Off the Reservation

[Blue_Heron]

I’ve dusted off the cobwebs and started a new project. You’ll probably notice that it’s not a Seacraft, but it is a classic, and this place is home to me, so here we go. The boat is a ’74 Hewes Bonefisher, a classic Lappy that I picked up for $300 in late ’08 or early ’09 with a marginal trailer and no title.
It had undergone a less than professional restoration at some time in the past, and was due for a complete refit. The guy I bought it from had done most of the demo work, but he found another Hewes in better shape and gave up on the project. What I dragged home was a bare hull with rotten stringers. A little bit of the gunwale cap, made up of waterlogged plywood with some mat and glass over it, was still clinging to the bow. The transom core had been removed, but the outer skin was still there.



I cut the stringers out and removed some of the bottom paint and blistered gelcoat.



I built a cradle to support the stringerless hull, and then ran out of steam because I didn’t want to invest a lot of time into a boat that didn’t have a title.




Before I bought the boat, I went to my local tag agency and asked them to run the FL numbers to make sure the boat hadn’t been stolen. It checked out ok, but it still didn’t have a title. Florida considers title information confidential, so they won’t give you contact info on a title holder. But you can fill out a form asking the last known title holder to contact you and they’ll send it to him on your behalf.

After I brought the boat home, I filled out the form, and a couple weeks later, the guy gave me a call. It went something like, “Listen, I don’t have the title any more, and I don’t want to get into the details, but I’ll be glad to send you a bill of sale.” And that’s what he did. But Florida won’t transfer a title on just a bill of sale; you have to have the title. Dead end, so the boat sat.



That was about the time I bought my 25 Seafari . Thinking the Seafari would be an easier project, probably only take about six months to get back on the water, I dove in. And the Hewes sat for two more years while I worked on the Seafari.

By the time I got the Seafari where I wanted it (I won’t say finished, because it’s not), I had had enough boat work for a while. That was two and a half years ago. Earlier this year, I started to get the itch again. I got in touch with NoBones because he knew a title guy that might be able to help. I made contact, provided the bill of sale and some other info, and the boat is now titled in my name. So it was time to get to work.

More to follow as time allows…

[FLexpat]

Those always were really nice skinny water hulls. This looks to be a great project! Between this and the 25 you won't even need or want to mess with your others...

[flyingfrizzle]

I always loved those classic lappys, I have been trying to find one for a few years now. Not many here in NC at least older ones. Cant wait to watch this one come together. I enjoy watching a craftsman at work.

[DonV]

Looks great Dave!!! I sold my 1998 Bonefisher about eight months ago, loved that boat!!! Had it for 14 years, was the best boat I ever owned (sorry old clunker SeaCraft). And yes, it hurt to see it going down the road on the back of someone else's truck for the last time!!!

Can't wait to see the project as you get going!

[Islandtrader]

Those are cool boats...I saw this one when visiting Dave's a few years ago...glad you are now making it whole.

I guess Hewes are pretty popular in Texas...

[NoBones]

Dave, I have also in the last couple of weeks got back to redoing
my 75' Lappy....

The middle panels on mine have a fair amount of hook..
How bad is it on your 73' ???

I plan to take them out when it gets flipped over..

There is nothing like having a SeaCraft and a Hewes !!!
They just naturally go together.....

[Terry England]

[URL="http://s655.photobucket.com/user/rdavis59/media/Barn/IMG_2880.jpg.html"][/URL

Dang Dave, What the heck kind of Facilities Engineer are you with no siding on the Pole Barn? You got all the wall girts up (No, Not Grits!). Screw some siding on there before the wintery wind hit Gator country, it blows up yer butt crack and your resin wouldn't kick off along with anything else! Your place would be pretty dang Ship-Shape if you wasn't always gitt'in sidetracked wif them boats.

[Blue_Heron]

Thanks for the interest and encouraging words, guys. I'll try to get some more pics up by the end of the weekend.

Originally Posted by NoBones

The middle panels on mine have a fair amount of hook..
How bad is it on your 73' ???

I plan to take them out when it gets flipped over..

Ken,
Mine has noticeable hook in it too. I think it was done intentionally to keep the bow down at lower speeds. I suspect you'll improve top end performance if you remove it, but it may hurt low speed performance unless you're going to put trim tabs on it.

I haven't decided if I want to unhook mine yet, but I'll definitely have trim tabs. I'm toying with the idea of putting a pad on the keel to get it up off the vee at speed, but I'm not going to make that decision until I get the stringers and deck in and flip it over.

Originally Posted by Terry England

Screw some siding on there before the wintery wind hit Gator country...

Terry,
That pic is about 5 years old. The barn is enclosed, insulated, air conditioned, and heated. Unfortunately, it's also filled up with an accumulation of boat stuff, so I should have built it bigger. There are more recent pics in my Seafari thread (link below).

Dave

[Blue_Heron]

There is one more thing I did before I put the Hewes in the cradle. Back when I first got the boat, I wanted to be able to model the restoration in CADD. I used a cheap Ryobi laser to establish horizontal and vertical control lines and then took measurements at one foot intervals along the hull.



The CADD file looks like this:



I was able to use the CADD information to lay out the cuts on the plywood that makes up the cradle.



Fast forward about 5 years, and I’m ready to go back to work on it. The first thing I had to do was set the cradle back on its casters and clean the dirt dauber nests and mold out of the inner hull. Pressure washing was the easiest way to get that done.








Before I move into progress on the restoration, I want to talk a little about some goals for this project:

• I want the boat to be as light as it can be while still being as strong as it needs to be.
• There will be no structural wood in the boat. The transom core will be Coosa, deck cores will be Divinycell, and stringer cores will be non structural polyurethane foam.
• The layout of the deck, casting platforms, and gunwale cap will be as close to original as is practical.
• Care will be taken to assure the boat's center of gravity is located correctly.
• There will be a focus on fit and finish. I want the boat to be functional, but I want it to look good, too.

In my next post, I'll bring this thread up to date with progress so far.




Dave

[Blue_Heron]

After cleanup, the next job was to rebuild the transom. The outer skin, although it had a lot of holes, was in good enough shape to re–use. The previous owner had done a good job removing the wood core and grinding the outer skin flat.

I made a transom template out of craft paper, and used it to layout and cut two pieces of 1” Coosa Bluewater 26 for the core. It’s a very cool material. Of all the core materials I considered, Bluewater 26 has the best compressive strength, almost as good as plywood, and weighs about half as much. And it holds a screw much better than structural foams.



I decided to try some vacuum bagging, and so far the results are very good. To complete the transom core, I thickened some epoxy resin, glued the two pieces together, and wrapped them in a vacuum bag to keep uniform pressure on them until the epoxy cured. It worked great and was much easier than conventional clamping.



I also wanted to vacuum bag the core to the transom skin. I cut two layers of 2415 to go between the core and the outer skin and got my vacuum bag ready.



2415 wet out:



Thickened epoxy applied to the transom core:



Vacuum bag in place with some screws and clamps just to make sure:





And the core in place after debagging:



Before laying up the inner skin, I cut the engine notch in the transom core.









That's it for now.
Dave