Restoration of a 1999 C-Dory 22 Cruiser

[pcg]

First, I should say that I have lurked on this site for some time, and finally joined last summer. I have been searching for a project boat, not a boat that just needed re-powering, but a boat that I could completely strip and then build out to my specification. Basically I wanted a bare hull. I finally found one.

I have already benefited immensely from the knowledge shared by fellow owners on this site. I can’t say enough how grateful I am for this. To help pay that forward I plan to document here everything I learn and do as I repair the hull and build out the boat. I’ll also be most grateful for suggestions from those with more knowledge about these boats than me, which, at this point, is basically all of you!

I can’t work on this full time, and am expecting it will be two years before I purchase the electronics and a new motor. There is much to be done prior to that time. I’m not new to big projects and I can’t wait to dig into this one. I have experience working on fiberglass, welding, wiring, building cabinetry, etc., so I feel confident doing the work needed in those areas. The one area that is new to me is gelcoat. I’ll have to learn all about applying that so that will be fun. I’ll post progress reports and photos as I go along.

To start, I have a post prepared that deals with the history of the boat and how I came to purchase it. Because it may only interest a very few of you and it’s quite long, this forum may not be the best place to post it? Is there a better place? Can I somehow post a lengthy report as a comment in my “album”?

 

[hardee]

Paul, Welcome to C-BRATS and to the best community for boats and boat people you could find anywhere. Lots of great info here, and folks of multiple talents who are glade to share. I look forward to watching your work. I do not have those talents, skills or what all else it takes to do your project or I would be starting one here. I know of a boat like what you were looking for if anyone else is interested.

As to where to post, the title of the thread you just started would make it easy to go back and find the thread later, and the search would make it easier to find it that way.

Going back to the same thread with the continuation would make it easier to follow. My vote would be to add the history of your boat here at the beginning of the restoration thread.

Merry Christmas,

Harvey
SleepyC:moon

 

[olsurfdog]

Ah, I get it! this is a separate recore thread. My second post in the "recore" thread was really addressed to you, as I said there go for it you'll learn a lot by doing!

 

[Knipet]

I'm new to C-Dorys, but would love to read about the history of your boat and be able to follow along on your project to revitalize your boat! I hope the site administrators set you up an album soon so you can document your efforts.

 

[thataway]

I would continue with this thread on the restoration. You knowledge and skills will always help others. Cannot wait to see what you are able to do!

 

[Noo Yawk]

Hello Paul,

I am Peter Burgess out here on the tip of Cape Cod. I bought a 2004 22' cruiser named "Wanderer", which was something like a legend here - used from Maine to Florida to Alaska. It is now "Kittiwake". Like you, I have taken care to upgrade it. This included a replacement for the Wallis stove. The owner said the stove was "balky", and had it refurbished by the manufacturer. He told me he used Coleman fuel. I spoke to the manufacturer, who said the problem was probably the fuel, and if I used #2 the refurbished stove should work fine. I still replaced it, but I still have that stove and it probably is okay. I'm offering it for free for anyone who pays the shipping. I also have the original autopilot helm attachment. No use to me. Ditto free plus shipping for that. Let me know.

 

[pcg]

Peter,

Thank you so much for the generous offer of your Wallace strove.

I'll pass on this though because my wife and I are fond of propane for cooking so we'll be installing a marine propane stove. I know many are leary of propane from a safety standpoint, but we've been very happy with it in our RV for many years. I'll be converting one of the cockpit lazarettes into a propane locker and will do a proper and safe installation.

As for the autopilot helm attachment, I'll pass on that as well.

Thank you for thinking of me!

Paul

 

[srbaum]

Noo Yawk,
I sent you a PM last evening.

 

[pcg]

So here’s a bit of history…

A few wondered about the boat mentioned here:
http://www.c-brats.com/viewtopic.php?t= ... t=bow+rail

I didn’t see this link until last summer and by then the boat had been sold. So, when the boat showed up again this fall, this time on eBay, I scrambled to learn all I could about it. The link above said the boat had been “tied up wrong at the dock and sank in 6' of saltwater”. I wanted to know more about this event and with a half dozen phone calls and the help of Google I was able to trace the history through the first five owners and up to this incident. During this time the boat was listed for sale on eBay three times. It failed to sell on the first two auctions, due to “reserve not met”, but after the seller removed the reserve, I bought the boat.

