Islander 32 from A to Z

Henk · Post by **Henk** » Mon Nov 24, 2008 2:26 pm

I hope this will work. I don't know how to post/paste/glue any pictures on this forum yet but here's a link to my web-site detailing (sort-of) the work done on my 1963 Islander 32. http://hiensch.shawwebspace.ca/
An old boat which was falling apart to a beautiful yacht. (in my opinion)
I'll try to figure out how to get some pictures posted here.

Henk · Post by **Henk** » Mon Nov 24, 2008 2:38 pm

Ok let's try this.

I think it's working!!
Question: I would like to post lots of pictures about the restoration here. Do I need to start a new post each time or should I post a 'reply' to my own original post?
Thanks,
Henk.

Zach · Post by **Zach** » Mon Nov 24, 2008 5:02 pm

Henk,

Pretty boat!

As far as pictures go, you can put a few in each reply to your own original post.

Shark · Post by **Shark** » Mon Nov 24, 2008 6:27 pm

Henk,

I just read through your website. Interesting and good photos. A long hard road but it looks like it was worth it. Very nice boat.

Henk · Post by **Henk** » Mon Nov 24, 2008 8:17 pm

Know as Orion, this yacht came from the US. Her port of call was Boston Harbour, although the last owner used her as a live-aboard in seattle. Build in 1963 by Wayfarer yachts and designed by J. McGlasson in Costa Mesa, California. I'll always wonder where she's been, did she sail to boston and back? What were the Hawaiien stickers doing there? Why all the navigation equiptment? The previous/previous/previous owner sure knew his/her stuff looking at all the running three strand rigging and sheets. Someone sure knew all the ins and outs of sailmaking and splicing. Every bitter end was perfectly finished. If you know any history of this boat please let me know.

She was purchased in Nov. 2002. It was in very good and poor shape. The hull was sound, the decks were fine. No rot anywhere. The engine was a yanmar yse8, a horizontal one cylinder 7hp (six at the shaft) diesel. It ran OK-ish but boy a lot of vibration.

The stainless steel was bent and corroded, the wooden toe rail broken, and everywhere paint. I mean everywhere. Seven layers and sand was used as non skid in the paint. All of which was so sloppy some of it ended up on the boom!

She came with depth sounder, Loran-C, compass, radar and VHF. All in good working order. The main sail was fine, roller furler junk. All standing and running rigging was corroded and or chafed.

I thought some new canvass and a good paint job would do the trick. Boy was I ever wrong. As it turned out, I needed to replace the engine, and the mast was totally rotten. Hummm...

And so the 5 week $5000 job turned into a 5 year $**,*** job.

Unfortunatly some coward broke into our house and stole among many other things our computer so many before pictures are missing. Still these pictures should give you a good idea of the scope of the project. (No it won't. A picture cannot possibly give you an idea of what it's like to remove a 15 year old flexible holding tank out of an impossible location. The stench, oh the stench. Spending three(!) hours cutting, tugging and pulling while listening to the sloshing of someone else's sh*t and praying the thing doesn't rupture...)

This project was the biggest I've ever undertaken but pales in comparison to some of yours. It was long and sometimes difficult but in the end worth it. I could not have done this without Tim's websites and this forum.
Thanks.

The boat was moved to our new house. I now had time and some money, having those two at the same time I found out are more important than all the sandpaper and paint in the world. All the paint had been removed and the interior demolished. All hardware torn off the decks and the engine to the scrap metal recycling.

What a mess. It's hard to keep going and throwing money at this chaos.

The darkest hours of the project. A total mess. It's cold, the days are short, the inside is gutted. The 'shelter' leaks like a colander, and a stray cat pissed in the cockpit.... I really talked to my wife about cutting the thing into pieces and bringing it to the dump. Sell the 3000 pounds of lead and cut our losses. Really.

But I didn't.

FloatingMoneyPit · Post by **FloatingMoneyPit** » Mon Nov 24, 2008 10:33 pm

THAT is Toplac?!
Awl-who? Alex-what?
Very, very nice.
I see a fair number of those old Islanders around SF Bay and am usually not impressed, mostly because they're in such a sorry state.
Your results have blown that prejudice out of the water
Congrats and enjoy.

Henk · Post by **Henk** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 12:11 am

Thanks for the comments and compliments.
Yes that is Toplac. Like a mirror and easy to apply as long as the weather is cool. Keeping a wet edge was very hard to do. But it is soft though. The mast and boom have Awl-grip on them and it is much harder. We'll see how it holds up.

