My Whitby 42 Blog

The new tanks are now secured in place and waiting to be hooked up.  Here is how it happened:

Neoprene pads were put on with 5200.  Care was given to make sure there was complete coverage so that no water could sit between the pads and the tank.  This was done along the bottom and the sides of the tanks.
Then using 5200 and solid fiberglass board, spacers were put

Between the hull and the tanks.  The idea is to leave adequate air space around the tank so water never sits against the tank.



The 3/8" aluminum bands were secured across the tops of the tanks and screwed into solid fiberglass boards that were epoxied to the hull to give move depth for the screws to grip.  5200 was also used between the aluminum bands and the tanks to keep water from being trapped between the tank and the bands.

Over the forward tank I made a fiberglass board with my kids to cover the tank.  There are 2 inches between the board and the tank.  It is mainly to keep debris from falling in next to the tank.  If something were to fall in, it would be there forever.  And having a piece of metal falling in and getting stuck up against the tank would corrode a quick hole through the tank.  It will also keep water off the tank.



Drip pan back in place.  When I was taking out the drip pan in the beginning, I had not planned on removing the tanks, so I had cut out small pieces to get to the tanks for inspection, so I had to put all the pieces back together.  Oh the time I could save if I did it all over again....... 
 
Now I just need to paint.  Engine goes in on June 27th!!!  The crane has been scheduled.

Hopefully by then, the 5200 that is in my hair, on my neck, legs, arms, etc..... will have washed off.  I am afraid to scrub the stuff off my head as it might take more hair with it.  I can't afford to lose to much more.

Test fired the rebuilt engine and it works great.  A few things to tweak, but it is looking great.  Hard to see because of light.

Nice and smooth.
 

See it on Youtube.

Who would have thought that finding somebody local would be impossible.  I live in the Toronto area and I gave up looking for somebody to build my fuel tanks.  I found places that welded aluminum, but they really didn't have any experience making marine grade fuel tanks.

I finally found a place in New Jersey called Speedy Tanks. I had direct contact with the owner.  They build everything to ABYC and Coast Guard Specs and beyond.  Very nice people.  I get stuck with an extra shipping bill, but they have decent shipping costs and lots of experience shipping to Canada.  Even with the shipping, they were cheaper than anybody else in the Toronto area.  And they definitely know what they are doing.   Of course I haven't gotten the tanks yet, but I am optimistic.
 
 The Tanks are EXCELLENT.  Exact sizing and the fitting are all superb.  The tanks are coated with an epoxy paint and pressure tested beyond the ABYC and Coast guard specs.  Now all I have to do is put them in, fiberglass, connect, paint, engine, etc...etc...etc....etc...  But is it the first thing going INTO the boat.!!!!!
 
They had a link to this site, on how to install a tank.  Looks like a good guide:   Tank installation:

Not much worth taking pictures, but lots of work still being done.  Akin to doing drywall mudding before you paint.  Lots of little things that take lots of time, then gets covered up and nobody every knows.  We have been sanding bilges, inside lockers, walls, wood, everything in the boat.  Will be ordering our fuel tanks tomorrow.  Painting will start on Saturday.

We have also been working on our hatch openings.  Something special is happening, but I want to wait until after we paint to put up the before-after pictures.

Taking a page from "The Incredible Hull" website, I built some cardboard mock ups of the new fuel tanks for measuring.

Based on my calculations, the 2 tanks should be about 35 and 30 gallons.  65 total from the old 80 gallon space.
But it will also have a nice bilge pump location.  Now to send away the measurements and get a quote.
If anybody wants my measurements, let me know

 .

I have been replacing the old wooden sea cock backing plates with fiberglass backing plates.  My kids and I made a mold and lathered up 20 layers + of fiberglass.  Cut that with a table saw and made new backing plates.  We put the good side facing up, creating a very smooth and flat surface to put the seacocks back on.  The old wooden plates, although nice teak plywood, were showing signs of decay.  A few were completely covered with caulk, a good sign that they leaked.  It was impossible to get them off to rebed them without messing them up further.  Here are some before/After pictures.
  

 I didn't bother with nice circles, but cut octagons on the table saw.  They are epoxied in place with thickened epoxy.  I took a grinder to the areas first to remove old caulk and clean up the fiberglass before installing.  The backing plates are almost 1/2 inch thick, about the same as the wood.
 




 

Anybody who thinks "These screws will never be exposed to water"
"They don't need to be stainless"

Well take a look at these.  These are the screws that I could get out.  I have been taking out ALL the non stainless screws that I can find everywhere on the boat.  Most are rusted, some are just powdered remains.  A few come out, but most are useless.  If I can't get the screws out, I just yank the wood and it usually comes out, snapping the screws or just ripping them out.  I can't tell if these were original, they might be.  So they lasted 35 years.  Not too bad.  But how much money did they really save on the total cost of the boat to skip the stainless screws??  
Is it possible that they were stainless??  They are magnetic now.

I finished getting the bilge built up under the center fuel tank.  Thanks to the advise of Gerry and some other contacts, it came out as I had hoped.  Now to build mock up fuel tanks out of cardboard to be built. (more on that later).