I wasn’t able to learn much at all about the boat’s history from the owner until I learned the name of the boat, and that alone would have gotten me nowhere except for the fact that the boat had been instrumental in the rescue of another vessel 13 years ago. That event resulted in a story on the web, and Googling the name of the boat yielded just one hit. Here it is…
http://coastalscience.com/news/cse-assi ... ue-at-sea/

From there on it was a matter of picking up the phone and calling people. Here’s a summary of what I learned about the boat’s history. It’s interesting to me, and likely only me, but I’ll post it here to archive it for any future owners of this boat. It’s condensed and I’ve left out specific names.

1999 C-Dory Cruiser 22, HID #DOR22866J999 has spent almost all of its life as a work boat, and it shows. It really shows. Boats that are used as pleasure craft don't know how good they have it!

It was purchased new by someone (never learned who this was) and sold shortly thereafter to engineering company #1 (see rescue story above) in South Carolina around 2001, I spoke with a long-time employee who told me they used it as a survey boat all over the east coast, including in Moriches Inlet on Long Island, Oregon Inlet in South Carolina, off the Outer Banks and areas off Georgia. It was fitted with scuba tank racks and a water pump was mounted on the cockpit deck. He said it was very seaworthy, but they found it to be too light for rough water (they were often in surf), making for an uncomfortable ride. They replaced it with a heavier boat that had a more comfortable ride. It incurred no damage during their ownership, except that one of the fuel tanks unexpectedly developed a leak, making for a slippery cockpit floor on the way back to the dock. They replaced it with a new one from the C-Dory factory.

They sold the boat in 2008 to engineering company #2 in South Carolina. I called them and spoke with a current employee. I learned from him that during the time they had the boat, the only damage it incurred was that the swim ladder was ripped of the step while pulling the boat onto the trailer. It was eventually sold to engineering company #3 in South Carolina.

I called engineering company #3 and was directed to a past employee who was familiar with the boat, but no longer working for the company. I contacted this gentleman, who told me that while he was working there, someone left the boat tied up to a dock in late summer of 2014. The next morning the boat was flipped upside down in the water. It was tied up in an industrial area (across the river from Blount Island) with large boats going in and out and speculation is that at some point, as the tide went out and back in during the night, the wake from a large boat banged it around and flipped it. The front of the bow rail and the bow roller were broken off. The motor was never running during this time so the info from the link referenced earlier was not accurate.

The boat was removed the same day and damage to the bottom of the hull was discovered. The individual I talked to thinks this occurred at a prior time and was never noticed because the scrape was hidden by a trailer bunk. At any rate, at this point engineering company #3 filed an insurance claim on the boat, and it was sold to a marine repair company on James Island. I tried to contact this company, but they are apparently out of business as their phone is no longer in service.

I wish I could talk to them because I assume that it was they who repaired the hull damage, and I’d like to know the extent of the damage and how the repair was done. There is a rectangular painted-over area on the hull, but it’s centered over a trailer bunk so I can’t tell much about it at this point. This will be a principal area to investigate when I get the boat into my shop late next summer.

After 2014 things get fuzzy. No one has registered the boat since the South Carolina tags expired in 2015. When the boat was offered for sale in February of 2018 it apparently (according to link above) had a Honda 90 mounted on the transom. The title I obtained (which is a clear standard title), shows it was registered in July of 2018 from the seller I bought it from. Also, when it showed up on eBay, it no longer had the non-working Honda 90 that it apparently had in February of 2018. It was advertised on eBay as having a “wrong motor”, which was a “non-working” 150hp Mercury. It was also an extra-long-shaft motor and obviously a misfit. Someone had removed the carbs and they were in a box in the cabin.

As the seller was not available for more questions the day I picked up the boat, I dealt with the seller’s agent to finalize the sale. I learned from the agent that the seller “was furious” when they discovered that it had an incorrectly sized motor on it and that it needed carburetor work. The seller was not prepared to do any boat work themselves, needed cash, and just wanted out. I suspect I am the third owner since February of 2018.

 

[pcg]

Trailering the boat back to the PNW…

As for the trailer, I assumed it would need a lot of work at best and brought equipment to repack bearings, replace brake pads, etc. When I saw the shape it was in I decided it was not worth repairing. I left it with the seller’s agent and had Charleston Trailer build a custom tandem trailer for the boat. They dropped everything and spent the two days before Thanksgiving measuring, building the trailer, and lifting the boat onto it. Wonderful folks!

