The 'Hospitality Inns' mission!

larby · 06-10-2008, 08:16 PM

As everyone knows, i've bought the 4 litre cat that used to be hospitality inns from Martin 'Pash 1'...

I've bought it as a winter project. I don't have a big budget to blow on her and i'm not the most experienced person in the world when it comes to rebuilding boats, but i am a bit of a perfectionist so i'm going to the best job of her that i possibly can!

I bought her with a single 300 promax, but plan to re-rig her with twins, I'm currently looking at a set of yamaha 225's.
Colour scheme will most likely be changed to purple, and if i'm lucky i'm aiming for her to be capable of 100mph... with a tail wind!

Any advice or old photos from anyone would be muchly appreciated, I'm going to post step by step photos of the build for everyone to see, starting with the ripping apart stage i'm part way through already... It's been interesting!

Cheers, James

Pash 1 · 06-10-2008, 08:19 PM

Well done james,
Im sure you will do her proud

Keep us upto date with pickies - would have loved to do it myself - but time and D2S waits for no man.....

Cant wait to see her back to her FULL potential

Good Luck

larby · 06-10-2008, 08:21 PM

Cheers Martin, I've found some shocking bits so far... Will have the pics up in a min!

Pash 1 · 06-10-2008, 08:24 PM

Steady Tiger.... Dont Break my heart..........

Was she "That Bad".... God I feel guilty now (There's a change)

larby · 06-10-2008, 08:29 PM

You could put it that way! I don't think the outboard would've stayed on the back for another season for starters!

larby · 06-10-2008, 08:34 PM

Well to get things started on a good note, here she is arriving from condor! I felt like a 5 year old on christmas eve waiting for her to appear!!

larby · 06-10-2008, 08:48 PM

Got the motor off the back and removed the lovely 6mm steel gill bracket. I forgot to take a photo of this, will take one tomorrow, it's bent from the torque of the engine. The engine was fixed to the bracket by 4 12mm bolts, all were loose enough to be turned by hand but the threads were too rusted for them to undo, had to grind them all... Also removed the stainless plates to either side.

I was then faced with this... Some lovely fibreglassing! When i pressed it, water dribbled out! mmmmmmmmm......

larby · 06-10-2008, 08:57 PM

It seemed that someone had constructed a thick block from layers of ply and then glassed it to the back, or that it was eld in place by the 14 12mm bolts that held the gill bracket on.
Once i'd got the bracket off, i gave it a pry with a crowbar and it didn't budge. On closer inspection i found some screws sticking out from the inside so figured it was screwed in place.
I started with the top part, removing all of the glass from the outside to find it was screwed onto the boat by no less than 2 wood screws!
Never fear though, there were 2 coach screws holding the two bits of 2x4 together, what a relief!

larby · 06-10-2008, 08:59 PM

Once i'd got the variety of screws out i gave it another prying and it started to budge. Turned out there were some dowels in there too! Felt like i was getting somewhere now!

larby · 06-10-2008, 09:06 PM

Having got the top half off, i thought i knew what to expect from the bottom half so i set about removing all the glass again. This time it literally fell off.

The ply behind it was sopping wet and soft enough to push a screwdriver into by hand. The first photo shows it with the glass off, the different coloured square in the top left is from the bit i cut off the day before that's had time to dry a bit... the colour difference shows how wet the rest is!

I could now see 4 coach screws, one in each corner, which seemed to be holding the bottom half on/together. I got these out with a ratchet, leaving what i thought was a big block of ply on the back of the boat acting as a spacer...

gazza · 06-10-2008, 09:08 PM

Pash
you've all quiet on us!!

Pash 1 · 06-10-2008, 09:12 PM

Got to be honest im in shock... the quality of Steve's work is amazing

larby · 06-10-2008, 09:14 PM

Nervously i bashed the crowbar down the back of the layer of ply that showed at the top and started to lever at it hoping that the whole lot would just drop off as one piece... I got a bit of a shock.

As it came away i discovered that it wasn't one big block of ply, it was a big hollow box. The front was made from a very soggy piece of 1/2" ply, the inside was hollow. It was full of water and woodchippings. Somehow this had been supporting a 3 litre motor!!!

gazza · 06-10-2008, 09:14 PM

Steve h ??

gaZ

Pash 1 · 06-10-2008, 09:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gazza

Steve h ??

gaZ

Steve Hutch did the rebuild/converstion

larby · 06-10-2008, 09:18 PM

Oh the best is yet to come!!

After i'd got over this i breathed a sigh of relief... I'd got back to the original transom.

Or had I??

Nope. What appeared to be the original transom behind this was actually just more 2x4 screwed to a layer of 1/2" ply on the inside. When you look at the structure of the 'box', this inner layer of ply was all that was holding the motor to the boat.

If you look through the glass in this pic you can make out the stack of 2x4 blocks behind. I'm yet to remove these (which are also rotten and sopping wet) ans the screws are just shearing off inside them. whenever i try to crow them a bit just rips off.

larby · 06-10-2008, 09:22 PM

I've also ripped up all of the floor and the interior. The quality of work in there made this look professional! I didn't take pics at the time but will get some tomorrow.

I thought steve was meant to be good at this kind of thing?? I've got to admit i'm devastated at the way the boat has been rebuilt, it's going to be a lot more work than i ever could have imagined... Not only is the stuff added on appauling, because of the poor workmanship the whole boat is saturated. It's gonna be a long winter!!

Pash 1 · 06-10-2008, 09:23 PM

I dont know what to say James, I honestly had no idea

larby · 06-10-2008, 09:27 PM

Not a problem Martin, neither did I. I'm shocked my it all but i'm well aware none of it is your fault. All of this was hidden by.... P38 filler.

I'd love to hear any excuse/reason for the appauling quality of all this from the builder!

motorvator · 06-10-2008, 09:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gazza

Pash
you've all quiet on us!!

Gaz don't go crediting him with that much intelligence. The first Martin would have noticed of the problem would have been when he pushed the throttle

and feck all happened

, followed by a phone call to base / drivers / Tony / JF

, 1/2 hour conversation involving a number of checklists and a dawning

that his 300 motor was reunited with the prop he left with davy jones a number of weeks earlier