My 21' dehavilland trojan rebuild

[SunnyCoastMark]

Hey Guys,
Well after just over 2 years of weekends, holidays and whenever I could find time - My project boat is almost finished.
Between, the boat, family and work commitments I seriously did not have time to post a blow by blow account of the rebuild.

Now that I have a bit more time - I hope my story helps others who are undertaking similar journeys.
You certainly get a great deal of satisfaction from a project such as this and can possibly finish up with something 1/3 - 1/2 the price of a similar new rig..

Here goes:-

I had previously restored 3 ally boats - a 16" Dehavilland runabout; a 12' "something" and a 15" quintrex centre console (which I still have).

So I had some experience restoring smaller boats and thought the big Trojan would be the same - just bigger....... shouldn't take too much more work ,

I am a fitter & turner by trade and spent a few years in Cairns building boats, tourist subs, ferries etc. among other things.

I had been in my 15' quinnie for a few years and coming up to 50 years old - I was sick and tired of being tossed around and coming back home from a day offshore totally stuffed from the exertion of bloody holding on.
Ending up in the drink more than once let me tell you - the telling of said tales seem to never diminish with the passing of time. You can always count on my family to laugh themselves silly at any misadventures I may have suffered. Anyway - long story short - I wanted something BIGGER -

As you do.......

Not just bigger - more...comfortable... something I could take offshore and not get bashed around more than a NSW forward pack.

Then one day I picked up an edition of F & B Magazine and there was a series of pretty informative articles by Neil Dunstan on his refit of a DeHavilland Trojan. I did a google search and there was one for sale at Boonooroo (up past Tin can bay - towards Hervey Bay). They had it advertised for $6500 - so after driving up for a look, I made an offer of $4000.
Few days later - I recieved an E-mail accepting the offer - WooHoo!!!

This is how I found her in August 2011:-

240120132023.jpg240120132024.jpg240120132025.jpg

She had been in this shed for past 8 years - hadn't moved.

To be continued........

[Jarrah Jack]

Looks like a decent sort of a boat. There's a bit of barcrusher there probably meaning that it will be a bit wet at times but cut through the chop well.

Can't wait for the next installments.

[SunnyCoastMark]

So...... having purchased said Boat that had been sitting in the same spot for 8 years, and dreaming of many future piscatorial adventures ranging far and wide my thoughts now turned to reality - how the heck am I going to get this thing back home to the sunnycoast!

The trailer was still mostly surprisingly sound but the springs, axles, wheels coupling - OK everything else was stuffed. For about 3 seconds I considered bringing up an Oxy set, Gen Set, Welder, new axle, springs etc. etc. but decided I wouldn't be able to fit everything in the back of the Navara Ute.
So sanity prevailed and I decided to get a tilt tray truck in and i just happened to know someone who would look after me.

Fantastic idea I thought - and my mate with the tilt tray was just as enthusiastic - until he got to the site.

Problem #1 - He could legally put 7.5m on his tray. Boat & trailer were almost 8 m long.... Doh. Ok what to do, what to do. The old 140HP 2 stroke was an anchor anyway and was going to be scrapped - so off she came! - Found out that steel cap boots are worth their weight in gold when 180kg of outboard falls on your foot! Also found and that 2 people trying to manhandle 180kg of outboard up on to the back of a ute find a lot of new adjectives to describe said outboard.

Problem#2 - This project was turning into a real teaching exercise - I was learning all kinds of new stuff - like how much mango trees located around a shed can grow in 8 years - apparently quite a lot. No doubt it was easy getting the boat in there but it was going to be a whole different story getting it out. I did bring a chainsaw along though - which in hindsight is probably the first time I have had foresight in my life (apart from when I married my lovely wife......just in case she reads this....). Doing my best impersonation of a tree surgeon I hacked, cut, pruned enough wood to upset a whole generation of greenies - fortunately the property owner just wanted the boat gone - so he didn't care how we did it!

The journey home went smoothly and the tilt tray was soon backing down the my driveway to deposit my future pride and joy..


Mark

[SunnyCoastMark]

The next few weeks were spent sitting in the boat - planning and scheming and scheming and planning - mainly about how I was going to hide all the money I was going to have to spend, from the wife.
Fortunately - she understood that every man has to go through a mid life crisis of some sort and if this was mine - she could live with it.

THE STRIP:-

So enlisting the help of my boys we stripped every thing out of the boat down to the floor in a weekend. This boat was built in the late 70's and built to survey back in the day ( they were often used by water police, marine and harbours, coastguards etc. etc). So everything was, big and well fitted.

The fuel tanks were 170 litres each and were actually the skippers and passengers seats - Not too bright back in the 70's (I blame skyhooks and Molly Meldrum for that).

