1978 Hourston Glascraft Restoration

[Iworkupnorth]

did you have your full information on this site what you did? I got to find it because I really like the approach you took and will help me out so much

December 5, 2021 - Cut the splashwell out today. Everything went well. Attached some pictures of the process. Now the fun part of removing all the wood lol. Its in surprising good shape for being 43 years old. the transom isn't completely rotten buy definitely has begun and is water soaked the top 6 inches or so.

 

[Iworkupnorth]

did you have your full information on this site what you did? I got to find it because I really like the approach you took and will help me out so much

December 5, 2021 - Cut the splashwell out today. Everything went well. Attached some pictures of the process. Now the fun part of removing all the wood lol. Its in surprising good shape for being 43 years old. the transom isn't completely rotten buy definitely has begun and is water soaked the top 6 inches or so.View attachment 72849

 

[Iworkupnorth]

December 5, 2021 - Cut the splashwell out today. Everything went well. Attached some pictures of the process. Now the fun part of removing all the wood lol. Its in surprising good shape for being 43 years old. the transom isn't completely rotten buy definitely has begun and is water soaked the top 6 inches or so.View attachment 72849

some more pics

 

[tyee604]

Hi ! have you seen my DE project boat
All my material are upgrades from original
It will never rot again
Hope this inspires you

Double Eagle 17' 6" I/O Project Boat

Hello ! New to the forum, Thanks for having me onboard, This forum has a wealth of info and great people to share and offer assistance, Gotta love it ! As the title says, I recently got a project boat, that needs a lot of work. Floors, Stringers & Transom, and a bunch of fiberglass work all...

www.sportfishingbc.com

Best of luck in your project

 

[tyee604]

I'm working outside and once I empty my tent garage (pic attached) I just may be able to tightly fit the boat in there. Plus I was thinking I would ruin my original metal rub rail. no way I wouldn't destroy it then it's a rubber one going on.

I have the same car canopy, check out my link for ideas

Double Eagle 17' 6" I/O Project Boat

Hello ! New to the forum, Thanks for having me onboard, This forum has a wealth of info and great people to share and offer assistance, Gotta love it ! As the title says, I recently got a project boat, that needs a lot of work. Floors, Stringers & Transom, and a bunch of fiberglass work all...

www.sportfishingbc.com

 

[tyee604]

Since your replacing transom
Have you thought about podding the boat ?
You will gain all the extra space of splash well
Food for thought

 

[tyee604]

I would use 1708 for the entire thing and use the lighter cloth only if you want to get a better finish for exposed areas. (in all my projects i have only used 1708, 1700 and matt) Of course, the supply chain is a mess right now so who knows what is even available. Wood is fine just make sure it's all sealed up with lots of resin and cloth. However, the boat isn't too big I would look at the cost of synthetic materials (Coosa, foam board, honeycomb). By far the biggest cost of this project will be time. Even if you spend 2x on the better core materials you would then have a boat that you could pass down to the next generation that will never rot. Water is tenacious and it always finds a way into carefully prepared wood layups. If I was worried about spending more on better materials then id probably re-consider owning an 18.5ft boat.

Going to be a fun project, fritz is right to leave 1-2" of the old stringer glass on each side of the core as a guide for the new stringers.

As per Myles post
I have the same philosophy as Myles on materials
I replaced wood stringers with foam & fiberglass
Plywood transom for Coosa
Plywood deck for Honeycomb
1708 Fiberglass & 1.5 oz CSM

 

[Iworkupnorth]

Since your replacing transom
Have you thought about podding the boat ?
You will gain all the extra space of splash well
Food for thought

I thought about it that extra space would be awsome but not sure of that extra weight further back if it will lift the front end up. it's already heavy in the butt. honda 115 weighs like 525lbs or something

 

[Dogbreath]

I thought about it that extra space would be awsome but not sure of that extra weight further back if it will lift the front end up. it's already heavy in the butt. honda 115 weighs like 525lbs or something

Never met anyone who regretted doing it although you are left with a boat than handles a bit differently.

 

[tyee604]

I thought about it that extra space would be awsome but not sure of that extra weight further back if it will lift the front end up. it's already heavy in the butt. honda 115 weighs like 525lbs or something

Pod adds flotation to account for weight of motor or motors
people say it handles like a longer boat

 

[Brando]

If you follow the keel you won’t be disappointed. I have an 18’ with raised bracket and am going to start on a new pod shortly. The stepped works ok if you have just the main motor but add a kicker, extra battery, downriggers, cannonballs and 2 days worth of beer and you’ll be better off with the extra flotation.

 

[steeler]

As per Myles post
I have the same philosophy as Myles on materials
I replaced wood stringers with foam & fiberglass
Plywood transom for Coosa
Plywood deck for Honeycomb
1708 Fiberglass & 1.5 oz CSM

I would recommend sticking with original materials or upgrading with better ply and yellow cedar stringers or better quality fir. These boats were designed for active core materials and with modern epoxy you can make a boat that will last forever without composites, they are a waste of money on boats that already lasted this long with poor workmanship and low quality materials on everything aside from the hulls. add an extra ply in the transom to bring it too 1.5 inches, fully encapsulate the stringers and you will have a superior boat to the original or possibly even a new one. Epoxy is what changes the game for the ability to make them last forever if done properly don't buy into the composite hype, they have their place just not on these old boats. Going from poly to epoxy when you rebuild is the only upgrade they need to make them last and you will save lots of money.

