Engine rebuild almost complete

[Phasma2128]

5 months and $67,000 later, I have new props and my port engine has been completely rebuilt. This was an expensive winter. Michigan Shore Marine did the work

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[Phasma2128]

on to the next challenge. The marina just did a preliminary look at the hull. It seems I have several blisters forming on the transom. They are recommending a grinding and a flushing as well as a hull rebuild for next winter. Good lord old boats are expensive! Repairs, upgrades, new electronics, partial canvas and a lot of elbow grease. I keep looking at SkyCheney’s Hatteras as motivation.

 

[Boatsb]

What's a hull rebuild? Blisters aren't a big deal. Usually just cosmetic.

 

[dar636]

Well done though. I keep telling the Admiral thay we are just hitting the "50 year" jobs on our watch with Time Out West.

 

[jim rosenthal]

Blisters aren't a big deal. Dry the hull, grind them out and fair them, then recoat the hull. DO NOT PEEL THE HULL.

 

[bigbill]

5 months for a rebuild and yardwork, holy shit i would have to kill sombody. i rebuilt an 8v71 ti in my 46sf by myself in about a month

 

[Timeless72]

Congrats! If you don't mind my asking, what ran the rebuild price so high? I have an in-frame about to start with estimated 20 to 30k for an 871 natural. Makes me nervous to think price could jump a lot. One man show, who I trust, but trying to anticipate anything crazy.

 

[cww]

The $67k figure he's quoting was probably $40k for the props and the rest was for the engine. If you've ever seen one of those 52 CPMY's out of the water they have deep reduction gears and enormous +/- 40" 5 blade high-skew props on them. Every one I've ever seen out of the water I have been astonished at the size of them.

Blisters on a hatt, who cares. They're purely cosmetic. Just ignore it until it's time to sell, then grind and epoxy them. Under no circumstances would I ever peel the entire hull over a few blisters, don't get talked into that. You will end up with a high 5-figure job for no reason.

 

[Timeless72]

Sh-t those are huge props. Thanks!

 

[jmooney]

The $67k figure he's quoting was probably $40k for the props and the rest was for the engine. If you've ever seen one of those 52 CPMY's out of the water they have deep reduction gears and enormous +/- 40" 5 blade high-skew props on them. Every one I've ever seen out of the water I have been astonished at the size of them.

Blisters on a hatt, who cares. They're purely cosmetic. Just ignore it until it's time to sell, then grind and epoxy them. Under no circumstances would I ever peel the entire hull over a few blisters, don't get talked into that. You will end up with a high 5-figure job for no reason.

Jim mentioned don’t peel the hull also , I don’t know why . Here in South Florida, the warm water makes blister formation worse. The only reason the blisters aren’t a structural problem is the the Hatteras hulls are fairly thick. I peeled our boat about three years ago. The quote was $ 22,000. I ended up paying about $27,000 . I took the boat to St Augustine, so the price in the Miami, Ft Lauderdale area would have probably been 2 or 3 times that . I let the hull dry for 7 months. I removed all through hulls ,
stabilizers , shafts , trim tabs , and swim platform brackets. This was done as I wanted replace or repair these items. After the drying, two laters of fiberglass cloth was applied using 75 gallons of epoxy. Then four barrier coats before the bottom paint . I will be in the yard this fall so I will see how it holds up.

 

[Phasma2128]

Thank God for Sams Marine forum. I just drove the two hours up to the boat. I can see the one blister they ground out, filled and painted. I ran a light across the transom, bottom and hull sides and didn’t see a single blister. Not sure what he was talking about. He said the transom showed wet. Not surprising in Michigan. I’ve always stored indoors heated but previous owner stored outside. I won’t peel the hull. Any blisters that do form in the future I will grind out and fill. I believe my hull is a foam core hull. No rotting of wood.

To answer the previous question, it was $42000 for props and $24k and change for the engine rebuild. I’m not too worried about it taking this long to rebuild as the boat is in storage. Due for launch on April 23.

