SV Whimoway - Boat Restoration

Whimoway was purchased in Darwin for the sole purpose of taking us on a 10 year working holiday. She underwent a massive Boat Restoration and has looked after us ever since.

She is a 46 ft ferro-cement ketch built in 1974 in Darwin, NT, Australia and has had several owners, and several adventures that we were to hear about in the 10 months we worked on her in the yard of the Dinah Beach CYA.

Mike is a Shipwright which, along with help from countless friends we made in our time there, is the only reason we were able to return her to her former glory under the minimal budget we had allowed.

Unless you have a huge amount of determination and a fair amount of knowledge about what you are doing, Boat Restoration like this will break both the spirit and the bank balance of those unprepared. Ferro-cement is a great medium for boat construction and is highly under-rated!

Dinah Beach CYA also played a part as places such as this are becoming rare even in Australia, therefore rendering the average person unable to afford a wonderful sailing lifestyle such as ours.

Once the long awaited day arrived when Whimoway returned to the water, we headed to Gove, NT in Arhnem Land, Australia. This trip was designed as both a shake down run and to earn money for our cruising kitty.

Bill Bishop has a nice little blog running with some good tips and tricks. Much of it geared around reworking/fixing some of what commercial builders get wrong.

All the bad things boat builders do that cost you money. Also tips and interesting bits from Raymarine, Garmin, and other GPO chartplotter and marine electronics vendors, and general items of interest to boaters.

No, not pulling the plug on the project, pulling the plug in the boat.

Most "plug" stories I've ever heard about boats revolve around the drain plug most trailerable boats have. It seems that everybody at one point or another tries to sink their boat by launching it without putting the plug in.

Well, in my case, I needed to remove the plug. Long ago I drilled drains around the aft cockpit area so that any water or whatever that got in there would have a place to go. When you are getting rain by the inch (regularly), this water adds up.

I stepped out to check on the boat (and pump any in the bilge out) the other day and found that the aft cockpit was fuller than it should have been. At first I thought the floor was sagging down and just collecting water, but then looked a bit closer. Both of my drain holes had pretty much stopped themselves up with trash washed in their path. Stick a screwdriver through and watch the water drain away.

So, if you have a boat in storage for a time, especially if it's out in the rain, make sure the various drains are really draining.

If you are into boating, its quite common for you also to be a supporter of the environment. Not many of us want to loose our great boating sites, rivers and coastline. The material used to build your boat can become a concern for some. Wood has its pro's and con's and I've seen different views on whether its good to use a sustainable resource like that, or if you are using up the last of the world's old-growth forest.

Anyway, the Forest Stewardship Council is (among other work) labeling wood produced from "100% from well-managed forests" when applicable. Apparently the big orange (Home Depot) often carries wood with such labels.

The FSC Principles and Criteria for responsible forest management

The FSC Principles and Criteria describe how the forests have to be managed to meet the social, economic, ecological, cultural and spiritual needs of present and future generations. They include managerial aspects as well as environmental and social requirements. In fact, FSC rules are the strictest and FSC?s social and environmental requirements the highest.

Some interesting products showing up on the market. Mostly made from recycled plastics, these "plastic plywood" products could definitely have some applications in the boating world.

I'm a bit unclear on how they would be structurally where "creep" or slow sagging/migrations might be an issue (a problem that plastic has), but there are plenty of places a pretty much rot-free substance would be just the thing.

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