We picked up this Whaler from one of our customers.
We decided to give it a full restoration and sell it in the spring. Its a 1980's vintage so not necessarily a "classic", but we decided to go that route with it anyway, based on how nice the last whaler we did. After grinding off a previous amateur paint job from the hull, we found several repairs that had been performed at some point in its long past. They were mostly intact, and the foam core was still dry, so we repaired or replaced any damaged areas with new glass and epoxy resin. Faired and filled where needed, and then applied several coats of AwlGrip High Build primer. After many, many, many hours of hand sanding (why do these boats have so many curves, and lumps and bumps?!), and fairing and filling where needed, AwlGrip 545 primer was applied over the whole boat. Top to bottom. Once wiped down and prepped the hull was sprayed with AwlGrip Snow White, and the interior was sprayed with AwlGrip Boston Whaler Blue. That's pretty much where we're at now. Our plan is to redo the non-skid areas with SeaDek "Teak", and replace the interior with an all new mahogany interior. New stainless fittings, new wiring, new helm and cable, new fuel tank, new rub-rail etc. etc. As well as a new trailer. On the rack we have a 2013 30HP Evinrude Etec with approx 40 hours on it that would look great on this hull. Anybody interested in purchasing this boat when its finished, please contact us. The new dashboard for this Hydrasport was made out of acrylic, as there was a substantial amount of material on the backside to keep it rigid and keep it from cracking. A new Garmin chartplotter/fishfinder and a Fusion stereo were installed. A little room was left up top for future expansion of an additional Garmin display.
In addition to the chartplotter a radar, satellite antenna, transducer and fuel flow sensor were installed. All the stainless screws were replaced with screws painted black with AwlGrip Super Jet Black, and a new acrylic dash was fabricated for the gauge cluster, where a lot of outdated gauges were removed. Spent some time redoing the brow, foredecks and sidedecks on my 23' SeaCraft Sceptre.
Removed all the hardware, rubrail cleats, etc. Filled all the holes with epoxy, and filled and faired any low spots or dings with 2 Part AwlFair. Primed with AwlGrip 545 and sprayed on a couple of coats of AwlGrip Cream. Re-did the non-skid with medium and fine Alexseal non-skid additive in Cream AwlGrip. In addition to many of our customers owning SeaCrafts, all of our staff owns them as well!
The HPBY family consists of two 23' center console inboards, one 23' Sceptre outboard, one 20' center console, and at one point even an 18' center console (now sold). Cold weather is upon us.
The boats are all wrapped, the shop is cleaned up, and now its time to hunker down for a few weeks with family and eat too much food. See you in 2020! This dashboard was custom made out of some 1/4" thick flat stock fiberglass panel.
We had to go this route because the new Garmin that we needed to fit left such a tiny amount of dash on top and bottom we were afraid with acrylic it would have been too thin, and would have just cracked. The fiberglass panel is much stronger and can be cut very thin without cracking. After everything was dry-fit it was sanded, filled and faired, primed with AwlGrip 545 and sprayed with AwlGrip Super Jet Black with a little bit of flattening agent to knock down some of the shine. Came out great! The original bottom on this 1979 23' SeaCraft was flaking, peeling and generally falling off in big chunks.
We ground and blasted off the many, many layers of bottom paint down to the original gelcoat. The entire hull was sanded with 80 grit, and any dings or scratched were faired and filled. She was in pretty good condition for being 40 years old, but there were definite signs that she had had some adventures in the past! After she was faired and filled, she was coated with Interlux Interprotect in alternating coats of gray and white, until a sufficient thickness of epoxy barrier coat had been built up. Then a coat of blue bottom paint and then a coat of black bottom paint were applied. She's now ready for another 40 years! This 1990's vintage 13' Boston Whaler belongs to one of our long time customers. He had always wished for the classic blue and white Whalers of his youth, so we recreated it for him.
All the hardware and woodwork was removed, the exterior and interior were prepped for paint with a thorough sanding, filling and fairing and several coats of AwlGrip 545 White Primer. Eventually several coats of AwlGrip Snow White were sprayed on the hull, and several coats of AwlGrip Boston Whaler Blue were sprayed on the interior. Non-Skid was applied in Boston Whaler Blue where appropriate. All new mahogany woodwork was purchased and installed, as well as a new rubrail, all new wiring, fuel tank, steering helm and cable, new stainless fittings, and brand new 30hp 4 stroke Suzuki outboard. Armstrong Bracket with lots of corrosion and peeling paint was removed from a 1979 23' Seacraft for a refresh.
The outboard was unrigged and placed on a rack, and then the bracket itself was unbolted and pried off the transom. After a thorough sandblasting, the bracket was washed and cleaned to remove debris and dust. Once dry any rough spots were sanded smooth, and then the bare aluminum was coated with Alumiprep 33 etching solution. After the Alumiprep process was complete and the bracket was dried again it was sprayed with Alexseal CorSpec 135 Zinc Chromate primer. Once the Zinc Chromate had cured it was then primed again with Alexseal 442 Epoxy Primer. Any filling and fairing was then done, and another coat of 442 Epoxy Primer was applied. Several coats of Alexseal Jade Mist were sprayed on as topcoat. Finally, the non-skid areas were taped off and non-skid was applied to the deck surfaces. A new Armstrong deck plate finished her off nicely. This Cape Dory 33 has been a long time resident of HPBY going back for decades.
It recently sold, and the new owner decided to take care of the varnish work, long neglected by the previous owner. All the teak on the boat was scraped down to bare wood, and then 6 coats of Cetol Natural and Gloss were applied. |
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