Ed's next project ?

[betty boop]

found these whilst looking for shed plans - not sure it will ever be on my to do list

http://www.theclassicarchives.com/boatplans/inboard-outboard-boat-plans

[Bigplumbs]

No buy that Fletcher GTS on ebay and do her up

Dennis

[_Ed_]

Hah

I did for a moment consider that Fletcher on ebay. I've decided enough projects for now. I need to sell stuff, and finish a few before anything else

However what I will say and I've kept this fairly quiet really partly due to time constraints and partly due to hoping to have it ready for Brixham (time is now too tight for that) but I'm now in the possession of a 1989 Arrowbolt 21SS.

Picked it up from a friend just before Christmas. Its a bit tired to be honest, but structurally sound (transom) its had a new floor at some point (shocking job). Most of my time so far has been spent with my long suffering mate Simon, where we have been removing all the old stickers/paint & filling old drilled cut holes and trying to put it back to more standard.

I've been experimenting with actual gel coat on this one, its a damn nightmare. Paint whilst it works ok, it really scratches so easily, so thus far we have filled all the holes except one in the engine well, and rear of transom, I've taken a core sample which was fine, (amazingly - it is a Fletcher after all) and have remade the aluminium strip that covers the back of the well. Gel coat just doesnt cover as well, you need a layer probably 3-4 times thicker than paint to stop anything beneath being visible. That being said, the whole engine well has been done and it actually doesn't look that bad, and probably for this season, the boat will look a little rough around the edges whilst I try to get out and enjoy it. One thing for sure the horrid seats in the pictures below are out and some better ones will be going in.

As for propulsion, I've got a Mercury 3.0v6 250 hp outboard for it, and managed to get insurance quotes to cover it all without a problem, so really the plan is just to tidy it up and use it for the next year or so, the 170 will be put up for sale as soon as this one is ready for the water.

All those pics are here:

http://www.aboardmyboat.co.uk/?p=511