Any Old " WOOD BOATERS" Left out there ?

J

Jimmy.S

Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2010
RO Number
31922
Messages
111
Just bought this 42' 1969 Pacemaker wood Motor yacht. any tips from the old "wood boaters" out there (OTHER THEN DUMP IT)? Here are some pictures I took and I am going to be posting as many as I can from here on out to keep everyone posted on the progress of the project, She needs paint and pretty work mostly the twin 320's were recently rebuilt and only have about 3 or 4 hours on them , most of the paint is done with the exception of the flying bridge, bottom and some varnish around the helm some carpet, and some water staining going on around A couple of windows someone left open A bit.

Salon.jpg

Mainhelmarea.jpg

Mainhelmcontrols.jpg

Lookingdownatdeckfromflyingbridge.jpg

Galley3.jpg

Flyingbridge.jpg

ELENALYNN7.jpg

ELENALYNN6.jpg

ELENALYNN5.jpg

ELENALYNN4.jpg

ELENALYNN3.jpg

ELENALYNN2.jpg

ELENALYNN1.jpg
 
I've been "messing around" with wooden boats most of my life .... nothing like them!! But as Yzer says,
you have to enjoy the work ... and it looks like you have a lot of "enjoyment" in your project.
Good luck and keep the photos coming!
 
Jimmy,

I belong to the Classic Yacht Club of America and I believe 90% or more of the members have wooden boats. We have a very active club on the Chesapeake Bay. Were are you and the boat located?

http://www.classicyachtclub.org/
 
Beautiful boat Jimmy...if you're not familiar with Pacemakers, make sure you "swell her up" before you launch her. I grew up on a 1969 Cruis A Long El Doarado Express and would LOVE to have time to keep up a wooden boat. When they went to fiberglass, they lost something. Good luck with her, and keep us posted.
 
be careful when launching. Today’s boat workers dont know that wood boats leak after launch. A local marina sank an old cruiser that was otherwise in good shape because they didnt know about wood boats.
 
start to find sources for stuff such as monel screws. check those two planks on the port side that stand proud of the surface.
 
quote:
Originally posted by pdecat

start to find sources for stuff such as monel screws. check those two planks on the port side that stand proud of the surface.

Click to expand...


Definitely... you have some bad fasteners there, and probably more.
 
If you haven’t already do so it is a good idea to open everything up and inspect all the ribs, every one. cracked or rotten ribs are the cause of many hull problems. a little sistering early on can save a lot of trouble later.
 
Jimmy.S---Congratulations on your purchase of a fine older "motor yacht" (not sedan)... Pacemaker learned fairly early on that if they built a boat with eye appeal to the woman boater, then they would enjoy much success in their marketing, and it worked out pretty well for them, I would say.

I am wondering if you had a survey performed for a couple of reasons - one insurability, if even available, and two, so that you would know what you were getting into. The launch could prove to be interesting, but as others have already asserted, just be sure that you either pre-swell the bottom, or be sure that the boatyard crew is standing-by with pumps as the swelling process will take a few hours (I am guessing that you already know this).

Have you already inspected the ribs wherever you can view them? That, in my opinion, would be pretty important as you really do not want to have a series of cracked or broken ribs that would affect her seaworthiness.

You look like a young guy, so that should mean that you have lots of P&V to attend to all that she needs. Pay particular attention to the windows and window tracks as well as any other place that H2O will or may accumulate as those will be your inherent weak spots. Remember that there is no such thing as a panacea and that all surfaces will need to be prepared and coated, perhaps multiple times, to keep the moisture out. The painting is the painting and if the surfaces are whole, then all it will take is good preparation, patience and elbow grease.

She is a lovely boat with lots of livability that appears to need a couple of good and thorough cleanings inside after which you should (hopefully) be good to go.

One of my oldest and dearest friends (they had tons of $$$ and I really should have married their daughter) owned one for many years, although powered with the small Cummins diesels.

I wish you much luck and enjoyment with her.
 
