thompsondockside.com

Looking at a boat that is a true "barn find". But... previous owner fiberglassed the bottom six inches of transom and a section of the hull around transom six inches forward only below water line. Can I strip this fiberglass off? Or do I have to replace the boards? I think I know why they did this. I can imagine there were leaks around the transom and this was an easy fix. Boat has had little use, I do not think wood is rotted under fiberglass.

Separate issue transporting "barn finds" great distances. Does anyone have a solution to transporting a $700. barn find 2000 miles? Transport prices are around $1.25 to $1.60 per mile. Transport cost $3,200. boat value $700.. Boat value when restored $4,000.[/img]

Not sure where you live versus where the boat is but I would bet that you could find a similar boat much closer to home. Unless the boat has sentimental value it does not appear that the economics work out.
Just an outsider looking in.

Fiberglass can be the death knell for a wooden boat. Depending upon the resin used, fiberglass cloth can be tenasious or can fairly readily be pulled off. Sometimes you destroy the wood in the process of removal.

For the transit costs, I personally would not obtain this unless I looked at it with my own eyes. If it is something special it might be worth it. If it is a run of the mill boat, probably not worth the money and effort to ship it 2,000 miles.

Andreas

Thanks for the thoughts. I was hoping there was a product that broke down the fiberglass much like a paint stripper. My guess is that it would have to be very powerful, not for the faint of heart. I will have to think about that, if anyone has any experience let me know.

The question about transport was bigger than this one opportunity. In this age of the internet, opportunities present themselves all over the country, access is the limiting factor. Boats or outboard motors are the topic here, but any large item, antique cars, furniture etc., do not fit the current shipping options. Thinking out loud it seems like there would be an opportunity for someone or some company to take advantage of this. ie. trains, boat or car haulers for major brands, UPS, who knows. In the northeast people often go south for the winter and have their cars shipped via train. They need to get the car to a certain loading point and the car arrives at an unloading point, not door to door but close. I put the numbers up for this opportunity to illustrate the point that it does not work. If it did work, the restored boat would be available to thousands more people; the value might be greater than $4,000.

There is a demand, although there are many of these items close by they are not readily available. Food for thought.

Here is a look at last winters project.
Winter project 2010

HalcyonDays,

There is no eaasy way to strip off fiberglass. Scrapping and sanding is the only way I know to get it off.
If the edges are loose scrap as much off as you can then get out the sander and start sanding until it is gone.
Heat might help in getting it scrapped off. You need to watch the heat gun as you can damage the wood and burn up your boat and eveything around it if you are not careful.
If there is a stripper out there that will strip off epoxy it would be volitale as hell and I would not want to be working with it at all.

As to the transport of a boat, etc. To have a boat transported via comon carrier, standard motor freight lines, is possible, but the boat would need to be crated up so it could be handled by a fork lift to get it on and off the truck. The freight cost would not be that bad, but he cost to crate it might just be too much. I do not think one could make a good enough living off of transporting small boats around the country to make it worth it. I have know a couople people that hauled large sailboats and yachts around the country on their special trailer & tractor, they had fun doing it, but did not become rich. The cost is just to great to haul anything small that is not worth the added cost of transportion.

When it comes to getting a boat transported it is often much easier for the person wanting the boat to take the time and make a vacation of it to go and haul the boat back home oneself. I did this with a 14 foot Thompson I bought and drove around 1,000 miles one way to pick up and also a 26 foot sailboat which was a round a 900 mile round trip. I took a couple extra days and did some site seeing in the areas before coming home.

Good Luck,

Phill

what Phil said !!!
And there is a site on the web that works like E-bay but it is for transportation services wanted. You post your needs and people submit bids to do the job. Unfortunatly I can't recall the site name, maybe someone here will know. I did post once to move a boat, there were several bids however non were inexpensive.

Joe B

I found it , it's http://www.uship.com/about/

joe B

For what it is worth... The Seacoaster I have, had a strip of fiberglass the width of the transom... It covered about 3" up the transom, and wrapped underneath perhaps the same amount.

It was coming loose in a few areas, and it looked discolored.... Even greenish/algae colored....so I trimmed away what I could, and then started sanding... eventually, I sanded through the fiberglass and resin, and ended up with good Mahogany underneath. I suspect that it was put there to reduce or eliminate the leakage between the transom and the garboards/sideplanks.

I was lucky, and was able to sand through the cloth and resin to get to good wood. However, it might be the case with your prospective boat, that there is rot underneath....I can send a pic or two of mine if it will help.

John.