At last I have managed to complete on my new boat. It has taken longer than I expected but I hope it is a case of ''good things come to those who wait''
As you can see from the pic she has had the wheelhouse extended at some time but this will serve my purpose well. There is seating around the back and port side which makes into a double berth.
As far as I can tell she is a 1976 boat but I have been told that she might infact have been built in 1981. It matters little to me but if anyone knows how to find out when she was built i would be grateful for the info. I wouldn't want to come unstuck in the event of an insurance claim.
Throughout her life she has been used as a creel boat, a sea angling boat and lastly as an inter island ferry. She has a Ford sabre 280 driving a 4 bladed prop through a ZF gearbox. At present the paintwork is shabby but by April she will have had a refurb and be looking in much better shape. I intend using her for sea angling and wildlife trips around the Island of Mull, so if any of you are heading this way we also run a B&B and a self catering caravan, you are welcome to drop in.
Hope everyone elses plans come to fruition as well
Very nice indeed! That extended wheelhouse does make her look a lot more balanced than the usual workboat configuration.
Sea angling and wildlife trips around the Isle of Mull eh? Lucky man, that beats hell out of sitting in an office, somewhere in the South of England!
I wouldn't have thought you would have had any problems with your insurance company provided you level with them. They will apreciate that it is a circa thirty old boat - exact date of construction unknown. I doubt if it will matter to them whether it's actually 27 or 33 years old. It is a Lochin so will still be going long after most of the boats exhibited at the last boat show have been scrapped.
Maybe you'll be able to post a few more pictures of it and keep us abreast of the fefurb.
I will certainly keep you abreast of the re-furb. I was going to wait till after someone else posted but things are so quiet I guess it is use it or lose it time, so here goes.
I have added a picture of the bow as she is at present - pretty ugly eh? that would take serious abuse to get that bad. When I get one of after the paint job I will stick it on to compare the 2.
I will also add a picture one of my neighbours supplied me when he owned the boat some 16 years ago and she worked as a creel boat (the child is now 18 yrs old) It is probably nearer the original colour but had already been painted then. At that time she was powered by a BMC engine although which one remains unclear - probably a 6 cylinder one though.
Is there a recomendation for how much chain these boats should carry or is it down to the skipper, I will have a plough and a M claw back up anchor with one lot of chain and warp in the locker and a spare one in a bin.
This forum does go very quiet at times and I don't know why - Harold, Stugsy, Geoff, Dave etc, where are you?
Judging by the photo of your bow section, it looks as there is a huge thickness of paint that has been chipped and repeatedly painted over. I would have thought that to get it looking good again; you would have had to get rid of all of the old paint and start again.
There are chemical paint strippers available but are probably messy but you could probably get the hull blast cleaned. Harold is the fiberglass guru on this forum and I think you need his advice.
My only question about doing a good paint job now is are you sure that you won't want to change anything like the location of skin fittings (live bait tanks etc) in six months or a years time? My paint job is pretty ropey but I'm leaving it untill last when I've got the boat exactly as I want it. Maybe as mine is in a lighter colour; the poor paint doesnt show up as much.
I can't work out from the photos what you are using for an anchor winch. For anchoring whilst fishing etc some people will use a legnth of chain that goes only from the anchor in the stem head back to the capstan so that you dont wind chain round the capstan.
I can appreciate you want too get looking spick and span ready for the season but alot of mistakes can be made until you starting using your boat for the first season. As for the paint job,my local boatyard have just painted a 40 plus footer in Awlgrip dark blue and the finish is fantastic although at a price im sure.. As for your own in the right conditions and time im sure you will get a good job but may be worth having a quote.
Re the anchoring question.. Blue Swell has a 15kg Bruce stowed in coc-pit, boats length of chain and about 400 ft of warp. I use a Lazy line and Anchor recovery ring and have a capstan mounted on sidedeck. Have no problems with this but each too there own methods and experiment a bit. I have a CQR stowed on forward deck with boats length of chain and 250 ft of warp which is stowed in Bow Chain Locker. May be worth fitting stainless plate to protect that bow section from further damage, perhaps before you paint!
