Steber Project boat build

[Restyle]

gday raiders. A couple months back I acquired a 80s model stebercraft beaver & trailer. the boat about 13 foot long and constructed from fibreglass. I picked the boat up off a mate for free after he has had it under a carport and tarp since 2013 & before that was only taken out a hand full of times. He bought the boat of a older fellow based out of the shire somewhere in 2008 who has owned it since new and he sold the boat due to lack of use because it had fallen off the trailer causing damage to the keel where the bung is. At the time of picking the boat up I was unaware of this incident.

So I got the boat home and it sat on the street for a few weeks while I learned how to fibreglass and the various other processes relating to it while also thinking of what I can do to the boat to make it suitable for myself, especially as space is a luxury. I assessed the boat, the transom was rock hard and the floor was in good condition too, although id like to sand the existing layer of glass off to get a much better idea of its condition as the floor had apparently been replaced. The seats which were bare painted timber were abit sad but nowhere near rotting so i decided to just replace them.

One Friday I went to the marine store after work and bought the largest tub of polyester resin, glass matting, catalyst and various other stuff and did some practice on some scrap ply, checked on it Saturday morning and it came out mint! so I threw the test piece in the bin and began work. I ripped the old seats out, removed all the old screws, lights, cleats etc from the boat and sanded the entire floor back to bare timber. the floor was in awesome condition. I did drill some test holes in various places to see what it was like and it came back seemingly new. I then reapplied alot of glass matting. alternating between chop strand and the woven matting. 2 layers of each. 

I whipped up 2 new benches from some marine ply, fibre glassed the important areas and just applied a few coats of resin to waterproof the timber before installing & fibre glassing them into the boat. The rear seat was glassed in at a much later date probably because at this stage I was pretty tired of working with the crap

 

by now about 4 weeks has passed. For those more experienced blokes may be wondering why the glass is so white & that's because the dropper on the catalyst failed and it went everywhere so I rushed to Bunnings and made the mistake of buying it there, it was a dud catalyst and didn't cure the glass for nearly a week until I got more and just sprayed it on the glass. I wasn't to worried as it was only on the final layer. Lesson learned, don't buy fibreglass stuff from Bunnings.

It was now I decided to do some work on the trailer to get away from the itch of fibreglass.

and oh my did I absolutely hate working on it. I pushed the boat off onto the grass, easy enough and began removing the rollers, old lights, screws etc and just about every bolt & nut was rusted in and a good 1/3 of the heads sheered off with seemingly no effort at all. After that painful task was done I began the week long process of removing all the surface rust on the trailer with a grinder before applying new coat of gal, section by section. new wheel bearings, tyres, lights, winch & hitch. as for 4 or 5 sheered bolts I got the oxy on them and turned them to liquid. I didn't paint the trailer, but I did paint the axel and leaf springs. the weather was very on n off during this time with on n off showers.

While I worked on the trailer I flipped the boat over, polished the hull and reapplied (and tried to colour match) gelcoat in areas where its been scratched and also made a 1 to 1 gelcoat and silica dust putty to patch any chips scratches.

on the rear of the boat I was sanding back the previous patch job on the keel as it looked pretty rubbish which is where I learnt of how that became a feature of the boat. the patch was pretty poorly installed. But some good news there was no rot. I made the hole which was about 70mm wide, 100mm long 70mm wide and 150mm long and applied 4 or 5 sheets of woven fibreglass matting. I had to remove the bung housing to use thin strips of cling wrapped timber to give it support while it dried, sanded it all back, made up some more cancer putty (1 to 1 silica dust and resin) to get the surface somewhat even and uniform before applied 2 coats of gelcoat and 1 coat of flow coat then polishing the transom and the patch area. not the best colour match in the world but it'll be fine i guess.

Boat back on the trailer, I cut a hole in the front for a small anchor well, made a basic box with some marine ply and installed it with probably too much fibreglass, it is also around this time I finally fibreglass in some of the back bench, installed a cleat at the front and my mate installed a anchor roller on the bow as this would be difficult to do once the anchor well is installed, great job besides the fact is clearly not straight. a blind person could've done better. no point fixing it now as all the bolts and screws I installed are being installed with a good amount of sealant too

next steps were to patch all the screw holes on the top, sand and polish. much quicker process than the underside. I then sanded the anchor well and made more putty to make it all uniform and even before applying 3 coats of gelcoat and one finishing coat of flow coat then polishing it. while I was working on the anchor well I finalised everything inside the boat getting it ready to apply 1 coat of gelcoat on the rear quarter then applying 1 coat of flow coat over the entire interior, including under the seats. I also installed a drain hole for the anchor well using some 19mm poly pipe and used the negative terminal plastic cap thing on the battery I just bought as a flange. works a charm! The gelcoat on the front looks pretty rubbish in the picture, mostly because in the picture it wasn't sanded yet & filthy

