Moore #78 – Project - Rebuild

So where is Moore #78, definitely not racing in San Francisco nor in Seattle. She has been in Southern CA for many years and was raced in San Diego under PHRF. When I first looked into purchasing this boat it appeared to be more of a project than I wanted. But Moore’s have a way of making people do some interesting things. This boat had been driven hard and put away wet most of its life. There was little indication any care being taken to maintain the boat short of making it float and be a good racing platform. Additionally, most of the parts were well worn or broken. This boat was the topic of discussion on a blog and the deck was described as coarse sandpaper. That was being generous. Additionally, every piece of gear had been moved multiple times. There were more holes in the deck than could be counted. Most were just filled with silicon and painted over. Amazingly there was no core delamination or rot.

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I made the purchase with the intention of spending about a year rebuilding. Well, I am right on schedule if you believe that any boating project will take about 3 times as long as you originally estimate. When I got the boat home and really started looking at what needed to be done. The true magnitude of the project became apparent. While in the pre-purchase stage I thought much of the gear could be reused. That idea quickly went away. The project started by removing everything except the toe rail. You would be surprised at the number of nuts and bolts on a Moore. One Safety Note: There was no indication of any issues with the chain plates. No sign of rust, deterioration or leakage through the deck. But when put a wrench to remove the bolts they just snapped in two. They were rusted almost all the way through, and concealed in the bulkhead. I am sure they were original and it would probably make sense to replace those every 10 to 15 years.

With all the hardware removed the deck was the next project. I had no idea what was used for non skid but it was tough stuff. It just ripped the paper right off an orbital sander. I ended up grinding all the non skid off and later filling in the gouges. This took about 10 times longer than I anticipated. It also revealed about twice as many holes than I originally thought. Since most of these holes were filled with silicon. I ended up drilling out each hole and filling with a west epoxy mixture. I was very pleased that I did not find any rot or deterioration considering the number of holes.
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While visiting the bay area and bumming around boat yards (I know you all do it too) I saw several boats with the under deck hatch. This was something I wanted to have. I made many calls and found that I could have the under deck fiberglass part made and all I had to do was install. There was an article out there about this project and it didn’t sound too difficult. For those considering this project it is at the upper limits of us amateur boat people. It came out well but did require lots of work. I have been told there are several different shapes to the main hatch opening depending on when the boat was built. Each with their own installation challenges.

The interior also needed much work, though I don’t know many people that would consider a Moore for the boat’s interior. There were many things wrong with the interior as well. With the largest being broken pipe berth tubes and the attachment point being ripped right out of the built in cabinet. West epoxy is amazing stuff and the cabinet was repaired. New aluminum tubes were purchased along with adding supports mid span to prevent this from happening again. The interior was also scrubbed and repainted / varnished.

Back on deck all the grinding gouges had to be faired. Then several coats of Awlgrip epoxy primer where applied and sanded smooth. It would have been easier to have the deck and nonskid all the same color but I really like two tone decks. I have sprayed the cockpit and trim areas with an off white Awlgrip. If I continue to have good weather the next item will be to Awlgrip the non skid areas with a light gray color. Nothing with Awlgrip is cheap including the non skid particles. To compound the issue the best non skid results are completed when you mix their course and fine granules together. You think they could make this combination available since it is what most of the experts recommend.

Once the deck is resurfaced then comes the fun part of installing all new hardware. It is probably a­ good thing that it has taken me two years to get to this point. I have been slowly purchasing parts over this time period and the total numbers are quite an eye opener if you are considering such a project. Yes, there are some items that I could have downsized or reused like the original winches. But I wanted this boat to basically look and function like new when I am done. I have attached the itemized list of parts and supplies purchased to this point. Parts List.

The final item to be completed will be to Awlgrip the hull. This will be quick compared to some of the other repairs to date as the hull is in good shape. All should be completed well before summer 2009.