Plywood On

Work continues on my 1963 Owens Baroness Flagship. This was a really nice single inboard motor yacht cabin cruiser when it was new. Mine has seen a little neglect, but retains a lot of original features, and will be restored as far as my motivation and pocketbook will allow.

I spent $60 on one sheet of plywood, and I didn't even get the mahogany like was originally on her. The closest I could come at a local lumber yard was okume for $90, and not getting what I wanted, I opted a little cheaper for douglas fir marine plywood. The hull is 3/8 inch plywood, and getting the patches cut and installed took a couple of days. Bending the big patch to starboard changed its shape and required several trims and even a little cussing to get it to fit, but even then I'd probably still be fighting it without the help of the guys working on the next boat over to push and prod it into place.

I epoxied the edges before installing, and where it wasn't trimmed it was already edge sealed before installation. I then epoxied inside and out with two coats of real marine grade two part epoxy at the low price of $58 per 1/2 gallon off of e-bay. So basically for about $120 and a lot of hard work I now have a sound hull. If I had gotten the mahogany and treated it with a copper wood preservative like the original manufaturer used I might could have dispensed with the epoxy, but with the fir's well known tendency to check when damp, especially when bent I felt like the epoxy was the right way to go.

Once the new plywood was bent and sealed I built up the few places where I decided patching with epoxy would be smarter than cutting out anymore plywood. Naturally, my half gallon of epoxy wasn't up to the task, and I ran out with some cavities below a smooth surface. A little hemming and hawing convinced me it was sealed and structurally strong enough that two little $2 tubs of latex wood filler from K'Mart would finish the repair. I slappedthat on and smoothed it roughly flat with my putty knife assuming it would be relatively easy to sand. Epoxy and microfibre is really hard to sand, and I figured this route would give me a better finish. It wasn't as hard as the epoxy, but I gave up before obtaining a perfect surface. I think the paint will cover what I left, and I sanded as much as I could stand that particular morning.

Anyway, above are pictures with the plywood in, and then with the patching done.