the shed" so to speak, for the least time possible. Ask him is there is tedious preparation work that you can do, and make sure this is then taken out of the job manifest when you look at the estimate. (Remember the estimate may often omit, or potentially under estimate Time.)

Try to see if there are examples of his/her work elsewhere that you can look at.
Michael Brigg
chrismartin3583
Posts: 54
Joined: Mon Sep 19, 2011 9:03 pm

Re: Professional restorers

Post by chrismartin3583 »

As the Dinghytec side of Dirtyhands dinghies, I can say that if we can help you we would be pleased to.

Feel free to give me a call (07966 687 785) or Phil (07973 720 732)
Nessa
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Location: East Angular

Re: Professional restorers

Post by Nessa »

It was actually the stripping side of things with Agamemnon. I really didn't want to be sticking my scraper into that lovely woodwork.
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rme_01
Posts: 74
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Re: Professional restorers

Post by rme_01 »

Thanks for your comments. I certainly take on board comments about the cost of professional work (been there before!) but I think she is worth it, perhaps not in residual value terms but as an affair of the heart! Getting her sailing again is on my bucket list while the flesh is still just about willing! Generally she is in excellent condition (see
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/1015 ... 8734095905)
and whilst I am very happy doing finishing work I do need professional help with the following:

1. The forward tank top needs replacing (and foam buoyancy adding)
2. The fitting of the side tank tops is rather rough with blobs of epoxy filler - open them up to investigate, add foam buoyancy and replace.
3. Some tightening up of gunwale rivets
4. Re-silvering of some fittings

On the advice side there are a couple of issues. At some point in her career she was sanded with a disk sander with the tell tale marks (I am very fussy). She also leaks like a sieve with the oiled silk membrane long since gone. The leaking can be made manageable by drowning her but given that she is stored in dry conditions I am not happy with the idea of repeated dramatic changes in the moisture content and the strain this would impose on the fastenings. My thought at the moment is to strip and sand the exterior to reduce the disc markings a bit and then apply a saturating oil treatment (DEKS OLJE D1?) before refinishing. That said I am open to any advice short of epoxying her.

Thanks Chris re DirtyHands - I will call next week
Michael4
Posts: 504
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Location: West Sussex

Re: Professional restorers

Post by Michael4 »

I am a convert to the whole Owatrol D1 & D2 thing...either D1 followed by varnish (hard wearing), D1 followed by D2 (very, very slippy when wet) or just D1 by itself for floorboards etc.

The D1 wet on wet process is very satisfying to do but to be 100% honest I wonder just how far it soaks into the wood, indeed I wonder how far anything soaks into hardwoods (unless they are already rotten!)

I read somewhere not to use D1 on ply...can't remember where I got this, dunno if it is still current but it stopped me using it on the Merlin.

Word of warning, D1/D2 softens certain caulks and sealants, it takes an age to dry over Sikaflex for example, neither is it cheap.

Having said all that, I think it is a great solution and easy to touch up and maintain. I have just finished doing the inside of another clinker boat that has been out of the water for over 10 years using D1 plus D2. In retrospect I could have just used D1 and maybe sploshed some more around every couple of years.
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