I was intending to keep and repair the motor for resale, but after a day of pondering my life over the next few years, I decided I didn’t need another project. At that point it was dead weight that I didn’t want to haul back to Oregon so I gave it and the controls to the first person I could find that could remove it for me with four hours notice. If the motor has no other problems than carburetion then they got a great deal and I’m happy for them.

The trip back to Oregon was uneventful. I took the southern route back to avoid a blizzard in Wyoming. I was on the road a total of eleven days, including three in Charleston, for a total of 6,500 miles. I slept in my heated camper every night and listened to NPR, the Rolling Stones, and The Grateful Dead during the day. I went through 19 states and the ones in the south were all new to me so that was fun. And I can never get enough of the American West so that was fun as well. The trailer and boat rode so well that I hardly noticed it was behind me.

As soon as I got home I carefully measured all of the interior cabinetry, then photographed every detail of how the boat was fitted - all the fastener locations, wiring, plumbing, etc. Then I stripped the boat of cabinetry, tanks, and hoses. I’m leaving the existing wiring for now, as a reference for how the boat was originally wired, but will eventually strip all of it as well.

I saved the SeaStar 1.7 hydraulic steering system, compass, the water and fuel tanks, anchor/chain/rode, and some items stowed in the berth area, including a nice 25’ fiberglass telescoping sounding pole. Because of its cool factor I also saved a large orange flashing strobe light that was stowed there as well. The hole in the mounting plate matches the two big bolts mounted on either side of the cabin roof so I assume there used to be two of these up there, and the other was destroyed when the boat rolled against the dock. If the remaining one doesn’t work after cleaning that will be my first disappointment. :sad

I’m taking the old analogue gauges to Goodwill, and I was going to take the alcohol stove to Goodwill as well, as it looked to be in good shape after cleaning, but when I looked underneath I saw that the galvanized box was rusted so I threw it out, as I don’t want an alcohol stove. Surprisingly, except for rusted fasteners where the cabinetry was affixed to the cabin floor, and corrosion on the manual aluminum wiper controls (which are frozen), there is no sign of anything ever having been wet. The cushions in the berth area obviously came from another boot as they didn’t fit, so I threw them out. The ones in the cabin were functional but faded. I’ll use them only for patterns for new ones, then throw them out. Same for the snap-on accessories like the berth entry cover and window covers.

After removing all of the above, I thoroughly pressure washed the entire boat – inside and out. I towel dried it, brought it inside an (unheated) outbuilding, set up a dehumidifier and light bulb (for a little heat) inside the cabin, and parked it for the winter. I plan to remove some foam under the berth area as soon as possible, both for future storage and also because I’ve read of other boat owners finding moisture in the foam when it was removed, and I want to get all the moisture out of the boat over the winter.

As soon as I do that I’ll post some photos of that process, along with some “before” photos and my preliminary damage assessment and what I think I'm up against for the next couple years.

 

[hardee]

Paul, What a great write up, and incredible research. Hopefully there will be a C-BRAT local to where that repair shop was that may be able to lend a hand in researching that repair facility and crew. Congratulations on your find and on making good decisions and good progress already. You sound like this is going to be a piece of cake adventure for you, and I hope it is. Challenges, one day at a time keep life interesting. Please, keep up the writing, and some photos into the albums would be great.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

 

[pcg]

...You sound like this is going to be a piece of cake adventure for you...

Ha! Well I didn't mean to give that impression, but it will certainly be an adventure.

... Challenges, one day at a time keep life interesting...

Yes!

... Hopefully there will be a C-BRAT local to where that repair shop was that may be able to lend a hand in researching that repair facility and crew...

What a great idea Harvey. Thank you!
I think the repairs were done at Dukes Marine Service in Charleston, which apparently is no longer in business. Anyone know anyone who worked there in 2014 or 2015?

 

[hardee]

Paul said these:

".....a marine repair company on James Island. I tried to contact this company, but they are apparently out of business as their phone is no longer in service.

....I wish I could talk to them because I assume that it was they who repaired the hull damage, and I’d like to know the extent of the damage and how the repair was done.

....I think the repairs were done at Dukes Marine Service in Charleston, which apparently is no longer in business. Anyone know anyone who worked there in 2014 or 2015?"

Are these all in South Carolina? Sometimes the states can be helpful too.