Next step was to take up the floor to check for corrosion (looked Ok from the outside). Floor was carpeted ply which had also been sealed in. bit of a mission - but got it up. To be confronted with:-

Problem #3 Under the floor was foam filled - the type wear they fill pasltic bags with expanding 2 pack poly foam that wedges itself in so tight - it is nearly impossible to remove. - But with a handsaw and a couple of skinny crowbars, we carefully removed it as entire as we could as I planned to re-use it when finished.

Removing the foam revealed why these boats are known as a very solid riding design. There were 5 full length Upside down 'U 'shaped stringers fully welded in front to back Hull material was 3/16'' Ally plate (4.76mm)

Unfortunately removing the foam also revealed some serious pitting where the moisture had been held in place by the foam against the hull. but more about that later.

PAINT STRIPPING

Hands up if you know anyone who enjoys stripping 10 layers of paint off a 30 year old boat?? No?? - No one?? - Didn't think so - and there is a bloody good reason for that - It is was a mongrel job. Particularly in late spring early summer in SE Qld.
The boys were all keen - for about 10 minutes....... My 4 strapping young lads - pussies - all of them - except for my Foster son Nate - he was a machine.

Together, we spent weekends, after work, before work paint stripping with every method known to man.

First there was the heat gun - No - Too slow.

Then we tried paint strippers of varying quality and costs - they all worked to an extent. We would Use a gernie to wash off the muck but it would only take one layer at a time and paint stripper aint cheap on a 21 foot half cabin with a hard top.

We then tested a few different brands of Wire buff wheels - best type were the stainless cup wheels that fit a typical 4" angle grinder. We went through a few varieties before we found one that didn't leave deep swirly gouges in the ally but was still good enough to take off the paint.
Same thing here though it was layer by layer - and you had to wear a charcoal filtered mask and glasses which fogged up continuously from the mask. Most of the paint was 2 pack of some type - maybe leaded as well back then - so had to be careful.

That was the most painstaking part of the whole project - inside and out took us almost 3 months of weekends and lots of hours after work. Burn't out 2 grinders -1 bosch and 1 makita. 1 Vacuum cleaner - 60 litres of paintstripper - 10 wire cup wheels. It's quite possible that the contaminates we put in to the ground in our front yard - rival the fukishima nuclear reactor leak. hmmmm.... Japanese round up - won't have to worry about weeds up there for a few millenia.

Marks handy tip - spend the $$$ and have it sandblasted - best way by a country mile.

Next Instalment - THE TRAILER.

[SunnyCoastMark]

THE TRAILER.

With Christmas fast approaching I had decided that would be a good time to take the boat to work and start the mods.

Problem#4 - The trailer. In order to get the boat to work - I had to tow it and for that task, I needed an actual functioning trailer.
The beast that came with the boat was an old Single axle JAWA trailer - built down in Mexico. Who else but Mexicans would put a 21ft boat on a single ale trailer??

It did have one thing going for it though - it was Hot dipped Gal Channel construction and apart from a badly rusted drawbar (at the back) the rest of the trailer was in pretty good nick.

So the decision was made to refurbish the trailer. First we had to remove the boat from the trailer and we managed to accomplish these with a dozen old tyres, a trapezoidal spider web looking maze of ropes between a few gum trees holding the boat in place and a bit of luck.

Then we cut everything off the chassis and loaded what was left on to the ute.

Of course it helps that I am a production manager for a large trailer building company, so being able to by at cost was a big help.

I had decided to convert the trailer to a tandem axle with 45mm Gal Round Axles Mechanical Disc on the front (with Ford Slimline Bearings) and 6 leaf Gal Slipper springs.
These are rated at 2.4 ton for the springs and 2.5 ton for the axles.

Couple of reasons for this - first with slipper springs your axle group needs to support 120% of the GVM in this case 2000kg + 20% = 2400kg.
Secondly Galvanising springs does affect the spring steel and they will sag - so you are always better to go an extra leaf or two when buying Gal springs.

Going slipper springs in preference to Rocker was a pretty easy choice as there is far less maintenance with slipper and the trailer is still safe to tow (carefully)on 3 wheels in the event of a blowout or flat tyre.

I am a big believer in the KISS principle - so didn't want electric over hydraulic either. Worked out that the Rig all up fully loaded should weigh in at around 1.5 - 1.6 ton - so no need to go overboard (so to speak)

First job was to replace the rusted section of the drawbar which was 100x50x4mm RHS - Next made up the side rails complete with spring hangers and mudguards. - These just bolt on to the existing trailer chassis - they can be moved wherever you need to balance out the load - depending on how it tows once you have the motor, fuel, batteries etc. fitted. Until then it is really just a best guess.

Then wire buffed the whole trailer and painted it with 2 pack polyurethane.

