Boat Restoration Complete!!!!

[Gman377]

Wow that's one fine SJ. It's funny I've been watching videos on San Juan 21s over the last month and a half trying to get ideas on deck set up's and as soon as I saw those speakers I realized that it was in one of the videos that I 'liked' about a month ago. I finally found the post on the metal bulkheads. How thick is the aluminum you used for the bulkheads? And is it the same type of metal that you used for the deck organizer over the championway hatch? And can I ask to what degree are the chain plates at an angle? The first two things I have to do on 2560 is the transom and the bulkheads.
Thanks for updating the pics and answering questions. Grant

[kuriti]

Yes, the aluminum stock I got I used for the bulkhead and the deck bridge organizer. I believe it was 1/4' x 4'. Here is a link to where I bought it and I believe it is the one I got:

http://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant.cf ... top_cat=60

In terms of the angle, I sought to keep a straight line coming off the chain plate, so the vertical aluminum plate keeps that angle. Then the horizontal plate is bolted to the boxes, square to the box. I think I just made the horizontal plate first, bolted it on and then held up the vertical plate to mark its intersection. I used a grinder to cut them and then took them to a local welder who did those and the bridge for something like $20 cash. The bridge uses an I-beam I also got from online metals:

http://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant.cf ... top_cat=60

Keep in mind that the chain plate is steel and dissimilar metals don't play well together. I made a gasket out of either an old bicycle tube or PVC shower liner, can't remember which but I use both for such things. It sits between the vertical plate and the chain plate to avoid corrosion issues. I used stainless bolts, so there is some risk there, but these boats ain't going to the America's Cup.

I honestly don't remember how the chain plate angle itself was established, but I think it was just apparent do to the tight fit coming through the hull that they sat in a specific way that seemed symmetrical on both sides. If the slot in your deck is big and sloppy, it might be tough to guess, though I don't think there is any magic number to it. I would just find some pics of one online a take a guess. Here is a site I found that has exhaustive pictures of a very well done SJ21 refit. You could use it for reference:

http://www.tommysolomon.com/photos/1981 ... _refit#nav

Good luck on the transom, it sucks!

[cklamp]

Good luck on the transom, it sucks!

Did mine from the outside... not so bad but in the end was the right call. My transom had probably had 3 different motor mounts on it before I purchased it. So the balsa that was left was as solid as baby food, which meant the outer skin had flex so much and subsequently cracked, that there was really only 1-2 layers of solid "glass".

Sure took a lot of glass to get it to the right thickness doing it this way, but it was much easier than crawling into the hull and cutting and scraping everything out that way. In the end I did have to cut the inner skin a bit though and had to reglass a couple layers, but at least it wasn't the entire thing!

Later
C

[Gman377]

Yeah I've been really seriously thinking about whether to go into the transom from the outside or the inside. I'm a fairly big guy and to try and work in a hole the size of my shoulders and be bent over for many hours sounds torturous. I don't think it's going to work if I go in from the inside.

IMG_1162.JPG (36.08KiB)Viewed 27718 times

Where these holes are drilled on the transom does anybody think that there's any wood behind this area? I know that there is wood behind the motor mount from what I read from Kuriti's post on his transom rebuild. I'm wondering if I'm going to have to basically cut this whole transom panel off or just the area behind the motor mount and then fill these holes that were drilled. Boy it's gonna be hard to try to find 3/8" marine grade plywood here in the backwoods of Tennessee, the local pontoon builder here has 3/4" and 1/2" marine grade plywood that I can buy for a decent price. Thanks again everybody for posting on this site this really helps us SJ noobs out.

[Gman377]

BTW I guess I should start asking these questions on my other post. Again Kuriti you did a really nice job on your boat. That SJ looks sweet! I can only hope that mine turns out half as decent.

[willoutlaw]

Yeah I've been really seriously thinking about whether to go into the transom from the outside or the inside. I'm a fairly big guy and to try and work in a hole the size of my shoulders and be bent over for many hours sounds torturous. I don't think it's going to work if I go in from the inside.

I did mine from the inside. It was awful.

My $.02 is to tackle it from the outside. The end result will be better and you won't hate your boat or your life when you're done.

Only the port half of my transom was cored, btw, the rest was just glass. The coring didn't extend to the rudder mounts, those were just sort of backed by globs of resin and were in pretty sorry shape.

Once it was done I drilled oversized holes for the motor mount and rudder mounts, filled them with thickened epoxy, redrilled and then attached everything. It should outlast the sun. I also installed a deck plate on the cockpit sole so I could reach the bolts instead of crawling inside. I thought about installing a larger hatch on one or both of the seats for access but wasn't sure how comfortable it would be so I passed so I could at least sail the thing a few days last summer.

I wound up having to fill and sand the transom anyway before i painted it so there really was no labor savings to doing it from the inside.

If I were to do it all over again, i'd leave about 2-3 inches all the way around the transom, cut out the rest, core it with ply, glass it in, make it pretty and call it a day.

Ideally, I'd like go enclose the rear section below with a bulkhead down below and create seat lockers, along with filling the rest of the space with foam to increase flotation in the event of a swamping. Then I remember how horrible the job was down there and think just installing a pair of hatches would be fine.

Good luck!

Will

[kuriti]

Yeah, the transom sucks. I actually wrote up my process here:

viewtopic.php?f=20&t=253&p=916&hilit=transom#p916

I completely see the logic in doing it from the outside now that I am more skilled with fiberglass, it just scared me to think about cutting the exterior. My transom only had a partial wood core and it was obvious when looking at it from inside the lazarette.

[kingtoros]

Kuriti your restoration looks amazing! Did you ever go through and do the interior?

[kuriti]

Sorry, just seeing this. Yes, it was Ipe. I did a local search for acrylic distributor and bought a sheet for around $125.

[kuriti]

Hey, I pressure washed and painted the interior. I also made cushions for the bunks. I wrote up my electrical rebuild. I still would like to do some more creature comforts, but prioritized a quick and much less detailed re-paint last fall. New sails as well, so she looks great right now. Spending the night on her this weekend.