Post by **Tim** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 8:05 am

Congratulations on your accomplishment--nice job. It can be a long road, but you beat the odds and made it to launch--something about which you should be extremely proud. And thank you for documenting it for the rest of us to enjoy.

I think photos like this do the best at suggesting the satisfaction a project like this brings.

Rachel · Post by **Rachel** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 11:54 am

Henk wrote:The darkest hours of the project. A total mess. It's cold, the days are short, the inside is gutted. The 'shelter' leaks like a colander, and a stray cat pissed in the cockpit.... I really talked to my wife about cutting the thing into pieces and bringing it to the dump. Sell the 3000 pounds of lead and cut our losses. Really.

But I didn't.

Your description sure nailed that feeling! Major congratulations on staying the course and finishing. Wow! Truly impressive.

Rachel

Hirilondë · Post by **Hirilondë** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 12:16 pm

Another beautiful boat lives again to distract us from the masses of Benehuntalinas on the horizon.

Henk · Post by **Henk** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 6:47 pm

Thank you all for your replies. We really appreciate it. I say we because although I did all the 'work', I could not have done it without the support (and patience) of my wife.

So to continue the saga, the distributor of SOLE diesel engines had an engine in an airport storage facility. It was sitting in a box and was owned by them, not a dealership. It sorta had slipped through the cracks and was almost forgotten until I called them and had a few questions about SOLE. Just as we were about to hang up she said they had one sitting in storage for some time now, would I be interested? I asked How much? she told me and I said I'd think about it. It was thousands less than a 'new' one so the next day I made an offer and she said yes. Humm. "Honey, I think I just bought a new diesel engine!"
A SOLE Mitsubishi based 26 hp. three cylinder diesel. With full warranty and brand new in the box. This was the moment when I knew I would finish the project.
So out with the old, and in with the new.

The old Yanmar YSE8 a horizontal 1 cylinder no nonsense engine. Shakes like crazy and only 6hp at the prop. Not nearly enough to drive a 10000 lbs boat through the waves.

The new one. Everything but the airfilter was blue. Every wire and hose.

Now to install the engine. New stringers were in order. I wanted them strong as an ox. A lot of careful measuring was done. A taut line through the center of the shaft log to the center of the mast support pole. Then I build a mock-up of the engine with the flexible mounts and showing the position of the transmission flange.
Making this was not easy. The hull curves up like a banana, the hull slopes down like a V, and the top angles back down about 9 degrees. Slide the whole thing forward the engine will be to low, back to high, side to side, not parallel, well you get the picture.

Ready for my blue baby. I measured everything 10 times 10 different ways and every time the results were the same; it should fit.

I rented a small excavator to lift/transport and lower my blue baby.

A perfect fit. Within 1/8 of an inch.

I spent the next couple of weeks buying and installing all the hoses, cables and so forth to get it ready for start-up. It was a lot of work and especially the Vetus waterlock which should've been so easy gave me a lot of trouble. The way I had my engine box in mind and how the SOLE was positioned just wasn't working. Lots of head scratching but I made it work.

All is hooked-up and ready to start. It started right up, and runs beautiful. Very little vibration. I'm all smiles.

An idea that I got from somewhere in the forum was to install a light in the engine 'room' and so I made one behind it near the transmission and behind the electrical panel on a seperate circuit, very handy to have, no more feeling your way through the dark.

All that was left was a new PSS shaft seal (never a drop of water) and shaft and coupling.
Then the new prop. I had measured, like always, very carfully to make sure all would fit. These are expensive items. Well I installed it all and then it was time to put the prop on... I couldn't believe it! There was no way that the prop would go on the shaft! I had to slide the whole engine forward to slide it on. What should take 30 seconds cost me half a day, sigh.
C'est la vie!

As you can see, there is very little room. I hope I don't have to remove this anytime soon.

I really liked it as a candle holder and considered buying 5 more but at $600 a piece we decided not to.

Peter · Post by **Peter** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 1:10 am

Henk,
Great job on a great boat! Your website is great, too. I live not too far from you ... maybe we'll cross wakes sometime.

Jason K · Post by **Jason K** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 1:42 am

Henk,

Congrats on your "new" boat. I enjoyed reading through your site and look forward to reading a long list of sailing logs as you enjoy the boat.

- Jason

Triton 185 · Post by **Triton 185** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 2:49 am

Thanks for all of the pictures and nice work on your boat. Way to push the job through!

Henk · Post by **Henk** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 4:35 pm

Thanks, and you're more than welcome.

