Mission Imposible.....Keels

Starboard side keel before I started

Well is been just over two months since I last updated. This is due to things not going as fast as I like them to and lack of time by my part.  I must admit I was hoping to be further on with the project than I am right but alas I will update you now. So what have I been up to...

Starboard side keel halfway through using drill with wire brush attachment

Since my last update I have cleaned inside and out and it is looking nice and sparkling so far. I did have some photos of it looking nice but modern technology struck back and I lost them all when I updated my phone. A whole lot of my time has been spent trying to take these Keels back to bare metal and re paint. This has been a trail and error task on my part as I didn't really know what I was doing.

Starboard side keel "nicely polished!"

So first of all I attempted to take the keels back with a drill with a wire brush attachment. I spent one day attacking one side of the keel with this method. This had the great effect of polishing the rust and not actually getting rid of any of it. This was rather disheartening as you can imagine. I took some advice from someone down at the club and they recommended using and angle grinder.

I must admit that I thought this would be far too heavy for what I wanted to do so I was a bit nervous in trying this. Anyway, I thought I might as well give it a go so I took and angle grinder down and started. After about 10 min I was having some success but it still didn't seem to be bringing enough rust off. I sat and stared at the rusty keel for a few moments thinking if there was anything I could do. I had read on the net that sandblasting works but I was lacking funds and tools for a sandblaster.

Starboard side keel, painted with rust cure after chisling, angle grinder

Luckily while I was sat pondering someone suggested I hit it with a hammer! I laughed in disbelieve at first until he grabbed a hammer and started hitting my keel. The result was years worth of rust and paint was chipping off in big lumps revealing the bare metal I was hoping to get down to!. Genius I thought. so I set to destroying my keel with a hammer. after about 30minutes, my arm was getting tired and it didn't seem like I was making a huge amount of progress. Yes some chunks of rust was coming off but it was taking ages and it still looked tatty.

Port side keel, painted with rust cure after chisling, angle grinder

Back to the drawing board I went and then I remembered that I had an air compressor and some air chisels!. So I lugged all this gear down to the boat and set to work chiselling the rust off with the compress. It worked like a charm. it was like a hot knife going through butter. so after chiselling one side of the keel it still showed some service rust, so a go with the angle grinder got rid of the service rust and then a stint with the drill and wire brush polished it up nicely! as time was a ticking I didn’t want my hard work to go to waist I painted the polished side with some rust cure to protect it as I worked on the other sides.

15 hours later I has 2 nicely polished keels ready for primer. Two coats of primer later and my keels are complete and ready for painting.

Port side keel, coated in primer

Starboard side keel, coated in primer

Port side keel (underneigh), coated in primer

Starboard side keel (underneigh), coated in primer

Before i start photos...

Last night I went down to the club and paid my joining fees. The people seem really friendly which is cool and they are very knowledgeable so I’m sure I may be asking them advice. Apparently one of the chaps has just fitted an inboard engine to his yacht, so speaking to him to ask advice about my installation is going to be a must!

As an added bonus they have given me to code to gain access to the compound. I still have to wait two weeks until they fully make me a member but with this code it means I can get started on restoring the yacht! I was going to make a start on the keel this morning but as soon as I got there it started to rain! Typical!! Anyway, before the rain started I managed to get some pictures of it which you can see below:

It begins...

I am making this blog to record my progress on restoring a Leisure 22 Yacht that I purchased on a whim. This whole activity is new to me, I have never sailed before and I know nothing about boats. About 18months ago I went on a fishing trip out into the north sea on a charter boat with some work friends and after the trip we joke about owning our own boat and "living the dream" buying a boat and buggering off out to sea when ever we felt like.

This notion has been in the back of my mind since we first spoke about it and last week an opportunity came about for me to buy a yacht from my dad's friend. So here we are, I now own a yacht and I am frantically borrowing sailing books from my local library to gain some knowledge on what the hell I’m suppose to do.

So, now you've read the background I’ll bring you up to speed on the challenges I have to overcome. I have brought the yacht but I can't actually get access to start work on it yet because I have to join the yacht club where it is based. This has been a bit trickier than I first thought. Currently my application is pending and I have to wait a minimum of two weeks before I know if I’ve been accepted. If for some reason I am declined I will basically be screwed as I’ll have a yacht but no where to put it! 

Hopefully that won’t happen and I’ll be accepted and then I can start work bringing it to its forma glory. The yacht has been out of the water for the past year and it needs some work doing. There is not much that needs to be done but I might find more to do when I start work on it.

What work needs doing in no particular order is:

1) Roller reefing (this needs refitting to the boat along with the new forestay.)
2) Shroud resealing, (these need undoing and resealing to stop any water dripping into the cabin)
3) New anchor chain (the old chair is very rusty, replacing this will help keep the boat and me clean when lowering and raising the anchor)
4) Forestay needs repairing, the old one frayed and almost snapped last time the boat was sailed.
5) Keel needs grinding down, treating and repainting
6) Cleaning inside and out (jet wash and buffer the current paintwork)
7) Inside decor (The inside is very 1970's, it needs cleaning and I would like new curtains and reupholstered to suit my taste)
8) New battery fitting (old one is kaput)
9) Inboard motor (The yacht came with a 8hp Volvo inboard motor that has never been fitted, this is going to be optional in whether I try and fit the motor or not)
10) Antifouling (apparently I do this the day before its launched into the sea.
11) Repainting? (This is a maybe, currently the boat is half white and half sky blue. it does look alright but I think I would prefer it a royal blue with a red stripe where the water line is)
13) All wood fittings on the outside of the yacht need sanding down and restaining.
12) Spray Hood (like the inboard motor, the previous owner brought a spray hood for the yacht but never fitted it. This need making up and customising to fit the yacht)


So that’s what needs doing to the yacht before I can launch her. I've given myself until March next year to have all of this completed. I think it's doable and I’m itching to get down to the club and get started. I will post some pictures of her in its current state in the next few days and I will carry on reporting my progress through this project.

For now, here is a picture of what she used to look like in her forma glory.