I ended up using 2 gallons of 105 epoxy with 2 cans of the extra slow hardener.  Then about 8 lbs of sand.  It mixed up to about 6 gallons.(in 2 separate batches.)  I used 8 feet of deck board as well as filler in the epoxy.  

1.   Put a thin, 1" layer of epoxy/Sand mix in the bottom and spread it around.
2.  Added my cinder block, wrapped with wax paper to the center area where the bilge pump will be.
3.  Added my deck boards.
4.  Added the rest of the first batch of mix.
5.  Mixed up second batch, added more deck board and poured it in.
6.  On top of this I laid a 1" diameter pipe wrapped with wax paper to make a channel to the bilge area.

7.  Waited....noticed my deck boards were slowly floating up. So I took some long steel pipes and wrapped the ends with wax paper and used them to anchor the boards.  I have 3 holes I will fill later.  (Chance of rain...will wait for better weather).
8.  Note to self.  When your slow cure epoxy is curing...do NOT do things like sand above the area.  I dropped a few bits of stuff on top of the epoxy.  
9.  Also my mix looks white.  There is a thin layer of bubbles that rose up in the epoxy.  Probably 1/4 of an inch.  In a few areas they popped and a darker look is present.   I will paint on a layer of epoxy to fill any small holes.

 Here are some pictures of what happened. 
 
 .  In a few areas they popped and a darker look is present.

Here are a few pictures:

     
 You can see the channel from the pipe.  My boat is not perfectly level currently.  I was worried about my epoxy creating a non level floor and trapping water.  This will help all water find it's way to the pump out box...Still a little cleaning up to do.
 

I have finally turned a corner.  My boat is officially naked.  Nothing on it left to take off.  Officially a major over-haul.

I have pressure washed the inside, getting out 30 years of grime, grease, and more than afew scary hairballs.
 
1.  Not a single wire on the boat.
2.  No hose/pipe (only some temp drain hoses) (exhaust hose is still there, too much trouble to take it out).
3.  No electronics.
4.  Most wood is unscrewed and removed.
5.  No deck hardware of any kind.  Holes have all been epoxied in, waiting to be re-drilled.
6.  All diesel fuel has been taken out.
7.  Water tanks completely dry.
8.  Temp Floor boards in for rebuilding time.
9.  New windows are in to keep water out of the boat.
10.  Only possible things still to come off are some copper pipe used for vent lines and hydraulic lines.  I haven't decided yet on what to do with those.

I have started reconstruction finally.  Feels good to actually create something instead of just taking apart. 
Now the fun begins.

Here are some pictures, of the naked Whitby. (Trying to expand my hits on google)

I have scraped, washed, ground, washed, and spent way too much time in my stinky bilge.  But it is now ready for the next step.

 I have now had 30 different ideas on how to rebuild the keel fuel tank.  I have been changing my mind daily on the best approach.  

First thing that must be done is fix the curve at the bottom.  I like what "The Incredible Hull" has done.  But he has a cheaper source of epoxy than I do and I priced out epoxy to do my job and it came to over $1,000.  Which seemed a waste as it will never do anything other than support the fuel tanks.  Yes, an important job, but I was looking for a simpler (cheaper) way.  I have contemplated foam, but I am worried about it being able to support the tanks, then foam with fiber glass on top, but that job would be back breaking.  It seems important to me to make sure I don't have water sitting in my bilge.  Correction, not  a LOT of water in my bilge.  I realize there will always be some.  However a 7 foot long bilge with a little water will add up to a lot of stinky water sloshing around. So I plan to take up most of the space, get rid of the curve so there is a flat surface for the tanks, and something that will not rot and never need any maintenance.  And not stink.

So here is my current plan, that I am implementing on Saturday.  So if you see a flaw, please let me know ASAP.

Step 1.  Tape out and wax and area for the bilge pump to sit.

Step 2.  West system 105 plus extra slow hardener, then twice that amount in sand.  Dump some into the bilge.
Just enough to take the curve out of the bottom.

Step 3.  Add Plastic composite decking material on top.  It will act as a filler.  I have no idea if the epoxy will stick to it, but it will not matter as it will be completely encased.  It is just cheaper than epoxy!

Step 4.  Add the rest of the Epoxy on top and fill in.  If I measured correctly...which usually means I am off ...I should have 2.5 inches of height added to the bottom of the bilge.

Step 5.  Take 2 long 1" diameter pipes and wrap with wax paper and work into the epoxy to create a small channel along the middle of the top to help water get to the bilge area.

The two pictures give an approximate idea of my plan.

   


Part 2.
Once the bottom is done, I will put in tabs to keep the tank 1/2" off the new bottom.  I will probably use more plastic decking held in with 5200.  Long strips.

I have had the idea of using expanda-foam around the top 6" of the new tank.  I know the foam was the problem with the tank in the beginning, but my thinking is if water gets down against the tank, it will not pool and sit there like the tank prior.  But will be able to drain down into the bilge and away from the tank.  I would then epoxy and fiberglass the top as was done before.

 
And that is the latest idea.  Subject to change.