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Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on April 24, 2021 at 12:35pm

I think your plan is sound. What is your plan for the unexpected issues that will pop up? Time and materials? Have you inspected the boat both interior and bottom of floor? What are the expectations of the owner? Are you going to do the sanding and refinishing to the remainder of the boat?

Check out Steve Putnams' site. We worked together on redoing his boat. He did the tedious work of sanding. Steve is a long time cabinet builder and knew how to sand but not how to apply the fiberglass, epoxy and other repair materials. He paid me for my expertise.

Sanding is sort of like the guy who walks in and fixes an apparently unfixeable problem on an persons project and does it fairly rapidly. The owner of the project complains when he gets a big bill. The repair person responds, it isn't all about how much time it took me to do the repair, it is what I knew about doing the repair and the knowledge I had to acquire to be able to do it quickly! In other words sanding is a potentially long term activity where not much is apparently done but when done right the end results are good.

None of the tasks required to do the repair are difficult. Since you haven't commented on your boat repair background I cannot comment on if this scenario will be beneficial to both parties involved. Only you know the quality and speed of your work and can compare that with the boat owners expectations and his response to the cost of said repairs. Figure it will take perhaps two or three times what you estimate it will take to do fix based on all the unknowns. Good luck!

Rick Newman

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Permalink Reply by Doug Hanson on April 24, 2021 at 5:36pm

Rick, 

Thanks for your candid response.  My motivation for doing the pram is to gain some boat repair experience going into this; however, the reality of time and energy (ie. sanding) and the unknowns that you allude to in your response are making me rethink this entire endeavor.  It's one thing to help someone out for a couple of beers and pizza on a Saturday afternoon, it's a totally different thing to charge for 40 - 60 hours of boat repair not knowing if your actually going to be done.  

Doug Hanson

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Permalink Reply by Guy Fredrickson on April 24, 2021 at 6:19pm

IMHO...

If you are truly going to bill your client on time-and-materials, it’s going to be costly. Are they really willing to invest that kind of money? 

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Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on April 24, 2021 at 7:50pm

Unless you are doing it simply for the experience you have to consider what you want out of the transaction. I am not saying you should do it for only the money, experience is very worthwhile and can lead to many new opportunities. I spent well over two hundred hours sanding my boat when I first built it and then again when I restored it. Stockholders in sandpaper companies are thankful for my persistence. Being a perfectionist isn't the best way to make money.

Guy, how much time do you have invested in your boat? You are doing a wonderful job and I will bet you are also a perfectionist! You do wonderful work and your skills are top notch.

Doug, you will learn a great deal if you take on this challenge. Perhaps finding your own boat to restore and learn on would be a possibility. Almost all the boats in need of similar repairs as your potential client will teach you similar lessons. You said you have read many of the posts on the site that illustrate my point. I have suggested many times on here that any drift boat can be restored it is a question of time, money and effort, how much of each are you willing to spend?

I also spend a lot of time on the www.woodenboatforum.com. The folks there spend years and thousands of dollars restoring boats. Boat builders on there spend years building much more complicated boats, sometimes one after another. Once you get the passion it is hard to stop. Keep us informed of your journey. My body doesn't have the same desires as my mind does for building another boat. My passion now is sharing knowledge about wooden drift boats and fly fishing, it is a lot less physical!

Good luck in your future endeavors!

Rick Newman

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Permalink Reply by David Witton on April 25, 2021 at 9:30am

Your plan is sound, but I'd add an item if I were tackling the project. I consider chines an easily damaged,  replaceable item so I wouldn't apply the fiberglass over them - perhaps remove them, apply fiberglass  then replace them. Alternatively you could mask them with packing tape and do some careful razor blade work when the epoxy is partially cured. 

As a long time remodel/general construction contractor, I have another suggestion. Frequently projects (and friendships) go south due to lack of shared expectations around cost. As your item two indicates, it's impossible at this point to be sure of now much (if any) rot you'll encounter, and therefore total project cost. A frank discussion up front can save problems later. 

If you find the bottom is sound, the scope of the project is fairly straightforward and seems to fit well with your level of experience. Sounds like a fun project - keep us posted. 

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Permalink Reply by Mitchell Culbertson on May 2, 2021 at 10:32am

I don't know where you are located but if it's near Portland I'd go by Ray's River Dories and talk to Cyrus. The shop is located in Multonomah, just a burb of Portland. Or, call the shop. He'll talk and walk you through the whole process. He's engaging and interested. He'll have 100 percent of the materials you'll need to complete the process as well. I'm a building dummy and Cyrus was available to talk me through the whole process and the end result was perfect. 4 years and many river miles later the bottom is rock solid still. Just a few scuffs.

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