I will be A picture snapping fool come March when we go up for the week the wife made me cancel our trip to Punta Cana for our anniversary so she and I can get A full week in on her. I want to go from front to back under the floor to check for any rot or cracked ribs as per the owner before the previous, he said there was none when he had it but it wont hurt to look anyway. I tracked him down and talked to him for A good long while to pick his brain for as much info as I could and got A LOT out of him. He said he loved that boat and missed it and would like to go out on it this summer which I think is A good idea I can get any little quirks and tricks out of him then too. He also helped me out with the to do list, was very adiment on repeating over and over MAKE SURE YOU SWELLER GOOD KID !! Check everything 2 or 3 times and take your time launching her and added that he was getting ready to change the transome when he sold it but never got the chance to do it but it should only take 2 1/2 days to do and it isn't hard or expensive to do being A retired cabinet Maker I should have no problem but if I need an extra hand give him A call and told me that he sold it to the guy I got it from and he took it to where I got it, did some work on it then lost it to me. He only had it for about 6 months and the trip from where he bought it to where it is now was only like an hour so this guy owned it for 6 months and only had it on the water during his ownership of it for an hour or so. Bummer for him says I. But over all I think it was A good find for me for $3.500 bucks. As for where we will be porting as someone asked Kendall NY on Lake Ontario. I thank you all for your comments and keep them coming as I will keep the pictures coming.
 
I'm assuming that the boat had the bottom refastened at some time due to her age. If not, you better look into it.
When I bought my '71, 37' Egg Harbor back in 1997, I had the bottom refastened.
Boat was out of the water for 6 weeks being worked on. When the owner of the yard put the boat back in the water, late one afternoon, it was with the understanding that I spend the night on board and he left the boat in the sling. He also gave me a big sump pump just in case water started coming in fast and furious.
THe boat did pretty good that first night with minimal leaking but I was told, again by the yard owner, not even think about starting the engines for at least 3 days while the boat swelled up and settled back into its shape. I had a 7 mile run to take it back to my home marina and all this was in the middle of the winter.
 
Jimmy,

There was a beautiful Chris Craft slipped next to us many years. The most the owner worked on were the engines, just like the rest of us. He enjoyed working on the wood so much that I would be hard pressed to call it work to him, and that love showed in his boat.

Many, many years ago when I built houses, one of the few trades I learned to do well and perform at a professional level was wood working and cabinet building. Still is a lovehobby of mine and I am setting up a shop in a new garage I just built to dabble again as there are some project that our old house needs done. I still love the smell of freshly cut wood.

I see from your profile you were an electrician also. I am a project manager of heavy industrial commercial general contractor. We have in house architects, engineers and self perform our concrete and red iron. I have no fear of heights, big cranes, heavy equipment, and rolling the dice on hundreds of thousand dollars of must be right, one shot concrete placements daily.

Electrical is the one trade that continues to scare me.

Thanks so much for joining BE and sharing your boat and experience with her and looking forward to more.

What a great project and labor of love…I should be so lucky whenif I retire.

A fan…..

Stan
 
Eleventh picture down, port side of the stern,

Are those young gents part of your crew?

Stan
 
'll look forward to watching your progress and enjoyment of that great old boat.

Swelling the hull after launch is always an experience. I got good advise the first time around and was told to "watch" the boat for 48 hours before taking her out after a full dry-out. That meant staying onboard for the 48 hrs and sleeping with one foot on the cabin sole: they said I'd wake up if my foot got wet. Attention is required during watch as the bottom seams swell up and seal. Debris floating around in the bilge can clog bilge pumps with nasty results.

Wooden boats can leak like a sieve if they have been fully dried out and the wood never returns to 100% of full size. That's why it's important to limit haul outs to a couple of days maximum for bottom paint or other maintenance if at all possible. If the boat has been hauled out for a few days leakage is minimal after splash. Full dry-out of cruisers should be limited to haul-outs for plank replacements or frame member work.

Materials and parts for these woodies are surprisingly available today. The internet can be your best friend. Yes, silicon bronze screws are available and not that expensive in quantity.