Harvey
SleepyC:moon

 

[thataway]

Thanks for the great and detailed write up. I would check out the core in the areas of the repair, and where every screw penetrated the hull. You may want to tab the wood cabinets in with fiberglass, rather than the "L" brackets and screws.

It sounds like a great project and will turn out with your having a beautiful and functional boat.

 

[pcg]

...Are these all in South Carolina?...

Yes, I should have been more explicit. Everything happened in South Carolina. Thanks Harvey.

...I would check out the core in the areas of the repair, and where every screw penetrated the hull. You may want to tab the wood cabinets in with fiberglass, rather than the "L" brackets and screws...

I will do all of those. Thank you Bob!

As I post more information, I'm hoping that people won't hesitate to state their opinions or concerns or advice. Members' suggestions are valuable to me!

 

[hardee]

Paul, You are welcome, and way ahead of me in carpentry, boat building and mechanical technical skills. AND this is a great place so there are lots of good, smart and experienced folks here that are very helpful.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

 

[olsurfdog]

PCG, great write up!
Yes, as Dr Bob said, be sure to seal up all penetrations into the core by undercutting the hole, filling with thickened epoxy and then redrilling for the fastening. This gives some solid support to whatever is fastened (no crushing of the core) and keeps any water that gets past bedding out of the core. Unfortunately, this is expensive for the builder to do so most don’t take this step. Dr Bob has pics of how to do this in his Thataway pictures. He also as a host of other excellent tutorials there. There are also other descriptions in the forums. A search should turn these up.

 

[pcg]

Preliminary damage assessment…
Here is a summary of my preliminary damage assessment. I’ve documented most of these areas in my photo album.

Gelcoat damage:

In general, the boat is cosmetically a real mess. The gelcoat has numerous chips and spider and stress cracks on the topside. Some of these have been poorly repaired and painted over. There are also numerous small scratches in the gelcoat below the waterline. The gelcoat damage gives me the most concern because I have no experience repairing it. At any rate, much of it I plan on sanding away because I want to know if and where the fiberglass is cracked underneath.

Fiberglass damage:

There is damage to the port side of the boat that I presume happened when the boat rolled against the dock. This includes a crack in the port roof and a possible crack (as evidenced by gelcoat cracks) in the port gunnel area.

There are some tabbed areas where gelcoat is cracked and the fiberglass may be as well. The worst of these is at the bottom of the berth area bulkhead, on the port side of the opening. This may be related to the hull damage under the trailer bung.

There is a large gelcoat crack (indicating possible fiberglass crack underneath) at the forward end of the potty storage area, on the upper starboard corner.

A semi-critical cored area that will need to be repaired is the deck at the bow, where the anchor roller bolts tore out. I’m not too concerned about rot here because moisture was only present for a few hours at this location. My biggest concern is to make sure it is thoroughly dry and that any soft or missing core is replaced and the area properly sealed. I haven't removed the deck pipe yet, but I will do so when I finish stripping the hardware. I suspect that the opening through the core was not properly sealed and there will be core damage here as swell.

There is core damage in both sides of the cockpit deck caused by improperly mounted rod holders. There is also an ugly crack in starboard cockpit deck caused by above. I will also be checking for core damage in other deck penetrations such as fuel and water fill locations.

The areas I am most concerned about are the cockpit floor and transom. There are no obvious soft spots, but both areas have holes that were probably not properly sealed, and there are some small cracks in the gelcoat around the top edge of the transom corners that may indicate cracked fiberglass and subsequent damaged core.

Lastly, there is that unknown repair that was made in the cored portion of the hull. At the very least I’ll be sanding away the rectangular painted patch on the bottom of the hull to try to determine what was done. I may also open this area up from inside the cabin floor. That would allow me to examine the core and make any needed repairs.

I’m encouraged by the fact that all users told me that the boat, with very few exceptions, was rarely stored in the water overnight. This is evidenced by the fact that the bottom is clean gelcoat - no bottom paint was ever applied, and there is no evidence that barnacles were ever scraped off.

Other damage:
The front of the bow rail is broken off and the breaks are not clean (i.e. the tubing is crimped at the break). If I can’t do a clean repair then I’ll weld up a new bow rail. In either case, this will be my excuse to finally get a TIG welder.

Final damage assessment will have to wait until I have all hardware stripped and gelcoat has been sanded away from suspect areas. That won't happen until next fall as I have other more pressing projects to finish first.