The step down for the transmissions 1:4.35. As I understand it, it’s comparable to a freakin tugboat. I posted the process of replacing the props on here last summer. I agree, those are some very big wheels. I’m hoping for improved fuel mileage at hull speed as well as increased cruising speed and top end. Super excited for boating season 2025. For those of you that boat down south Boating season is the 6 months of pure joy during the spring, summer and fall followed by 6 months of talking myself out of suicide. Winter is when we run our credit cards up doing boat repairs and taking trips to the sunny south.

Thank you all for for the advice and input. You saved my bacon once again

 

[jim rosenthal]

The advice not to peel the hull came from Tom Slane, rest his soul. To be fair, in the case of my own boat, we just ground out the blisters, after drying it for months in the winter, and filled and faired them. Applied several coats of Interprotect 3000, IIRC, and then bottom paint over that. A few years later, she was in for new engines, and they soda-blasted the bottom and everything was holding up perfectly. I should also mention that my boat is out of the water from November to April, and I think that helps her stay drier.

 

[Phasma2128]

The advice not to peel the hull came from Tom Slane, rest his soul. To be fair, in the case of my own boat, we just ground out the blisters, after drying it for months in the winter, and filled and faired them. Applied several coats of Interprotect 3000, IIRC, and then bottom paint over that. A few years later, she was in for new engines, and they soda-blasted the bottom and everything was holding up perfectly. I should also mention that my boat is out of the water from November to April, and I think that helps her stay drier.

I am Michigan based so I understand having the boat out of the water. May I ask how you dried the hull? Heat & fans under tarps? The rest I understood

 

[Phasma2128]

Curious what recommendations for bottom paint? Fresh water

 

[SKYCHENEY]

Curious what recommendations for bottom paint? Fresh water

vc17

 

[Phasma2128]

Thanks

 

[jmooney]

You guys that pull your boats out for the winter are lucky. I would think blister formation is greatly reduced. I saw a 74 cockpit yacht here in Florida in the yard for a bottom job , after it was finished , the amount of bleeding from blisters was amazing. Far more blisters than you could open and fix . The owner didn’t want to deal with them . I am sure money wasn’t the reason. Heated indoor storage must be great for reducing water vapor in the hull .

 

[Phasma2128]

Indoor heated storage does have a drying affect. It sounds like that 74’ had blisters on blisters. Someone else said the warm water and year round being in the water radically speeds up blister formation. Still, I love the idea of cruising down south. It’s hard to beat our summers on Lake Michigan. Short and sweet

 

[HahnR]

You guys that pull your boats out for the winter are lucky. I would think blister formation is greatly reduced. I saw a 74 cockpit yacht here in Florida in the yard for a bottom job , after it was finished , the amount of bleeding from blisters was amazing. Far more blisters than you could open and fix . The owner didn’t want to deal with them . I am sure money wasn’t the reason. Heated indoor storage must be great for reducing water vapor in the hull .

When we were boat shopping, we had a broker from Detroit tell us that the thing that killed the boats up north the most was the below zero temps & contraction causing leaks and breaks in the seals of eveything, from windows to anything that is bedded. That was great advice! We've always stored outside until we got this boat. It's expensive, but in the fall we pull out, the boat gets a bottom wash and is put inside the heated buiulding until launch in the spring. We wave goodbye and know there is nothing else to do or worry about, no more covering the boat or winterizing, etc. You can work on the boat in the comfort of heat. What a change from the days of covering the boat in the cold wind, worrying about the cover blowing off, snow & ice buildup, etc. Definitely spoiled now, wouldn't have it any other way! I'm sure some of the other guys like Sky would completely agree

 

[Phasma2128]

In two weeks we splash! Sanity returns to our northern world. Hopefully all will be well with the rebuild.
We took a brief trip to Curacao to get out of the cold for a minute. I continue to putz around with video editing. Unfortunately I didn’t get my drone registered with the island government in time so it was GoPro all the way