Battleship 100 Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 The transom itself is probably marginally heavier but with all the other cockpit mods we did at the same time the boat is a little lighter. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
B00B00 310 Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 Yes I added a lot of carbon around the transom and rudder top gudgeon post to stiffen it all up. In reality though what's left of the transom is still a pretty big ring frame..... I was never concerned that it would be a problem. I also added carbon around the top half of the rudder as the gap between the gudgeons was a lot shorted and I didnt want it twisting. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Black Panther 1,586 Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 As I thought, a bit more than an afternoon with a chainsaw. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
B00B00 310 Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 David it was still really no more structure than was needed to actually complete the job, I didnt really add any more than the basic taping and fairing but used Carbon in some areas instead. And we did actually use a chainsaw too! Here is the text of the full report of the job that I did for the Marauder magazine. Shows details of the structure. The Transformation of a Marauder We brought the Cordite late 2009, she was in a pretty sorry state when we purchased her, batterys flat, interior mouldy, sails covers and squabs in tatters and just generally in an untidy, unloved condition. But I could see she had great bones and most of the expensive jobs had already been done leaving jobs that I knew I could do myself. The teak decks had been removed and the decks repaired and glassed all done professionally at a huge cost. The gloss paint was done but no non skid applied. There had been a brand new Facnor headsail furler fitted but no sails other than the #4 jib actually fitted. Rig had been out (while the boat was in a shed) and fully serviced. Cordite has an interesting history, She was launched in 1987 and is no ordinary Marauder, the hull is out of the same mould but that's about where it ends. She was built as a race boat by a professional boat builder with a foam core hull as opposed solid glass like almost all other marauders which means a lighter stiffer structure. Then the weight saved (reported to be around 200kg total) was put in the keel making 250mm deeper and heavier keel. Then the rig was lengthened by 1.4m and the forestay raised up the mast by around 1.6m giving a very generous sail plan to match the extra stability. But for now she is purely just a family cruiser fitted out with baby cots, and everything else needed to keep a family of 5 going for a few weeks- far from the race boat she was built as! Since owning the boat we have done quite a lot of work, all squabs, covers, and sails replaced, pressure hot and cold water (250L of water!) with a shower on the back, lee cloths all round the cockpit and on the bunks, spray dodger, engine service, new batteries, paint touch ups...... But the transom modification was always on my mind to make the loading and unloading of 3 kids under 5 easier. The thought of cutting it completely open sounded like a big job, probably bigger than a sailmaker like me could take on but I decided at the very least I would add duck boards to the transom. The plan was to haul the boat out for the winter and give it a bit of a makeover, the 3 big jobs were a full bottom scrape and re antifoul, interior refit and duckboards on the transom. I made a cardboard pattern for the duckboard and started laminating the new duckboards up at home, they were 25mm high density foam with 800gm double bias E glass on either side and carbon reinforcements. Actually making up the boards was relatively easy in the comfort of my workshop at home but attaching them to the transom was the hard part! I marked out the area to grind back and attacked the transom with a grinder. To get a good bond I had to take it right back to bare glass and take off all of the fairing, it turned out that there was a lot of fairing but after a full morning of grinding I was ready to go. I attached the Duckboards with epoxy glue and 2 layers of 450gm double bias carbon fibre to make sure it was strong. The next job was to fair the glass work. At this stage the transom was a mess and the thought of actually cutting the transom completely open while it was in pieces crossed my mind. I took my brother, who is a part time boat builder (he just finished building an 8.5m racing trimaran called ‘Stealth mission’) and another boat builder friend of mine up to have a look to see what they thought, sure enough they reckoned it would be easy enough so we pulled the chainsaw out and cut the transom open that day. We used a mixture of a chainsaw, sabre saw and grinder to cut it out and it actually only took about an hour. We then filled in the corners and cockpit floor with marine ply and glassed the whole lot with 450gm double bias with extra taping on the joins and an additional 2 layers of 450gm Carbon fibre around the transom join to make sure it was stiff enough to handle the rudder and backstay bridle loads as I didn’t want to have any movement. I didn’t see much point putting a new rudder under the hull so planned to keep the existing rudder modified and transom hung. I left a support in the middle of the transom to keep the 2 gudgeons apart and strengthened that with a support forward. After a huge amount more glass and carbon work I finally got it faired and the first coat of under coat on. This is where I got to see just how good it actually had come out and how much of a difference it was going to make to the boat! Interprotect, high build undercoat x 3 then 2 layers of topcoat and non skid and it was finally done. There were a lot of smaller pain in the ass jobs that I still had to do such as modify and fit the stainless steel pulpit and refit the cockpit lockers, re do the exhaust and bilge pump skin fittings, refit the throttle lever in a new spot, backstay