laminaytrap
Cadet
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2019
- Messages
- 9
Good evening everyone,
I am looking for some help with repairs to my 17' J-Craft, mostly if anyone has knowledge on how these boats were constructed to begin with. I do not have a year/rating plate/HIN for this boat.
TLDNR - Need to know if the hull is cored / what the floor should be and if I need to cut the upper deck from the hull.
I picked up the boat last spring pretty cheap and I knew the guy wasn't being honest, but the risks were low, so I took it home, knowing that I would need to do the transom and some various repairs to the boat. Came with a trailer (tilt/detachable tongue, maybe originally for a sailboat?) with new bearings/wheels and tires. Complete 140HP V4 Looper and a 3-Blade Stainless prop. I did a water pump and general cleanup, replaced fuel lines from tank, quick clean of the carbs, and mounted a RACOR fuel filter/water separator. Got it running ok, VRO was not included - mixing fuel, and found that the thermostat springs had failed. Regardless, worked well enough for some day trips, skiing and pulling 50+mph across the lake. Seemed a bit slow and was nearly impossible to dial in the trim with the sloppy transom and failing trim motor, and the boat always seemed a bit heavier than it should have been. I figured there were some soft spots and/or I couldn't get all the water out of it for whatever reason.
The transom was obviously patched up by an amateur, but the flex was reasonable and it had an aluminum riser/stiffener installed over the repair, which now I can see was doing essentially nothing. The inside of the transom was all new glass, painted, floors all has decent looking glass, and there were big gussets to the floor and there were large transom reinforcement rods to the motorwell, which was sketchy, but made me feel like the motor couldn't just fall right off the boat.
Anyhow, the goal was to put some time in this winter and get the transom fixed up and evaluate everything else, but with the snow, maintaining two properties, cold garages, new baby... well now its spring and I am starting!
I ordered enough epoxy and glass to build up a new transom, but due to the geometry of the rear of the boat I will probably have to uncap it. I assumed (incorrectly) that it would have been assembled with adhesive (I uncapped a 16' Doral Deep Hull one time) but it seems that it has been glassed around the inside of the joint. Do I have to cut around the entire boat to take it apart?
2nd part is that I started looking at the floor a little more critically: took the seats out, pulled the carpets and now it is obvious that a repair has been done to the entire floor. I pulled the hatch that covers the skeg fasteners and to my surprise not only did I find liquid water (boat was drained and garaged since November) but the plywood cover fell to veneer when it hit the floor and I found not one, but two 3/4"+ layers of floor in the boat!
Questions now mostly revolve around what should be there (one floor?) and if the bottom hull is cored with plywood or something else. If the hull is not cored then it should be straightforward to pull the cap, and cleanup the shell with a new floor. If the whole thing is cored, I don't know if I have the ambition :/
Thanks in advance if anyone has insight on this setup!
Jon
I am looking for some help with repairs to my 17' J-Craft, mostly if anyone has knowledge on how these boats were constructed to begin with. I do not have a year/rating plate/HIN for this boat.
TLDNR - Need to know if the hull is cored / what the floor should be and if I need to cut the upper deck from the hull.
I picked up the boat last spring pretty cheap and I knew the guy wasn't being honest, but the risks were low, so I took it home, knowing that I would need to do the transom and some various repairs to the boat. Came with a trailer (tilt/detachable tongue, maybe originally for a sailboat?) with new bearings/wheels and tires. Complete 140HP V4 Looper and a 3-Blade Stainless prop. I did a water pump and general cleanup, replaced fuel lines from tank, quick clean of the carbs, and mounted a RACOR fuel filter/water separator. Got it running ok, VRO was not included - mixing fuel, and found that the thermostat springs had failed. Regardless, worked well enough for some day trips, skiing and pulling 50+mph across the lake. Seemed a bit slow and was nearly impossible to dial in the trim with the sloppy transom and failing trim motor, and the boat always seemed a bit heavier than it should have been. I figured there were some soft spots and/or I couldn't get all the water out of it for whatever reason.
The transom was obviously patched up by an amateur, but the flex was reasonable and it had an aluminum riser/stiffener installed over the repair, which now I can see was doing essentially nothing. The inside of the transom was all new glass, painted, floors all has decent looking glass, and there were big gussets to the floor and there were large transom reinforcement rods to the motorwell, which was sketchy, but made me feel like the motor couldn't just fall right off the boat.
Anyhow, the goal was to put some time in this winter and get the transom fixed up and evaluate everything else, but with the snow, maintaining two properties, cold garages, new baby... well now its spring and I am starting!
I ordered enough epoxy and glass to build up a new transom, but due to the geometry of the rear of the boat I will probably have to uncap it. I assumed (incorrectly) that it would have been assembled with adhesive (I uncapped a 16' Doral Deep Hull one time) but it seems that it has been glassed around the inside of the joint. Do I have to cut around the entire boat to take it apart?
2nd part is that I started looking at the floor a little more critically: took the seats out, pulled the carpets and now it is obvious that a repair has been done to the entire floor. I pulled the hatch that covers the skeg fasteners and to my surprise not only did I find liquid water (boat was drained and garaged since November) but the plywood cover fell to veneer when it hit the floor and I found not one, but two 3/4"+ layers of floor in the boat!
Questions now mostly revolve around what should be there (one floor?) and if the bottom hull is cored with plywood or something else. If the hull is not cored then it should be straightforward to pull the cap, and cleanup the shell with a new floor. If the whole thing is cored, I don't know if I have the ambition :/
Thanks in advance if anyone has insight on this setup!
Jon