Coming together very nicely so to keep the momentum going I spent a weekend installing marine carpet on the front 3/4 of the boat. went well besides the very front where I was gassing myself with glue fumes and couldn't be bothered getting 3 extension cables for a fan so held my breath and closed my eyes. yes the piece of carpet on the dash is quite the poor job, I did it at 9pm and its only there as I was too lazy to properly patch & polish the 2 existing 40mm holes on the dash

the following weekend I wired up all the electrical, transducer, sounder, safety lights. used 10a wire for all the accessory's and 1 50a main wire from the battery to fuse box/switch panel. a bit overkill but it what I had laying around. all wrapped up and insulation tape, heat shrink and conduit to hopefully keep the moisture away. A short rant id like to add, went to get everything but the head unit for the humming bird helix 5 (gen 3) I have so I can swap between the kayak and boat, but that ended up coming in a 600 odd bucks, while for a extra 100 bucks I could get a whole new helix 7 (gen 3) so I did just that.

So this is where I'm at now. I do not have a motor yet. I'll probably just fork out for a brand new 25hp Yamaha which includes the hydraulic steer, electric tilt, couple of gauges etc. got a quote of some 7k installed. Ill have to relocate the fuse box on the back side of the dash to make space for the gauges as they are like 50mm and I hope the panel I made for the control unit, which you can see on the 2nd last image is large enough to house it.
not going to bother fixing up the 80s model 35hp Johnson that the boat had originally and ill flog it off on marketplace whenever I feel like dealing with the flops there. The idea for a new motor is its something that I can ideally keep for a long time in the future, even on future boats if I ever decide to get rid of this one which I don't think I will for a long time & I want something I know will start up every time plus also no smelly 2 stroke fumes. Id be interested to see what you guys have to say as almost entire project is uncharted territory for me (besides the electrical and carpet) and been a massive learning process. This project has been going on for nearly 3 months now.

I've been writing this post for nearly 3 hours now & with the limited stuff out there about this particular boat, I hope it helps whoever else is thinking of undertaking this process. I will update the post as i go when I'm bothered. most of the hard stuff is done. all it needs is basic tweaks, rod holder installs, bait board, esky, measuring stick on rear bench for the 5000 fish ill catch, tie downs for battery and fuel tank as its just being held down by gravity at the moment and 2 swivel seats as they are currently Bluetooth seats both sitting in the garage plus other small misc stuff I cannot think of. 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 15 by Restyle

[Bryant fish]

Looking good well done very satisfying to do 

[noelm]

Those navigation lights on the bow (red/green) seem to be shining back quite a bit, or is it just some kind of reflection? Don’t forget you will also need an all ‘round white light as well (min 1m above your red/green) which is on without the red/green when anchored, and on WITH the red/green when traveling/drifting.

[james Cutler]

Top project. Well done.

[Restyle]

8 hours ago, noelm said:

Those navigation lights on the bow (red/green) seem to be shining back quite a bit, or is it just some kind of reflection? Don’t forget you will also need an all ‘round white light as well (min 1m above your red/green) which is on without the red/green when anchored, and on WITH the red/green when traveling/drifting.

only spot I could install it without it being off centred somewhere else and not in the way of the anchor. the reflection isn't bad at all just the camera picks it up very well. I could've grabbed the separated red and green lights but that's more wire, holes and electrical to do. I do have the all round light & that's installed at the stern of the boat. the all round light and port n starboard lights are all wired to a single switch.

[noelm]

You really need the anchor/all around white light to be able to be switched on by itself, for when you are anchored, but any lights are better than none

[antonywardle]

Outstanding write up mate!

I have a manual for that old out board if you need it.

CHeers

 

 

[Restyle]

Abit of a update on recent progress. Mostly just small things been done here and there. put a couple seats in which were a pain. if the bolts too long the seat wont swivel. a bait board which I originally had on the splash well but it was a bit too flimsy for my likening so I screwed it into the rear bench. not the most ideal spot but I don't plan on having 4 people in the boat and very rarely 3 as it'll be to difficult to fish in and space will be tight. threw in all the safety stuff. fire extinguisher below the bait board, life jackets, torch, paddle, bailer etc, installed a rod rack and secured the battery and fuel tank down with some straps and brackets onto some tabs I made and glassed in ages ago. Probably not the best idea having the battery right next to the fuel tank but that was a after thought and I'm not moving it. and lastly threw on star ports for rod holders

I still do need to put conduit on the wires between the battery and switch panel and also find something to hold the wires in place under the gunnels out of sight, id like to make up some cheap removable live bait tank out of a bucket or esky but there's no real rush on that
the boat is currently in at a boat place getting a new 25hp Yamaha motor installed along side front steering wheel and controls & also got its hin certificate

hopefully a water test next weekend?