chainplates, shower, rudder and gudgeon modifcations.... the list went on..... In between doing his I had scraped the bottom right back, refaired the keel (a whole task on its own) and done the full antifoul job with primocon followed by 2 coasts of ultra to give me a hard antifoul base and finally 3 coats of Altex #10 soft antifoul. I wanted to have the hard base so that I didn’t have to worry about rushing into a re antifoul once I started wearing down the soft stuff. Its a system proven to work ok so I thought I should do it once and do it right! Next was removing all the existing vinyl stripes and signwriting with a heat gun touching up the paint work, polishing the topsides and putting on a single new waterline stripe and signwriting. Man what a difference that made. I ended up not even going inside the boat pretty much the whole winter but had the dehumidifier cranking the whole time. The inside was so dry the floorboards had actually bowed slightly! But I hadn’t managed to do a single inside job... Still I was very happy with how the boat had turned out and the good ship Cordite ticked all the boxes with what we needed in cruising boat. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Black Panther 1,586 Posted December 11, 2015 Share Posted December 11, 2015 Excellent write up, thanks Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Chewing Gum 17 Posted December 13, 2015 Share Posted December 13, 2015 This was done in 2005, transformed the boat - John Lidgard said "Go for it" I would say weight is little changed. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Black Panther 1,586 Posted December 13, 2015 Share Posted December 13, 2015 Good lord, people are hacking into transoms all over the country! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
madyottie 82 Posted December 13, 2015 Share Posted December 13, 2015 Wondering if I should cut the rear beam off the gbe, it's just too high to get up from the dinghy! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GregW 28 Posted December 13, 2015 Share Posted December 13, 2015 Nah, too much work. Just get a taller dinghy..... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
robinm 2 Posted December 14, 2015 Author Share Posted December 14, 2015 If you're interested, we went down and looked at all these boats as planned and many more in Picton and Nelson. (Mercedes Clipper, Lambert C10, Dobson 34, h28, Townson 34 and more) In the end we've decided to put an offer in on a Lotus 9.2 in Nelson. Funnily enough the 9.2 was a favourite design of mine along with a Townson 34, but these didn't have the walkthrough transom my family were keen on, but once my wife saw the actual boat and read the Bill Endean article about them, I could see her immediately see that this was the right one for her. Now it's time for a survey, mechanical inspection and sea trial, wish me luck! Thanks everyone for your input, I felt much more prepared than I otherwise would (and now am wondering about chainsawing a hole in a boat I haven't even purchased yet) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
robinm 2 Posted December 14, 2015 Author Share Posted December 14, 2015 If anyone would like to see it, I'll scan in the article from the Bill Endean book about the Lotus 9.2 and post it here. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jon 360 Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 Congratulations assuming it happens I'd come to a similar conclusion to the L 9.2 considering where you live. As I said earlier we did the C29 but that was more the fact that it was Hauraki Gulf based Our decision was between the L & C in the end and the C won because of the open transom and more sheltered waters. Cook St is often windier and in the sounds you'll probably be motoring anyway so I'm sure you'll all enjoy Hold the chainsaw for the next one Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Povnation 3 Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 Lotus 9.2's are a very nice boat, I've been crewing on one for a few months now in some casual races etc.and While it's not the fastest boat in the fleet (the boat is setup for cruising so it has everything you need for the weekend. All of the crew except for the skipper are quite new to sailing) we have still managed to pick up a couple of thirds and a second, on handicap. It's not often we are not last on line haha. That being said the boat loves sailing on the wind and performs really well all round. As a cruiser it has loads of space with 4 adults away for the weekend not having any problems with space. At xmas we expect to have 5+ I would be very keen to see if you do take a chainsaw to the transom, I've floated the idea past the skipper and partner (They own the boat together and she likes the closed cockpit) and they are not too keen haha. Sorry for the essay.. TLDR; I would be keen to see the article Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Chewing Gum 17 Posted December 16, 2015 Share Posted December 16, 2015 Another pic - cutout worth every cent and not a problem in a big sea. Closed cockpit far more risky as any water dumped in there is a lot of weight and slow to get out. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Farrari 4 Posted December 16, 2015 Share Posted December 16, 2015 Very nice; now you are giving me serious boat envy. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
robinm 2 Posted December 16, 2015 Author Share Posted December 16, 2015 Povnation - and anyone else interested, here is the scan of the Lotus 9.2 Bill Endean article Quote Link to post Share on other sites
robinm 2 Posted December 22, 2015 Author Share Posted December 22, 2015 It sure is cheap, a good deal for someone! We considered this one, but ended up making a deal on this Lotus 9.2. The survey and sea trial went all without a hitch and we're planning our summer cruise right now. http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/boats-marine/yachts/keeler/auction-992949216.htm Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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