If you have questions feel free to ask and I'll try my best. With the exception of canvas and upholstery my boat is a DIY project. The old woodies can bounce back from a lot of neglect surprisingly well but it's a lot easier in the long run to keep them well maintained.

Nothing looks better on the water than a nice wooden boat.
 
Have to agree, wood boats have a certain charisma that plastic can never match. But they ARE a lot of work/$$$ to maintain.

Before launching I'd install a LOUD bilge alarm (just to make sure you wake up). They're worth their weight in bilge pumps!!!
 
Ok Ok Ok,,, now I'm starting to worry A bit WHAT THE HECK IS REFASTENING THE BOTTOM? how do I find out if this was done? CAN I do this myself or is it A major undertaking? If not where can I get it done and for how much? What will happen if it is not and I put her in will she sink? The owner of the Marina said we are going to pre-swell or "Flood her",,(his words.) He said he wants to do this for at least 2 days before launching just to be sure it's A good swell and I was planning on staying on her for the 2 days of "flooding" and the 2 days after we put her in going up May 14th in the morning puttin her in on the 16th and coming home on the 18th or so the plan goes. I can't start the engines for 3 days after I launch? How the heck am I going to get her to my slip? This guy only has 1 launch and his sling is out of commission and wont be back up and running by the time we put her in and my slip is like 1000 feet from his launch.. If she needs to spring back into shape after A full dry out and I replace the transom before this happens will it ruin my transom fitting work? OH.... and I have checked everything that I could see below the floor and in the engine compartment and saw no rot or cracked ribs all looks clean and solid but believe me I will be checking at least A few more times you cant be too careful I don't want to get in A hurry with anything here. That's it for now,, sorry guys just couldn't sleep with those questions on my mind and I had to vent off some concerns. I might just shout out some questions like that in the future just to give ya'll A heads up I strongly believe there is no stupid question except the one you never asked and if I don't know I will find out by asking. Thanks
 
OK, hate to be the bearer of bad news but refastening the bottom is very labor intensive, dirty and costly work. Yes you can do it yourself, but it takes a long time, laying on your back underneath the boat. I know of some people who did it sections at a time over several years.
If it hasn't been done, you could loose a plank or planks especially on a boat that old.
There are 2 ways to do it. The quick way is to put in new screws next to all the old ones. If you do it that way, you have to be really careful that all the holes you drill are being drilled into ribs. It's easy to miss ribs and drill into nothing.
The best way to do it, is pull all the wood plugs that cover the screws, remove the old screws and replace with new and replug.
I had an old salt who did the work for me. He charged me $2000 for the job and another $1400 for the screws plus the cost of haul-out and chalking the seams. Seems like the whole job was around $5000 and that was 12 years ago.
When we did the work, the guy showed me some of the screws he pulled out. The ones fairly close to the waterline weren't too bad, but the deeper down the hull he went, the worse they got. Basically, most if not all the threads had corroded away, so there was little to grab the ribs to hold the planks in place. And this was on a boat that was about 26 years old. That's why I said, considering the age of your boat, I hope it was done some years ago. Your boat is 40 years old. It should have been refastened at least 10 years ago.
If you can't find out from the previous owners, you need to find someone who does this kind of work and pull some screws to check their condition. Pull at least 10-15 from different places low on the keel.
Now if it hasn't been done and all you are going to use the boat for is a floating condo and occasionally puttering (slow speeds only) around protective waters, I wouldn't go to the expense of doing this. But if your plans are to really use this boat as it was meant to be used, refastening is a must. Your life and the lives of your loved ones depend on it.
 
I hope you looked at the thread I posted earlier on Pizzazz. The links to the underwater photos shot by the diver clearly show plank failure at the bow.

That's why she went down so fast, hell her engines were still running and the props were still spinning in the video when they broke the surface.

And that boat looked magnificient.

Perhaps a SURVEY by a wood boat specialist would be a reasonable investment/insurance plan?

RWS
 
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