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Blog 5 - The Refit Plan

The yacht refit plan

Why did I buy a steel yacht? For two reasons, first the same yacht in fibreglass would have cost a hell of a lot more money. Second reason, I feel more secure in a steel yacht where we are going. Where are we going? We are going on a diving and tropical island safari. Where there is great diving there are reefs or shipwrecks as is the case in Truck Lagoon Micronesia. We stand a better chance if we run into a sea container or a reef with a steel hull than a plastic one.

Now the problem with steel is it rusts and steel boats rust from the inside out. When I first looked at Diomedea I was impressed at how good the hull looked compared to the Roberts 38 I was thinking of buying. However Diomedea does have some light (I hope light) rust under the motor and in the bilge. It is far too awkward to get to the rust with the motor in place so it’s coming out. The motor as well needs repainting, due to the yacht being closed up over last summer with water in the bilge. The water had condensed onto the motor and the paint has come off in areas. Other than the engine room there are voids under the shower and head unit that I can’t see into and tell what going on in there. Again there’s a section under the floor that I can see but can’t get to that needs sandblasting and painting.

The point is this, I could do this job fast and just put humpty back together again but rust never sleeps and in a couples years she could crack her shell and down would go yacht, skipper and crew. Paint technology has finally risen to the demand for long lasting and tuff anticorrosive protections for metal boat in salt water. With the advent of two pack epoxy paints. When Diomedea was originally launched in 2000 it is questionable if epoxy was used. The paint above the water line on the hull looks in good nick for its age. But inside the bilge and belly the paint has failed and probably due to the fire. I am going to do the job right by grit blasting (sandblasting) back to near white metal and painting with epoxy mastic which should last ten years if done correctly.

I have done my research with paints and supplies; I spoke with the Boat Paint store in Freo and International Paint in Henderson. The men I spoke to at both places said the exact same thing “use epoxy mastic everywhere”. I am extremely lucky to have at my disposal a complete sandblasting unit. I say sandblasting but will use garnet supplied by GMA for the blasting media as sand is high in silica and very dangerous when breathed in.

Before I blast and paint I am going to rerun the cockpit drains at they are currently two solid steel pipes running from the cockpit floor strait down to the bottom of the hull. If one of these pipes was to rust out I would have no way of stopping a leak. So next up will be replacing all skin fittings and replacing those pipes with a safer system. Then stripping out a section at a time of the interior of the yacht to blast, paint and put back together again before moving onto the next section. This way I won’t get overwhelmed and lost in the project by having no interior left. The interior blasting and painting is going to be one of the biggest jobs and most important. After the first day or two I will have a much better handle on how long this refit is going to take. I would like to say three month of hands on work spread over the next six months.

I am very lucky to have two industry professionals coming to see Diomedea and giving me their expert opinions. These pros include someone from International Paint and a Naval Architect. Information handed down to me from the original owner is that Diomedea does not sail very well running strait down wind. Then a week ago a boat surveyor who knows a person that sailed a Boro yacht back from Bali. Said to the surveyor that sailing head on into the Western Australian southerly was virtually impossible. So hopefully with the aid of a Naval Architect we can design a better ruder. Both the previous owner and the Naval Architect said to add more weight to the keel by simply welding more steel onto the base of the keel. This is cheap and fairly easy.

It would be easy for me to go on writing as there is so much to tell. I will stop before you lose interest and my plane is about to land! What I did a few weeks ago was break up the refit work into stages to put order to the project. I will add the first stage bellow for you to read. I may make available the whole refit plan on the site for those that are willing to register and sign into see it.

Time to get down and get dirty so we can go sailing soon (I am editing this in the taxi on the way home from airport hope you like it?).

Major work list

Stage 1 (Structural)

• Start motor, remove cockpit floor then motor
• Remove sea cocks and skin fittings
• Cut console drain pipes and weld up holes
• Remove parts of floor blast and paint inside bilge and belly
• Run new exhaust port
• Service, paint and reinstall motor
• Refit console flooring
• Insulate interior hull

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