A new lick of paint

This weekend was about getting the trim/tilt system all up and running again. The actual problem had been cured a couple of weeks ago, now it was a case of putting it back together again.



A sheered off bolt (from the previous owners) had to be extracted. My Dad and his good friend sorted this out last week, with the use of some very hard drills. This weekend, the hole was re-threaded and a new bolt was used.



We also took some time out to give the whole trim/tilt system a bit of a paint.



With a little bit of wiggling, the steering wheel eventually came off, as did the radio. These will both now be replaced with new items (just bought a radio off my mate for £30). The marine radio and antenna were also removed, and will now be sold to make funds for the rest of the boat!

Engine removal - Finding out I'm not quite as 'man' as I previously thought!

It was finally time to do the big job that we had been putting off until we got some nice weather. Strange that we chose to do it on a rainy day then, but at least I had a 37% effective cover to keep putting on the boat during the spells of downpour.

We collected the boat from my Nanna's drive in the morning, and towed it back to my Dad's drive and garage. We thought this would be a good opportunity to finally see the engine running and pumping water, so we connected the hose up to it, connected the battery, turned the key, and...Nothing. I figured the best way to approach this would be to go and make a pot of tea, and let Dad have a look for the problem! Eventually he found a frayed wire going into the solenoid, and upon replacing this, the engine started.

However, it seemed to run extremely lumpy, and coughed and spluttered quite a lot. This wasn't how it ran a few weeks ago! After making another pot of tea, Dad discovered a bad connection into one of the spark plugs - the engine had been misfiring. All this really needed was a trim at the end and a bit of a clean up.

We then broke some kind of seal/o-ring on the hydraulic cylinder using for titling the engine (turning a screw in it allows the fluid to flow so the engine can be moved by hand). This then proceeded to leak hydraulic fluid all over us. It looked nice though, sort of like red wine.

The prop was then removed as it had began making a slightly uneasy noise as it span. This turned out to be grainy grease and dirt around the rim of the prop. Probably due to the fact that it is also the engine's exhaust. We cleaned it up, but I'm guessing it's just going to get the same again until it's had some decent usage and a good blast out.

Right, 2 hours work done, and the boat was at the stage I assumed it was at when I picked it up in the morning, minus one gasket and some hydraulic fluid. Time for lunch!

Now to remove the engine. As expected, this was bolted on with lovely steel nuts and bolts which, whilst probably all looked nice and shiny a couple of years ago, were now rusted firmly in place. Six of them altogether. However, rather surprisingly, the top 4 weren't too difficult to remove. The bottom two posed more of a problem. Especially as the bolts used were about 6 inches long, and the only thing small enough to get at them with was a pathetic little spanner. Still, with a little gentle persuasion, they came off. Obviously, in keeping with the spirit of the boat, there was a piece of rotted, non-water-resistant wood also held on by these bolts, which came off too.

The engine was now just held on by two brackets at the top, and bonded (with another piece of rotted wood) to the outside of the boat with a white resin stuff.

Dad said that two people could lift his old Mercury 50hp engine. So we figured we could lift this...My god! How this is ridiculously heavy!!!!!!! After 10 minutes of struggling, we managed to lift it off the boat (rotted wood attached), and lay it on the floor. I've got a funny feeling it might be staying there forever!



It didn't take long to sort out the problem with the trim/tilt system - from removing the engine it was now clear that a wire going into the motor was a bit dead. This was fixed, and the trim/tilt mechanism worked fine. Well, as fine as it could with half of it's hydraulic fluid missing. Fantastic.

So all in all we achieved what we had set out to do today, which was remove the engine and fix the trim/tilt. We just had a bit more fun along the way!

One more thing worth mentioning is that, upon removal of the engine, the transom had quite a few cracks along the top. It feels solid enough inside, but it is slightly worrying. Maybe this engine is slightly over sized for this boat? We're currently weighing up our options with this. Is it worth putting some extra work in to further strengthen it? Hmmm...

Win or rust!

Today I decided to have a go at removing the side panels on the inside of the boat. However, a try it was as they didn't feel like coming off. I'm starting to notice a pattern with everything on this boat - it all seems to be held together with steel bolts which are now rusted firmly in place! Since I didn't have the tools to hand or the Dad with me to assist, I figured this should be a job for another day.







