£100 Phantom

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neil
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£100 Phantom

Post by neil »

Collected my latest project last weekend. Bought unseen via Nessa's Dinghies for Sale FB Group. Bit of a risk but finally got the cover off today and had a good poke around.

Turns out the boat is one of the four composite boats built by Rondar in the early 80s and is 873, not 274 as advertised. Has had fittings stripped off and most of the varnish removed. The veneer has lifted on the ply on the bulkhead. Not salvageable, so will need some attention and the bulkhead painted. The decks need some work but should be fine to varnish, some water-staining and a gunwale needs reattaching.

Comes with a decent rig and a couple of still crispy sails, just a shame that they were left in the boat and the mice have set up home in the one in the bag and have nibbled the other one that was on the boom. They both need a couple of patches, some boltrope repairs and a good clean, so they'll be off to Westaways for the winter. They should be fine for the first year or so.

Foils look good, has a recent cover and a decent trolley. Will require a load of fittings and restringing, but thats all part of the fun.

Hull needs a good clean, but will be out and about at events in 2017.

Image

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Re: £100 Phantom

Post by Obscured by clouds »

for £100 I reckon that's a good buy.
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PeterV
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Re: £100 Phantom

Post by PeterV »

Well done Neil, looks like the basis for a good boat.
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neil
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Re: £100 Phantom

Post by neil »

Making good progress, should be finished in the next few weeks.

Got the the decks as good as I can get them, the bleached out and green ply won't take anymore sanding as the veneer is very thin as it's been sanded down a few times in the past.

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The rippled bulkhead was due to the hatch hole being cut in the wrong place when it was built - the builders glued the piece of ply back in and stuck a new veneer in place before cutting the hatch hole in the right place. Over the years the glue on this had failed causing it to ripple and split - hence the new veneer on the bulkhead - looks a better colour in real life as the pic is taken under a strip light

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The thing I was missing was a builders plate, I emailed Rondar to see if they would sell me one. This turned up in the post for free. They found a builders plate, and stamped it with the correct dates. Amazing service.

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Will stop varnishing now as I have fun bit to come - fitting it out using the collection of stuff bought of eBay and other sources. Made the decision to make this one cost neutral, so if I needed to buy something I's sell something else on eBay to pay for it.
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trebor
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Re: £100 Phantom

Post by trebor »

Not having had a wooden boat yet, when you say you had to stop sanding due to veneer being thin, what happens in a couple of years when she needs varnishing again ?
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Re: £100 Phantom

Post by JimC »

trebor wrote: what happens in a couple of years when she needs varnishing again ?
Ideally you revarnish before the old varnish has starting to degrade too much, and you don't need to sand off more than the outer layers of varnish. Thus you don't get down to bare wood and the existing veneer survives. But if you don't keep on top of it, well, you'll end up wanting to put new decks on.

This is why wooden boat maintenance really needs to be proactive, not reactive.
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neil
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Re: £100 Phantom

Post by neil »

absolutely, with a couple coats of UCP and numerous coats of Epifanes this should not need stripping down again.

This one had had most of the varnish removed when I bought it, but the decks had been be left unvarnished with the cover on, resulting loads of water staining and mould on the deck.

Netrol brought the colour back to a certain extent, it had been sanded badly, the veneer has been gone through in a couple of places.

The biggest crime was the sails had been left in the boat, one on the boom and one rolled in its bag. Mouse damage to both sails. Local sailmakers did an excellent job in cleaning and repairing the luff ropes.

One thing I have learned is never use Teamac deck paint. It's super non-slip, but is likely to rip though a wet suit or skin in seconds. After some experimentation found that a couple of coats of International Gloss calms it down giving a decent non-slip finish.
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trebor
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Re: £100 Phantom

Post by trebor »

You would think by now they would have developed varnish that would be semi permanent.
What degrades existing finishes the most UV or contact damp/puddling ?
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Ed
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Re: £100 Phantom

Post by Ed »

All varnish is semi-permanent.....

just some is more 'semi' than others.

Hard varnishes last longer and when they die, go in an unpredictable and fast way. They have a higher likelyhood of damaging the wood when removed.

Soft varnishes die quicker, and die in a slower and more predictable way. They are easier to remove with a higher chance of the wood surviving the process.

All varnish slowly de-grades. The UV filters are sacrificial and slowly die from the outside in. As Jim says, you have to be pro-active. When the outer layer has lost its UV protection, you remove it and replace with new varnish to replace the UV protection.

The problem is that it is not always obvious that the UV protection has gone until it is lost and the UV starts damaging the lower levels. Once this happens, the UV is now breaking down the connection of the inner coats with the wood. When this happens, you have no option but to take all the varnish off back to the wood.

For this reason, a popular way of varnishing is (as Neil has done) is to start off with a 'hard' primer . (UCP/ Blakes sealer / G4 / Jotun Wood sealer) to build a hard secure base level. Then you finish off with a soft varnish, (Epiphanes, Ravilak, Int/Blakes etc.

Then you make sure you keep replacing on topping up the top coats. If you are careful you will be able to remove the top coats without having to remove the hard lower coats.

The best of both worlds.

Best wishes

eib
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Re: £100 Phantom

Post by JimC »

Ed wrote:All varnish is semi-permanent.....
All very true...

UV degrades the varnish from the top down. Serious damp/wet in the wood degrades the wood/varnish bond. Both are equally bad really, and given half a chance they'll work together for maximum destructive potential... Pooled water is probably the bigger killer, but UV damage can provide the starting point

But the good news is that if you do keep ahead of things, with modern materials and regular proactive new topcoats the life span does seem to be indefinite.
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