After the diesel was installed it needed a battery and some cables to start the thing. And while I was working on that I figured I might as well continue with the house bank. I like the KISS principle but still ended up using more than 700 feet, yes sevenhundred, feet of cable to wire the boat. I knew nothing about DC or AC and I borrowed lots of books and read them all and still didn't get it. Until I looked at my flashlight... +from battery flows through tiny little wire that glows to -of battery. Interupt the flow and little light goes off. Ha! I get it. And so I managed to install a panel and by now lots of other stuff and it all works. Shorted every circuit once to make sure I did it right and the fuse broke and nothing would get hot. (went through a lot of fuses that way.)

Hurray! it all works. Then time to finish the inside.

This does not look nice and I've been looking at this for 4 years now. Time to clean-up this mess. Engine's installed and there is 12V power.

Much better.

It was a nice spring evening when this picture was taken and the inside was, except for a few little things like windows, finished. So I brought some candles from the house and a bottle of Brandy and celebrated quietly all by myself. It was a special evening and I deserved it.

We were about to go on a holiday and there was one more item on my to do list before we would go. Sanding the bottom. There were still many coats of antifouling paint on it and I hated sanding by now so I postponed this job until now. So let's just get it over with. (I'd rather get a rootcanal done)

So I spent a good 10 hours sanding sanding sanding. My arms were not happy.
Hey you all know how dusty this stuff is right?? Well, here's one for the record books. (Refitting for dummies; the do's and don'ts. this would be a don't.) I had finished the interior. All pretty and clean. Beautiful fabric against the ceilings and so on. Just needed the windows.....

Whoopsie! The reddish blue dust had happily settled inside my beautifully hand crafted interior. My wife spent 8 hours cleaning it. She was not impressed.

After a great holiday in Europe it was time to finish the outside.

Primer. Boy what a difference! I've been staring at this patch work of colours for 4 years and just primer sure looks nice. First a thorough cleaning with acetone and then soap and then the pressure washer. Ahhhh so clean... I'm finally starting to enjoy myself.
All the paint I used is from Interlux exept the varnish. I used the 'roll and tip' technique for all the paint work. Foam rollers worked best for me and the cheapest brushes... Just pull out the loose bristles before you begin. I used the brushes only once. Let the fun begin.

This coat was too yellow. I used Interlux Intradeck non-skid paint which is holding up very well and is nice on bare feet and feels very secure. Now that the winter is on it's way and we've had a lot of rain there is one problem with the paint. The Interlux brightside cannot be continuously submerged. Not that I was planning to do that with the deck but there are a few places where the rain water pools and doesn't runoff. There the paint shows tiny bubbles.
Next job; the hull.

Interlux Toplac is used. Super highgloss however it is softer than Awlgrip. But very easy to use and levels very nicely. keeping a wet edge was my biggest problem.
This is as you can see just the first coat. In two hours the boat turned into something beautiful.

2nd coat, bootstripe and Voila! What a difference in just a few days!

MQMurphy · Post by **MQMurphy** » Thu Nov 27, 2008 12:06 pm

Henk - thanks for the wonderful posts - you are obviously good with the wrenches, sanders and brushes - you've got a nice light touch with the words, too. Congratulations and happy sailing.
Mike Murphy

Henk · Post by **Henk** » Thu Nov 27, 2008 5:07 pm

Sailing, ah that noblest of traditions. I had my first sail with our Islander 32 just two weeks ago. Maybe I'll post the story in the 'sailing and cruising' part of the forum.
but first I'll post the rest of the pictures of my adventure.
It is time for the bottom to be painted.

Finally! Now that the sanding is done I started faring the hull. I used West System epoxy for all the structural work and also the filling/faring. Faring compound mixed with epoxy. Sanding was a breeze. I needed to repair about 40 hull blisters and of course the old thru-hull holes. I never wanted to doubt my structural under water repairs. Therefore I tested a non critical repair on the deck. It had only one layer of fibreglass and was 3/16th inches thick and 4" round. It was the hole for the ol' knotmeter. I hit the repair as hard as I could with a hammer! Nothing. The hammer just bounced back up. Just a very small 'ding' in the epoxy. Good stuff. The hull repairs have many layers of glass and are 1/2 to 3/4 inches thick. Of course they are dished out at a 12 to 1 ratio. There is no way that the repairs will fail. Next up; barrier coat.

Wear the respirator! This two part stuff is nasty. My head started spinning as soon as I opened the can. Three coats of Interlux interprotect 2000. Then Micron CSC anti fouling.