I then had a go at t-cutting the windscreen, trying to remove some of the small scratches on the surface. This didn't go too well either, as it could do with a lot more hard work, and frankly, it was too cold and I wanted to go home.



My least productive day so far? Most probably.

Named and shamed

In the neverending quest to find out what boat I have, my Dad has found one exactly the same on Ebay. Not much information is known about this either, but apparently it is a Fletcher.

My knowledge of Fletchers is quite good from the late 70s onwards, so it must be a bit older than that. I must say, she's aged very well.

Seat removal and carpet clean

It's been a couple of weeks since I'd so much as seen the boat, but with some nice sunny weather, and no bloody dog show to go to like last weekend, today I set about a doing a few tasks.

The main priority is still generally giving the boat a good clean, and today I wanted to set about the carpet. Especially the area in between the two rear seats. As you can see in the below pic, it's quite grubby!



The easiest way to do this was by using a scrubbing bush with hot water and washing up powder, and then blasting it with the pressure washer. At least that was the plan - first the front seats would have to come out to make space...

I'd sort of wanted to remove these seats anyway, as the wood they were mounted on didn't look too healthy. In truth it was a bit of a bodge job. Removing these seats was fairly painless however, just six screws underneath the base cushion holding them onto the wood.



The aim was to get the wood base plates off today as well, but they were so rotted in place I decided to wait a while. I may have to get a saw to them anyway, and creating saw dust when I'm about to get everywhere wet probably wasn't a good idea! So they would have to stay for now...



After this I gave the boat a big clean with the pressure washer. It now looks a lot better.

I've also made the decision this week to go with the two seat seats at the rear, rather than the planned bench seat. The areas that support the seats could be structual, so it's probably not a good idea to remove them to make a seat! Plus they make nice storage compartments for my sandwiches.

I've also given the seats a decent clean with soapy water now they are out. The wood in the seats is rotting in a few places, so it may have to be replaced. Hopefully the clean I've just given them won't speed along the rotting process!

And since I never posted the picture on the last update, here is the boat looking proud without it's crap name.

A good Spring clean. If Spring means standing in the cold, freezing your b*llocks off, whilst peeling at vinyl letters

Today I spent the day giving the boat a good clean. It's no longer minging to walk or sit in, it's actually quite nice. I've also drained pretty much all of the water from under the floor by standing with the front of the boat held high for about 5 mintues!

I also had the chance to take a few pictures, including a close up of the name before I got rid of it. It took a good half hour to remove it from both sides and the transom, but with good use of a hot air paint-stripper and some thinners, all is gone (obviously I took the pictures before this - my tired hands were in no state to hold a camera afterwards). It looks quite good, and it's quite hard to see where the name ever was.

We've come up with a list of what should be done with the boat:

New rollers for the trailer - The current ones are damaged and mishaped
New cover - Both one for the engine and boat, as at the moment, the cover is slightly too small
New steering wheel - The current one is badly rusted
New rear seats - Rather than simply re-covering the rear seats, it's probably better to make new ones. I'm undecided yet as to whether I want a bench seat or to keep the two rear seats idea
Fix the engine trim/tilt - This is more one for Dad than me, as I have no idea. But yeah, it needs fixing
Weld trailer - A few bits that need re-welding. Again one for Dad
Paint trailer - Including a good amount of rust treatment
New dash/side panels - Rather than recovering the current ones (the wood is a little rotten), it's probably best we make new ones from marine ply. I'm currently in two minds as to whether I would like to cover this or just varnish the wood
Speedometer - Hasn't got one at the minute
New speakers - Being a bit of an audio engineer, the current poor quality, one speaker set up offends me quite a lot
New stereo - This is only a maybe, as I sort of like the radio cassette. It reminds me of my first car, in a retro-tastic kind of way

My 'adventure' officially starts here

Today I picked the boat up. As my car doesn't yet have a towbar, my Dad drove up to collect the boat. The owners showed us the engine starting, and Dad checked the wheel bearings on the trailer. All seemed fine. I haven't really had chance to take any pictures, but I will do so next week.