I have 2 choices for anchor winch the quick electric windlass on the bow or the hydraulic one on the stbd gunnel. I think I will just use the m claw and a short length of chain for fishing especially in mud/sand and leave the cqr on the bow for overnight stops, I will still reduce the amount of chain though, lugging that load around will not only destroy the trim but cost a fortune in wasted fuel. Plus I can keep the spare anchor near the stern to help lighten the bow (she sits down by the head now)
I think you are right about the thickness of paint, some of it looks as though it was put on with a yard brush on a windy day. The only good thing is it is solid and as such a reasonable foundation. The yard are going to fare (fair?) the worst areas with a mixture of filling and blending in and then repaint with single pack paint. A full rub down and re-gel would be far too expensive for me and a s a working boat she will get dings and knocks which I will be able to touch up easily enough myself.
I wasn't suggesting that you have the boat re-gelcoated - that would be very expensive. It is just that you seem to have a masive thickness of paint already on there and my assumption is that the bond of the original coat is unsound - that is probably why you have the big chips that have been painted over.
If you get it faired in and painted over it is likely that it will chip again and the paint would be even thicker then and harder to touch up.
I'm no expert in painting but I would have thought that a better long term solution would be to get rid of the old paint altogether (by blasting?), then make good any damage directly to the hull with epoxy filler then paint it.
If your paint looks as it was put on with a yard brush, you are lucky - mine looks like it was applied with a garden rake!
Your anchoring set up sounds like the sort of thing I am aiming for, lightweight and easy to handle. What sort of depths do you find you are able to reliably anchor in with 30' of chain? some of the places round here are quite deep and skate fishing requires anchoring in deep water.
Never thought of putting a plate over the bow, I will see how careful I can be this year, if it gets damaged by me I will seriously consider it.
Well my Anchor set up is straight forward for single handed operation as i tend too use my boat alone in week.
I have rope form coc-pit running upto bow then outside of rails back to coc-pit. Anchor ,chain and warp all stored in coc-pit. I use an 8" anchor recovery ring and lazy line only because once hauled i bring chain and anchor back to coc-pit rather than stow in bow roller by hauling the lazy line on the capstan. As for depth of water i can usually get Anchor to hold in 150 ft dependant on tide and usually 3 -4 times depth of warp but obviously need bit more warp at times.
We have been (my father and myself) involved with Lochin since 1976, so we have got a bit of knowledge about years of the manufacturing. In 1975 Lochin was still producing boats with windows fitted in timber frames. Looking at your boat the forward looking windows of the wheelhouse look like aluminium framed. However, the main bulkhead I see that the windows have timber frames. This suggests to me that the boat would be around 1976 era. It really doesn't matter as they were all incredibly well built.
When my dad ordered his boat in 1977, Frank Nichols was talking about BMC engines so the previous engine in your boat may have been the original one.
In regard to your paint work. I would agree with Chas that there appears to be many layers of paint that have been applied. The point always is how well has it been done? I would certainly not use a paint stripper as I have seen some bad results. The best way to remove the paint is with an orbital sander. The single pack polyurithane paint is really easy to apply with a foam roller and then brush it off with a good quality brush. Maybe it is good advice from the boys to use the boat for a year or so and address the problem later on.
Is the stern gear in good order? and what about the rudder set up? In my opinion that would be much more important then the cosmetic details. Problem is, we humans want everything glossy. Would love to see some interior photos too. Good luck with it. Harold
1976 would fit what I have already been told. All the windows were replaced sometime in the last 10 years or so, the only pic of historical notes are the ones my neighbour let me have.
The stern gear apears to be in good order, there is no play in the shaft bearings and the surveyor/engineer were happy enough. There is a new rope cutter fitted and the prop is still sound. I am having a chip on one blade repaired so the prop dresser will have a good look at the prop when I get it to him (not easy from here) The rudder is stainlees and seems fine.
I am having the engine serviced/checked by the engineer who fitted it 12 years ago. Nothing major I hope but the boat has stood for 18 months so I think it will be prudent to replace belts and impellors etc. Aslo, some of the hose clips have corrosion on them so I will swap them for stainless and it will be a good time to check that none of the hoses have perished or cracked.
Thanks for all the helpful comments, I am going to try and start fettling the interior next weekend, I will try and get some interior shots then. She is stripped of all removable gear at present so doesn't look at her best but you should get the idea.
