Almost finished repairs

Some of the last of the welds to the chine plates are being completed.







Time to go above decks and make repairs around the cockpit area.
This required a curve coaming to be cut off each side and the plate underneath to be replaced.

The rudder reinforcing

It became apparent that the rudder tube had not been well strengthened. There was no strengthening aft of the tube or to the sides. There was also already a crack in the weld aft of the rudder tube.
Our solution was to install 20mm plates diagonally back to the L-section frame just aft of the rudder tube. When the hull plate was back in place there was also a 10mm "stress plate" welded externally around the rudder tube extending about 100mm all around.

Repairs half way there

These shots give you an idea of how much had to be cut out before putting her back together again. Most of the bottom plate aft of the fuel tanks had to come out, and about half of the bottom 2 chines.

Get the Pros in for the big jobs

On the 6th of March the team arrived to carry out the major hull repairs. From left to right in the photo are Graham O'Donnell, Pete Hollows (Ox), and Merv. I had been introduced to them through a friend (Kim, Marine Engineer), who had worked with these guys on some major ship repair jobs. I was extremely lucky to find guys with this level of experience and expertise.
As you can see they proceeded to take out large chunks of the original hull plate. Over a period of 3 and a half weeks they had replaced all the rotten sections.

The state of decay

Because she had been out in the weather for a number of years (not sure exactly how many), there were a number of areas where the steel had rusted right through or was so pitted or scaled that it was very thin and needed replacing. This photo shows a coaming in the cockpit area where water, dirt, leaves etc had settled for long periods of time and rotted right through the deck. There were a number of areas on the side decks, e.g. at each stantion that were in a similar state. Side deck repairs got high priority to stop water entering the boat everytime it rained, so that I was constantly pumping her out until the decks were repaired.

In this photo you can see how the cockpit well had rusted out. It had been built with no cockpit drains. So it would have filled with water fairly early in the piece.

In this shot you can see daylight through the hull where the fuel and water tanks met the side of the hull. The tops of the built-in tanks were badly pitted with rust, and where the filler and vent pipes met the tanks, these had completely parted company. The tank tops had been cut out prior to this photo.

Here again you can see daylight through the hull where water had sat between ribs and stringers etc. There was also damage from the outside where there had obviously been some form of timber against the hull (part of a cradle?) and had been constantly wet.

Working Access

Once she was home the first priority was to establish good access by way of steps and ramps to avoid having to use ladders etc. Also covers to keep out the wheather so that there would not be any problems working all year round. You should be able to see, from the pictures, how I can come out the back door of my garage/workshop, up the steps to the water tank, and acroos the ramp onto the deck of the boat.
Some neighbors started calling me Noah because it looked like I had set up a ramp to lead the animals in two by two.

Transported to Russell

After a couple of hours loading her up and preparing her for the trip to her new home she is first transported to Opua to meet the car ferry. However, because of weight (around 15 tons), length and ground clearance of the trailer we are unable to drive her onto the car ferry at anything other than a full tide. The angle of the ramp onto the drive-on ferry being too steep at any other state of tide.

Early the next day, when the tide is full, across on the ferry she comes and arrives in Russell. The photo shows her being backed into our driveway.

Background

We had a 32 foot yacht (Cavalier 32), and although it was a nice little boat, and sailed very well, we wanted a little more comfort. Our main source of enjoyment was not sailing for sailings sake but spending a few days at a time, anchoring in a different bay each night, enjoying a nice meal and a bottle of wine at anchor. We found that the cockpit was too small, and the double V-berth too small and uncomfortable.

I had also just completed the renovation of a relocated Villa in Kerikeri over the previous 10 months. I wanted a "project boat", something that I could move home and do a re-fit to suit our needs. I was thinking something in the order of 36-40 feet. However, while searching TradeMe for likely boats, in need of some TLC, I came across this 52 foot steel yacht that was in pretty bad shape, but really cheap.

Briefly, it had been built in a shed in Onehunga (Auckland). Completed were hull, decks, stern tube, engine beds, fuel & water tanks, and interior steel bulkheads. At this stage the owner disappeared, leaving large debts behind. The boat was moved out of the shed and dumped alongside and left to the mercy of the weather. The boat builder (the guy owed all the money) approached the courts to allow him to sell the boat to recover what money he could, but this process took several years as nobody was able to contact the "owner". And so the boat sat and rotted.

Eventually the boat was sold by tender to a guy in Dargaville, who for one reason or another decided to sell her a few months later. I spotted her listed on TradeMe, and after some negotiations and arrangements with the boat haulage company she arrived home to Russell on January 22nd 2006.