Tadaaaa! All done. Well not exactly. Still have one big job to do. The toe-rail. Or cap really.

The wooden cap on the toe-rail needed to be replaced. All interior wood is Mahogany and I stuck to that for outside as well. Teak is horrible to varnish. The wood is too oily and I don't like the grey weathered look. So a Mahogany cap it will be. But how to make it follow the curves of the hull? I have never steam bent wood and didn't feel like experimenting. In the end I used wide boards and simply laid them on the toe-rail and scribed the shape of the hull on them. Like Tim did on Glissando but I didn't need the side pieces. However these pieces are 3/4" thick. In all six pieces on each side. I used a circular saw for the curved cuts... Just force the saw blade to do what you want it to do. My mother always says; "Dead things aren't boss" Therefore I am. And so the skill saw squeeled and protested until it was blue in the blade... It smoked and smelled real bad but did what it was forced to do. Good. Take that. Silly saw.

Used a planer to make the curve nice and smooth. Basically just eyeballed it. Just like painting and everything else, do it right the first time, take your time and when you think this is fine it's good enough, it means you need to spend some more time on it. I always needed to say to myself "spend one more hour on this project to do it right. I will look at this for years to come."

Next I used a Piece of wood about 2.5" wide and followed the outside curve of the wood to scribe the inside line. All pieces were numbered and marked port or starboard. Used the by now very hot skill saw again and made the cut. Then the planer.

All the pieces on and of the boat 40 times or so, that translates in me going up and down the stairs with a board on my shoulder 480 times, (well maybe less but it felt that way) to get the butt ends the exact same width and turn the six individual pieces into one continuous piece with a nice smooth curve.

Then the router. Get it right before you router...

All pieces were glued down with thickend epoxy and screwed down with thin long stainless steel screws into the toe-rail which I had filled with strips of wood and gallons (really) of thickend epoxy. All screws were counter sunk.

All the plugs were installed with exterior wood glue and placed with the grain going the same way as the wooden cap rail. The plugs by the way were cut from a scrap piece of rail to get the same colour and grain. I used a very sharp chisel to cut the tops off and sanded the plugs flush with the rest of the wood. Ten coats of varnish completed the job. (boat's been in the water for three months and no warping or shrinking/expanding. I was worried about that.)

Launch day Sept. 3rd.
A beautiful day. I've been looking forward to this for a long time. All went extremly well, but for the truck driver who was grumpy early on. However, after his fifth cup of Java Juice he lightened up. Good. Nothing is going to spoil this day.

Pleeeeaase be careful.

Same dock where she was hauled out of the water exactly 5 years ago as a dilapidated boat called Orion, now back in the ocean where she belongs as a yacht called Aurora.

OH NO!! Did I close the seacocks? Did I fill that hole in the hull properly?! What about the shaft seal? The rudder shaft? What about the.... Oh well too late now

She floats!! And doesn't leak. I checked. Twice.
I guess I did do everything right. Aahh this feels good, the boat slowly swaying. Me and Aurora very happy. Humm? Oh, yes yes, the rest of the family too of course.

Something's missing... Right, the mast and boom and pulpit and pushpit and stanchions and lifelines and all standing and running rigging and sails and dodger and and and ...
I had aligned the engine while on the hard but the hull changes shape when floating so the final alignment was done at the dock. Then I ran the engine for 10 minutes or so while checking all seacocks and hoses and checking/listening and looking at the engine. I'd hate to sink after casting off on my maiden voyage 100 yards from the dock.

After an uneventful trip (that's good) Aurora is home.

Rachel · Post by **Rachel** » Thu Nov 27, 2008 10:13 pm

I feel as though I've just watched time lapse photography of a seed being planted, sprouting, budding, and then flowering.

Amazing. Both the boat and the fact that you stuck with it.

Can't wait to see her under sail.

R.

PS: "Aurora" is very fitting. Pays a bit of homage to Orion, too :)

Chris Campbell · Post by **Chris Campbell** » Fri Nov 28, 2008 10:14 am

She's a beautiful boat, and a labour of love, obviously. You've done a remarkable job on her, and deserve many years of blessed cruising to come!

dmairspotter · Post by **dmairspotter** » Fri Nov 28, 2008 11:35 am

What a great thread, boat and job!

You have every right to be very proud.

Good on yer, mate!

Henk · Post by **Henk** » Fri Nov 28, 2008 1:43 pm

Thank you all for your kind words. I really could not have done it without you. Tim's websites and this forum are a goldmine of information.

