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Showing results for tags 'refurbish'.
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Well, I've gone and done it - I've bought a fibreglass boat! It's a 26 foot centre cockpit Viking. I have no idea what year it is as there seems to be a distinct lack of paperwork. It doesn't have a BSC or a license - both of which will be acquired in the very very near future. The hull and upperworks are sound, the outboard engine is fine, there's no crazing or bubbles but the interior ............. I managed to get the boat for an excellent price, fully aware that the interior needs stripping back to the basic grp. So far I have spent five days removing an incredible amount of cr*p that a previous owner had stuffed into every conceivable space. I then removed the horrible rotting attic style floor boarding to find that it had been laid directly on top of the original flooring which must have been rotting when the "new floor" was laid. Under the original floor was about two inches of very dirty stagnant water. The battery isolator was there, but not actually connected to the battery! The wiring appears to have been put in by someone who has no idea of electricity - a wonderful mixture of bell wire, speaker wire and mains wire, the runs are looped all over the place. Thank heavens I intend to rewire the entire boat through a central fuse and switch board. The seating in the saloon had been constructed out of old kitchen units turned on their side and nailed in place, the sink/hob unit had been ripped out, the water heater disconnected and shoved into a locker, the gas locker had been constructed out of ply with the only vent directly into the bilge. In short whoever tried to refit the boat in the past had made a complete pig's ear of the job - to a scary degree. I'm amazed that it ever got a BSC and am surprised that it didn't explode into flames. I have had a wonderful time so far - a good friend commented that I seemed to like a project, she's quite right! It's almost going to be a let down when I get it finished. I'll update as the work progresses.