[mad_machine]

Last year I pulled an older and abused Sea Sprite 23 off of Lake Champlain in NY. Found out after getting her home she is hull number 110, which makes her the 20th SS23 built (they skipped from 10 to 100 for some weird reason)

This was how she was advertised

But sadly, the pics were a year or two old and her brightwork did not quite shine so well.. but I still dragged her home from upstate NY to the southern end of NJ for a good refit. In between I got very sick due to black mold, moved, and got a new job that is paying well, but eating up a lot of time.

First off was 50+ years of housepaint off of her topsides. I found 4 different colours under the white.. and badly crazed gelcoat

This week, after building a tarp "house" over the cabin, I removed the portholes, companionway hatch, and all the woodwork from the cabin before embarking on sanding.

After sanding:

I generally work from either 11 to 7 or 3 to 11.. so it cuts into my daytime freetime.. but I am trying to get an hour a day in.. so it is slow by steady work. Next up is filling in all the holes and high build primer

 

[mad_machine]

Another day.. another Hour or so of work on Flirt. removed the forward edges of the coamings and finished sanding down the cabin. She is starting to look 50 years younger.

 

[mad_machine]

Thanks Paul. She is a pretty little thing.. and will probably be the prettiest boat in the marina next year. for better or worse (depending on your point of view) they simply do not build boats like this anymore... well they do, but they are very very expensive.

Got the Coamings off today to expose the horrors beneath. The Mahogany was pretty badly rotted from 50+ years of being in the environment with minimal care... but I was able to save enough of them to use as a pattern for the new ones

Tomorrow I go back to sanding

 

[mad_machine]

horror of horrors.. I found a 3 inch long crack where the cockpit, cockpit seats, and the cabin all meet.

Fixing that tomorrow.. but until then, enjoy the views of clean coaming mountings. Took forever with my dewalt orbital sander and 40grit to get all the gunk, glue, and sealant off.

 

[mad_machine]

no, just decades of abuse. Flirt is 51 years old and only the 20th Sea Sprite 23 built.. making her one of the earliest 'glass boats still around. I plucked her off of Lake Champlain last summer and dragged her down to Atlantic City. I knew I would need to do a refit.. but the more I get into her, the more I want to make "right"

 

[mad_machine]

today I played with glassfibre. First to go was the crack I found yesterday. I brought out my almost industrial strength Dremil and cut it out smoothly before backing with waxpaper and gaffers tape. Yes, I made a mess, but it is sealed up properly. Tomorrow I will pull the tape and paper and back it with a few full sheets of glassfibre to make sure the crack never comes back. I might do the other side as a precaution

after that, I used gafftape to back all the holes in the cabintop before dribbling resin into those. As I am going to completely redo the handholds and companionway hatch, I would rather drill new holes than make the new stuff fit the old holes.

I really need to get a blog so I can more fully detail all this work

 

[mad_machine]

So I decided to blog it.. now I need to build up to this point. but at least it gives some of the history of Flirt and myself

http://seasprite23flirt.wordpress.com/

 

[mad_machine]

all well and good.. but I am not using epoxy. I am repairing her using actual glassfibre. Also, early sprites like mine are not cored at all. Everything is solid 'glass

 

[mad_machine]

has it really been two months since I posted here? Time flies when you are having fun with 'glass.

I removed the rudder due to damage. The bottom had a couple of substantial chunks taken out of it due to a collision with something.. so I removed it to repair it.

went from:

To:

and ended up with this:

 

[mad_machine]

Thanks for the kind words. I just got done repairing her keel (mostly) In finding out that Flirt had sunk at one time, I discovered a lot of serious glasscracks and poor repairs around her stern and rudder. The Rudder (as you saw) was badly damaged and the keel was badly repaired with a lot of filler material (that reached inside the hull) that was basically faired into place and painted over.

I cut the entire semi-cylindrical slot out of the back of the keel and replaced it with one made from Carbonfibre. I made a mold from half a cardboard tube and built up a replacement part before soaking the cardboard off of it. I then attached a loose bit of C/F fabric that I then wrapped around the trailing edge of the hull to secure everything into place. I still need to finish up at the tops and bottom of the repair and then secure it all from the inside to make sure it is watertight and strong.

With everything cut out, I cut the cardboard to fit and then made up the Carbonfibre repair bits.

you can follow along better at Sea Sprite 23 ? Flirt | The Restoration and refit of a 1963 Sea Sprite 23