Here's a link to my 'Shawphoto share' of the Launch Day. (If I can make this work)
It should play on its own. There's what looks like an X in the top right corner. Click it and the photo 'show' will play in full screen. You can slow it down or speed-up by moving the slider port or starboard...
There are 31 pictures that will play like a slide show. Turn on your speakers and enjoy what I think is a tune we all need to hear now and then.

http://photoshare.shaw.ca/view/10612228 ... 75/106122/

Henk.

MikeD · Post by **MikeD** » Fri Nov 28, 2008 5:55 pm

Henk, great job! Thanks for sharing with us! Hopefully you have many many happy days of sailing ahead of you for you and your family on your beautiful yacht! Congrats!

Henk · Post by **Henk** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 3:26 pm

The boat's finally in the water, and all is well. There's just one more major item missing before I can do any sailing; the mast.

Our boat had wooden spars. They looked OK when we bought her and so they too weren't in the budget. But.... One sunny day in August 2001, one or two weeks before we brought her to our yard I, in my infinite wisdom, decided to remove a cleat from the mast. It was located at the bottom about a foot off the deck. And so I removed the first screw. promptly a nice stream of water came out. And kept comming out. If I were a cartoon caricature I would have question marks circling around my head. This stream of water was still running after 30 minutes!!

The mast was full of water! I had seen some small patches of rot but no more than the size of a large coin. After trucking the boat home and working on the boat for several months I had another look at the mast. Oh oh, the rot was severe. There was no way the mast could be saved. Damn.

I thought about making my own new mast but the scarf joints were very difficult to make. Add to that the fact that I am a compulsive worrier. The last thing I wanted was to wonder when my new mast would break and come crashing down on the deck or crew. So now what. I searched for a second hand mast but the only ones out there were rotted or damaged. That wouldn't do. So the only option was a new mast... The least expensive way to go was just a raw aluminium tube and mast-head welded on. But then I'd have an ugly grey metal post and a wooden boom, yuk. But 'only' $4000.-

Humm, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Four years later. There's the bridge.
Ok Ok, the first option is too ugly. By now it's may 2008 and I completed the interior of the boat and installed the very nice engine. Everything is starting to come together so lets make the mast and boom nice too, shall we? How 'bout mast and boom in raw aluminium with no bells or whistles? What would that cost I asked. "Well that be about $7000 sir." Yikes. Well then we'd have proper spars but still wouldn't look nice. "A bit of two part Awlgrip paint maybe? On the mast and boom? Oh, and a harken roller furler? And some shrouds and stays? Yep, got it. Mast step? Uhm halyards too? Blocks, sheaves, cleats, electrical wiring, navigation lights, deck lights, VHF radio antenna + cable? Radar platform? Step and tune the rig??"
Yes please, I was drooling by now. I also ended up with a twitch in my right eye when I saw the cost of it all.
Let's just say you can buy a brand new subcompact car for it.

At noon on September 10th, 2008 the new mast is stepped. And what a thing of beauty it is. The boat looks like a yacht now.

Halfway home from Sidney, BC to Ladysmith with my new spars. I had already seen bold eagles two dolphins and lots of seals. Now this. A pod of killer whales! At least five of them. And heading towards me. This one passed right underneath my boat! I was jumping up and down with joy.

Somehow this event seemed so fitting. Such a perfect ending to the refit, it all made sense. This boat, this project was for me, huge. And it cost me so much more than I ever dreamed possible. Years ago before I even started this project I read on Glissando's site that Tim spent more than $500 on sandpaper. I laughed and thought what idiot would spend that amount on sandpaper alone. Tiss, humbug. Well, I spent $2000.
Serves me right. I could have spent a little less but not much. When the whale swam underneath me, I knew the answer to a question that I've been asking for some time... was it worth it.
Yes.
Our boat is so much more that just a floating thing. It has given us joy, and hope and self esteem. It's not just sailing. It's building, making, creating. It's fiddling with little teeny-weeny things to get it just right. It's being covered in oil with bleeding knuckles. It's just being in the marina sitting in the cockpit drinking coffee.

I thought about writing down the cost of the project and promptly the twitch in my right eye returned. (really) So I'm not gonna. And I need to remember the money's not gone. When I sell (and I will be it in one year or twenty) I will see a return. Meanwhile we have a brand-new sailboat. Besides each project is different.
But this is my project's experience; It will take 5 times as long as you think and it will cost twice your budget. (or was it the other way around? there's that twitch again.)

Plastic Classic Forum

Islander 32 from A to Z

Islander 32 from A to Z

Islander 32 picture

The finishing touch.