Replaced all the rollers and brackets - fitted the springs and axles ran ARK LED pre wired submersible lights. - They come with 9 metres of cable pre wired (moulded) - so the only joins are into the plug. That's about as waterproof as you can get .

Putting the trailer back under the boat was pretty straightforward and so now we were ready for the assault on the boat - the workshop was shut for 2 and a half weeks over Christmas and I had cleared/reserved an area near one of our guillotines and pan folders along with mig welder equipped with an overhead traveller. One Steel Aluminium had supplied 6 sheets of 3mm marine grade ally along with various profiles in tubes, angles etc. at mates rates - so all was ready to go..

My phone deleted a few of the early photos - so unfortunately you'll have to wait until a bit later on to see the trailer in subsequent photos.
Update - took a couple of photos after I came home today - not the best - but trying not to show the rest of the boat....yet.


Next Installment - The Mods.......

Mark

[PeterKroll]

This is a great story and a good education for me. Keep it coming, Mark.

[deckie]

Looks like a decent sort of a boat. There's a bit of barcrusher there probably meaning that it will be a bit wet at times but cut through the chop well.

as long as there's no bloop bloop friggin bloop plop bloop ploppity fricken bloop bloop plop

Sorry Mark. Distracted . Got the popcorn ready coz so far been an excellent read and looking fwd to seeing the results. Lots and lots of work. Looks and sounds like the perfect project for a guy with your experience. It had 340 ltrs fuel tanks ? Sounds like some mean days were had stripping paint.

[Fed]

They were the gun boat back in the day, lots of them with twin 55HPs.

More pictures Mark.

I would have given you money for the 140 if it had compression.

[SunnyCoastMark]

Hey Fed,
Not sure about the compression but was told the motor still ran. Apparently they put oil in the pots prior to storage - so that's good.

You are welcome to have a look at it - I still have the motor at work. Open to any offers at this stage. - whatever it is worth to you.

The motor is 1981 vintage.

Mark

[SunnyCoastMark]

as long as there's no bloop bloop friggin bloop plop bloop ploppity fricken bloop bloop plop

Sorry Mark. Distracted . Got the popcorn ready coz so far been an excellent read and looking fwd to seeing the results. Lots and lots of work. Looks and sounds like the perfect project for a guy with your experience. It had 340 ltrs fuel tanks ? Sounds like some mean days were had stripping paint.

Hey Deckie,
Being Ally - there is a bit of bloop bloop - but only from the very front of the boat. Having the foam under the deck - really quietens that down.

You can see the port side fuel tank in photo 3 above - there was one the same for the skippers seat as well. - They are in Good nick - just a weird shape. I might put them on gumtree. see if they sell - perfect for an earthmoving contractors ute.

Mark

[davo]

Either F & B or Trailer Boat magazine had an article about restoring one of those. I remember the first one I saw up at River Heads in the 70's. It had rigging and was used as a river trawler. There are more of them still around than you realise.

[wayno60]

here a pic of my 6" Trojan..
TrojanENZ.jpg

waiting for the del button to be hit!!

[deckie]

Hey Deckie,
Being Ally - there is a bit of bloop bloop - but only from the very front of the boat. Having the foam under the deck - really quietens that down.

You can see the port side fuel tank in photo 3 above - there was one the same for the skippers seat as well. - They are in Good nick - just a weird shape. I might put them on gumtree. see if they sell - perfect for an earthmoving contractors ute.

Mark

Just ignore the bloop bloop plop thing Mark. Been a bit of a running joke in here about Barcrushers with the sound they make . Not all of us have grown up to become adults
Havent seen tanks done like that before so just caught my eye. Out of curiosity was the fuel transferrable ? i.e. any fuel line connection between them and a pump ? or independent down to the motor ? I imagine they could have been used for a bit of ballast/trim control coz they're at about the widest part of the boat and right on the sides. Yeah i imagine someone must have a use for them if they're still good.
Steve

[SunnyCoastMark]

Just ignore the bloop bloop plop thing Mark. Been a bit of a running joke in here about Barcrushers with the sound they make . Not all of us have grown up to become adults
Havent seen tanks done like that before so just caught my eye. Out of curiosity was the fuel transferrable ? i.e. any fuel line connection between them and a pump ? or independent down to the motor ? I imagine they could have been used for a bit of ballast/trim control coz they're at about the widest part of the boat and right on the sides. Yeah i imagine someone must have a use for them if they're still good.
Steve

The tanks are certainly one of a kind - definitely custom made. Tanks had copper fuel lines (don't see those too often) running back down both sides of the boat to a tap that switched from one tank to another.
Being so high above the waterline - they would have actually contributed to any instability.
Always better to have your weight down as low as possible.

Mark

[SunnyCoastMark]

here a pic of my 6" Trojan..
TrojanENZ.jpg

waiting for the del button to be hit!!

There's always one.........