1968 Hatteras 34 project

[micky]

This boat had been at the marine where my dad used to keep his 43DC forever. In 2007, when my dad bought the 43DC I saw it for the first time and fell in love with it. I contacted the owner, an 83 yr old guy and told him I was interested. I went to see the boat and he told me it hadn't been moved since hurricane Hugo in 1989. The boat was completely original on the inside. I asked how much he wanted for it and he told me $40k so I just walked away. I keep seeing her every weekend at the marina. My dad sold the 43DC in 2016 but I still had my boat there (25 Mako). Last year (2017), hurricane Maria came and the complete dock where she was disappeared so I thought that the boat was lost, 2 weeks after Maria, I went to the marina to see what had happened and when I walked into the main dock, there I saw it. A guy had moved it with the owners permission the day before the hurricane, and it had survived but the swim platform was damaged, as well as the port back corner, it has some deep scratches on the side and the windows blew away and the pressure blew the teak doors.

Immediately I got 2 pieces of paper and wrote 2 notes that if they wanted to sell it I would give them $5k cash for it the day they found the note. I threw 1 note under the plywood doors and placed the other one with tape in the plywood doors. Two weeks went by and I got a call from the owner's (now 90 yrs old) daughter. They asked me for $20k and I say no, I made her a list of all the things that needed to be done on that boat, she started to lower the price to $15k and I said no, then to $10k and I said no, then to $8.5k and I wanted to go see it again as it had been 7 yrs. Engines started right up, 8kw Onan generator only has 257 hrs so I paid the $8.5k (we were in January 2018 at this point). I never did a survey or tested the boat. I figured that worst case I would sell the engines and generator and would scrap the hull.

Next few weeks I went to the boat and started cleaning the bilge with degreaser, a wet vac, and a small pressure washing machine. You cannot believe the amount of dirt, rust, sludge, oil, etc that I took out of this bilge.Boat had original A/C form 1977, original fresh water pump from 1968, an old and non working 20 gallon water heater, original stove, original refrigerator, and a microwave from around 1980. I ripped everything out. Moved the batteries to the corners in front of the engines, A/C units are going to be package units, relocated the water pump, water heater to the bathroom closet. Got a new SS fridge and the stove will be a counter top hot plate.

[micky]

I continued to do some work on it in the marina and both engines thru hulls started leaking and one of the rudders didn't move, so decided to get her on a trailer and move it to my dad's shop. While I set up everything to d this movement, I cut out the back corner that got damaged by the hurricane, fixed it and installed it back. Also installed some PVC doors that the previous owner gave me and installed them, they are VERY ugly but its better than going in and out the window.

I was finally ready to pull her out of the water and took her to the other marina where there is a travel lift. When the boat came out of the water the bottom was covered with 6"-8" of everything possible so I scraped her and believe it or not, not 1 single blister. We placed it on the trailer and took it to my dad's shop 2 hrs away at 25mph. Once there we pressure washed the bottom to clean it as much as possible. There I started hauling ass every weekend. Replaced both alternators, both coolant pumps, both raw water pumps, took out both heat exchangers, took out the generator, replaced the DAHL filters with racors, replaced all copper fuel lines with hose, replaced all fly bridge gauges and wiring, all new thru hulls and seacocks.

After I removed the generator I decided to separate the shafts from the transmissions as I had removed the struts to replace the bolts and wanted to check for alignment. On the port side the shaft's coupler was loose, so decided to remove both shafts. I had them checked and they were junk so I'll be ordering both new shafts and couplers. Also I replaced the strut bushings when I removed the struts. All new grounding wires are new and the rudder bolts are also new. Also installed 2 new coolant filters on the engines as the original ones do not exist anymore. While I wait to place the order for the shafts (almost $2,500), I decided to start with the fiberglass on the outside, so I removed the swim platform, removed 2 huge trim tabs that were not original, removed the teak aft rails as they were almost non existant, removed 5 thru hulls from the sides that were not being used and sealed all the holes with fiberglass, from behind the trim tabs I sealed more than 100 screw holes in the transom alone, only 1 had water when I removed the screw.

Last week I removed the lower station and removed all the gauges, controls, switches and fiberglassed all the holes. I'll be putting it back to use it for storage.

[micky]

Link for pictures:

https://imgur.com/a/noQ3eUv

As I continue to update I'll be posting the pics with the descriptions.

[madhatter1]

Nice. Bet the fuel burn goes down and speeds go up with the removal of the ecosystem from the bottom . You may want to add some more relief slots in the swim platform if its going back on. If not it will pound in seas at anchor or drift. Be glad you have the fiberglass cockpit. Mine is due for replacement again. Would be very interested in fuel burn, speeds, and sound of those Detroit's.

I have owned my 34 for 26 years now. Never to be sold. Will be passed down to my 2 sons who grew up on it.

[micky]

Today I installed both fuel coolers on the engines. I'm finally done with them. Also spent half the day sanding and fixing the lower station and its ready for a final sanding and primer.\

[micky]

[micky]

Nice. Bet the fuel burn goes down and speeds go up with the removal of the ecosystem from the bottom . You may want to add some more relief slots in the swim platform if its going back on. If not it will pound in seas at anchor or drift. Be glad you have the fiberglass cockpit. Mine is due for replacement again. Would be very interested in fuel burn, speeds, and sound of those Detroit's.

I have owned my 34 for 26 years now. Never to be sold. Will be passed down to my 2 sons who grew up on it.

Previous owner gave me a small notebook with every detail of the boat and it says that at cruising speed it burns 10gph total. Don't know at what speed.

[hunshatt]

neat project .. looks like 453's ? .. I've got a 34 now.. gasser... had a 41 (still do .. but thats a different .. lonnnng story.. where in which I'm a lot dumber than I am now ) please keep us updated on the progress

[hunshatt]

and pictures .. lots of pictures