The final task I wanted to do right away was to remove foam in the berth storage area to check for moisture. See my next post for details.

 

[pcg]

Foam removal…

There were three things driving my desire to remove foam under the berth area.
1) Storage. We want more storage space.
2) Battery location. I want to get as much weight off the stern as possible. I also want the battery management hardware inside and out of the weather, but close to the batteries. I am thinking that just forward of the forward cabin bulkhead might be a good location, so this will give me that option.
3) To allow moisture to escape. I’d read of other C-Dory owners discovering moisture in the foam when they removed it. For obvious reasons, if there was moisture in there, I wanted it out. The only way to find out and the only way to remove moisture if it was present, was to remove the foam.

First of all, thank you to the first C-Dory owner who had the courage to do this! I was hesitant to start at first because, after all, this is a major alteration that would be almost impossible to reverse. I first searched for a small plug that other owners had found, which indicates that the area was foamed. I found none so I thought maybe my boat had no foam. With that in mind, I decided to first check for moisture by installing an inspection plate on the floor in the berth area, where the Porta-Potty is stored.

Surprise! When I cut out a circular area for the inspection plate I found it was foamed to the top, and the foam was dry! My relief was short-lived, however, as I began to dig it out. There is a 2" space between the floor and the hull at this location that is completely filled with foam, and the bottom inch of it was wet. You can see this in the photo in my album that the bottom portion of the foam is darker in color. There was no standing water, but if you took a handful of the stuff you could squeeze out water drops.

That cinched the deal and I began thinking through how I wanted to cut up the berth area. At first I thought I would put drawers in the Porta-Potty area, to make access to storage easier. Otherwise access would have to be on top, under the cushions – not convenient. Then I realized that the bottom of the storage area was not flat, which would make the design of drawers problematic.

I ended up cutting three hatches on the top, one on either side and one at the back. These are accessible only by removing the sleeping cushions, but they give access to much more storage area than drawers would. I may still build a drawer into the rear of the Porta-Potty storage space. It would protrude into the opened up area accessed by the rear hatch, but would at least allow a portion of that space to be easily accessed, and the fact that that area can also be accessed from the top makes the installation of a drawer easier.

I then tunneled underneath the floor of the portable toilet storage area, just forward of where the hull coring ends and between the two rear storage spaces. This provides plenty of room to run battery cables, should I decide to store batteries in this area.

The foam removal was pretty straightforward. Others have documented it and I did as well in my photo album. To core underneath the floor I sharpened the end of a piece of 3/4 steel pipe and hammered it into the foam. I pushed the foam cores out of the pipe with a wooden dowel. Once I was all the way through, I used a small putty knife to enlarge the area. The fact that this tunnel goes underneath the round access hole I cut in the floor, made this task much easier.

The one surprise was the discovery of a somewhat sloppy application of something that appears to be bondo, on the hull over the keel region. So much was applied that two large blobs of it were squeezed out from under the floor of the portable toilet storage area when that section was lowered onto the hull. These chunks sort of glued themselves to the hull, but came up easily with a slight tug. The hull was wet underneath them.

So where does this moisture come from? I tasted it, expecting it to be salty, but there was only a very faint sensation of saltiness. Mainly the taste was somewhat sour and yucky, as one can imagine it would be. I may eventually remove the foam all the way up to the anchor locker, in an effort to determine where this moisture came in. This will have to wait until next fall though. For now I'm glad I got this area opened up so it can dry out.

What’s next? The only other thing I may do to the boat this winter is remove the huge ugly (but very functional) rub rail. I could wait until next fall, but I’m curious to see what’s underneath it and I’m not sure I can wait until then. I’ll be replacing it eventually, not sure with what.

Other than that, I have lots of learning and planning to do. I want to have all aspects of the boat design finished before I start fiberglass repair work next fall, as I will likely be making small modifications to the existing fiberglass as well. Also, I want to thoroughly research the repair and application of gelcoat, repair and application of non-skid surfaces, and application of various paints such as Awlgrip.

I’m so glad I have this site to post questions – more will be coming!

 

[nimrod]

you might also consider putting your batteries and batt mgt hardware under the aft dinette seat. You'd accomplish the same goal with a simpler install and a shorter wire run from your OB.

Pictures of my setup in my album.

Best of luck on your rebuild. Sounds like fun (mostly).

jd