Once I got it home I had a look around. It was quite minging inside, and had obviously been standing for quite a while. Lots of leaked petrol and stale water on the carpet. Plus lots of general crap such as empty WD-40 cans and frayed bits of rope. A cleat seemed to be missing from the front of the boat, but that was later located under one of the rear seats. Lots of water under the floor too, but most of that could be drained out by the drainage hole in the back.

Overall, the boat just needs a general clean, and a bit of modernising. I think I will recover/redo the dash and inner side panels at some point, and the rear seats definetely need replacing.

The trailer is also in need of a fair bit of welding and rust treatment, but it seemed to tow back absolutely fine.

My Dad also realised the meaning of the 'funny' name - "Pistol Knight". That would have to go!

It was late in the day at this point, and any cleaning would have to wait for the next weekend. My Nanna has kindly offerred to let me keep the boat on her drive, so it was off to hers to park it there for the week.

Right after I put some gaffa tape on the holes in the cover...

I've got one!

I've bought a boat! It's one I've been watching on Ebay for a few days, and after getting a bit drunk after one of my band's gigs last night, I came home and made an offer. Only to wake up this morning and realise that, I'd won it! Fantastic. Here are some pictures from the listing.

I don't know the make or model of the boat, but for the tidy sum of £1000 I'm fairly pleased with my purchase. Especially as it has a 70hp, 2-stroke Johnson outboard. This should really fly when I get it on the water! It's from a place in Anderton, Cheshire called Soot Hill Motorcycles. I believe somebody used it as a part exchange on a motorbike. Although I'd rather have the boat myself...

It is in need of some work however. Here's the description as it appears on the listing:

For sale is this 15ft speed boat with fiberglass hull. It has fitted the extremely powerful 70hp johnson seahorse engine (3 cylinder, 2 stroke) the engine starts and runs fine on all 3 cylinders.It has both forward and reverse gears on front controls with remote electronic power tilt/trim.It also has a recently fitted NASA marine offshore radio with distress function. The boat is also fitted with a cassette radio.Both radios have independent airials. On the front panel of this boat you will find the electronic bilge pump controls with both auto and manual functions.Under the front panel is the fire extinguisher.The fuel tank is a 22 liter portable type filled with fresh fuel and quality marine 2 stroke oil. Also fitted to the boat is a tow poll for use with skis, wake boards, doughnuts etc.The fiberglass hull is in good solid condition, with no obvious major damage or repairs. The trailer that the boat sits on includes, a light board,jockey wheel and working mechanical winch. Please note that this boat has come to us in part exchange against a motorcycle and appears not to have been used for a while, as such it may need a few minor repairs, a general service, and a general check over. In the rear of the boat is a 12v car type battery that will need charging or replacing. The power tilt has worked in the past but need attention (possibly the switch). please note that one trailer mudguard,although functional, may need to be replaced. One tyre has some cracking but does hold air. The trailer itself tows well staying straight and stable. The engine can be seen running by hooking up to a battery with jump leads. It also comes with a long length of water hose, I imagine this is for flushing or cooling the engine whilst out of the water. Please note that the engine has been started by us for a maximum of 20 seconds, then turned off as these engines can not be run for extended periods out of the water. With this boat comes a flourescent prop cover and a very thick and comprehensive operators manual

I'm going to pick it up next Sunday (Forest and Derby play the next Saturday, so I couldn't possibly miss that).

Dreaming of a life on the sea

Hello all, and welcome to my little blog.

I've been looking for a speed boat for a few months now. I've only been after a small one, as I live in the Midlands and it won't be used every weekend. However, the main reason is so that I can take it to Torbay for a couple of weeks every year. I've spent summer holidays there for over 20 years of my 25 on this planet. My Dad used to have a Shetland 535 which he took down there every year. Now I want a boat which I can take down. Abeit, a bit of a smaller one that someone as incapable as me can use.

I'm no stranger boating on the sea however. Whilst I was growing up my family had an 8-ft inflatable dingy with a Yamaha 5hp engine. That engine could stand for a year and still start. My car stuggles to start if its left standing for more than a day.

Boats I'm looking at are generally in the 14-15 ft range, with preferably a 50hp + engine. A Fletcher or a Glastron would be nice, but as long as it works, I don't really mind.