 

[myles]

If you follow the keel you won’t be disappointed. I have an 18’ with raised bracket and am going to start on a new pod shortly. The stepped works ok if you have just the main motor but add a kicker, extra battery, downriggers, cannonballs and 2 days worth of beer and you’ll be better off with the extra flotation.

yup, full planning is safer. Learned that the hard way if you add all the "good stuff"

 

[Iworkupnorth]

yup, full planning is safer. Learned that the hard way if you add all the "good stuff"

I love all this information it's so helpful. I'm looking to do this boat justice. I'm finding it hard to follow how I post on this site so I started doing little videos on you tube also. but will continue to post here. today just stated pealing the transon wood off. being careful and not rushing trough it. some is rotten and some is not so it's not too easy. slow and steady then I got rained out. Only 2 little videos so far but probably better than some pictures to get a good idea of the boat.

 

[Iworkupnorth]

I would recommend sticking with original materials or upgrading with better ply and yellow cedar stringers or better quality fir. These boats were designed for active core materials and with modern epoxy you can make a boat that will last forever without composites, they are a waste of money on boats that already lasted this long with poor workmanship and low quality materials on everything aside from the hulls. add an extra ply in the transom to bring it too 1.5 inches, fully encapsulate the stringers and you will have a superior boat to the original or possibly even a new one. Epoxy is what changes the game for the ability to make them last forever if done properly don't buy into the composite hype, they have their place just not on these old boats. Going from poly to epoxy when you rebuild is the only upgrade they need to make them last and you will save lots of money.

the transom is a 1.5 inches at the main part and looks 3/4 on the sides. I'm planning on marine grade ply on the back and Douglas fir for the stringers fully encapsulate everything in epoxy and 1908. was thinking of pl to set the strings but not sure. there's a pl out there that bonds we'll and stays flexible and I can fillet the sides pretty good prior to glassing.

 

[Iworkupnorth]

December 12, 2021-Just a little bit done today. Made another quick video.

 

[Iworkupnorth]

Okay,
I believe the exterior convex crown you are referring to is more than likely original. My Hourston had a bubble butt (so to speak).
This is only a recommendation as I'm not completely sure if your plan includes replacing the transom. Do it from the inside! Way more of a pain in the butt but less likely to wrack your hull (even though the chances are slim they do exist). I used internal shoring off the structure inside to hold the shape. I rebuilt my boat in stages: transom first, followed by Hourston's ridiculous keelson, inboard stringers then outboard stringers. Take lots of photos. Make a map of your floor. Make a map of anything you tear apart. I levelled my hull on jacks using a spirit level and ran a few snap lines and wrote down a whole pile of measurements and threw nothing out, that was cut out until the floor went back in.
I know..........ANAL!
But my boat rides great. And It's as straight as when it left the factory.
However I think you will also find out production boat hulls aren't that perfect either, but you can inadvertently put a rocker or hook in the hull and really F things up especially when you are fiddling close to the transom.
The pics below show the shoring and wedges I used to hold pressure on the plywood before it was glassed. Also my floor map is overboard and was done in a 1:10 scale so you can actually loft off the drawing using an engineers tape measure in tenths.

Again, you can do whatever you wish as long as it works. And have fun.

So is the back of your boat straight now or still have alpha curvature? also what's outboard stringers? They are inside the boat eh lol still learning the lingo.

 

[myles]

the transom is a 1.5 inches at the main part and looks 3/4 on the sides. I'm planning on marine grade ply on the back and Douglas fir for the stringers fully encapsulate everything in epoxy and 1908. was thinking of pl to set the strings but not sure. there's a pl out there that bonds we'll and stays flexible and I can fillet the sides pretty good prior to glassing.

do you mena 1708? I'd use that.

If you are going to use wood make sure it never can get wet. all penetrations need to be drilled out and backfilled with epoxy. Sounds simple but its a bit*h of a job. Would be very much coosa for your project, then you can drill holes wherever nothing is required.

 

[Iworkupnorth]

do you mena 1708? I'd use that.

If you are going to use wood make sure it never can get wet. all penetrations need to be drilled out and backfilled with epoxy. Sounds simple but its a bit*h of a job. Would be very much coosa for your project, then you can drill holes wherever nothing is required.

yes 1708. I'll try and make some sort of heated set up out of the rain before I start dry fitting with any wood

 

[gunnerlove]

do you mena 1708? I'd use that.

If you are going to use wood make sure it never can get wet. all penetrations need to be drilled out and backfilled with epoxy. Sounds simple but its a bit*h of a job. Would be very much coosa for your project, then you can drill holes wherever nothing is required.

Coosa. A wonder material intended to replace plywood that is not as strong as plywood but easily exceeds 4x the cost.