It's finally great to see a motor vessel rebuild on TH-cam, considering everybody and their mother is rebuilding sailing vessels, and that ship (no pun) has literally sailed .. Looking forward to this project..Strange fact - 20 years ago I drank a plenty of Budweisers in that boat yard while dreaming of owning a vessel to cruise the 7 seas .. But I'm a northern land lover now with not even half of the 10,000 lakes to explore ... More power to you, and many prayers to a safe and enjoyable rebuild ... Keep doing what your doing .. Because what your doing is awesome..
Yes, It has been a much larger project than we ever expected. We knew there were some rust issues on the roof of the salon but the rest of the vessel appeared to be in really good shape. The engines ran great and the interior looked good for a 19 year old boat. There was almost no rust down in the engine room or in areas that we could inspect. Then we started to peel the onion ... While removing the salon ceiling, for the welders, I found some rotten wood on the starboard wall which basically fell apart when I pulled on it. Since a 4' by 4' section of wall now need to be rebuilt in the salon we decided to do a full inspection of the salon which required removal of the interior walls. The good new was very little damage had been caused by the water leaks from the salon roof just the original section that we had found. The bad news was that a fresh water fitting on the port wall had crack as some point. This had allow water to leak while the boat was on city water for two or three year. The water had slowly leaked down onto the the salon deck and then down into the port bedroom and master bedroom. We found extensive rust on the port side of those rooms. We now had to remove the interior from the salon, port stateroom and master stateroom. After pulling those interiors we decided to remove the rest of the interiors so that a full inspection could be done and all of the interior would match. The first year was spent removing the old interior and repairing rusted steel. The second year was spent putting in the new interior walls which is about half way done. At the start of the third year we decided we needed to get the boat back in the water. So we started working on all of the vessel systems which has taken way longer that I ever expected. My wife now just multiplies any estimate I give her by three. Of course Covid and lock downs did not help either and there are still major shortages of parts. We are very close to being ready to go back into the water but may wait until the end of October to avoid the rest of the hurricane season. Once in the water we'll finish the interior and finally go boating. I know I have not posted any new videos recently and that is because we have been trying to get the boat ready for going back into the water and while we were shooting lots of raw video we just have not had the time to turn it into a video. I'll try and put together another tour video in the next couple of weeks so that everyone can see the updates.
Very interesting! I was wondering if doing a refit on an older boat or just going ahead and spend the purchase budget and refit budget on one that's "ready". I know a good electronics package with radar autopilot etc. can get well over $100k I've seen a few of these old steel trawlers still mostly in fishing configurations, The interior finish out isn't as important to me as large fuel tanks reliable mechanical plumbing electrical the get there and back stuff.
Thanks for the comment, After working on this project for 3 years I would go with your suggestion. We did not plan on a major refit but after removing parts of the interior for some of the planned work we found new issues, which is always the catch since a surveyor cannot see behind the fixed interior. Once an issue was found we had to remove more interior to determine the extend of the damage and where it stopped. After we had removed the interior from the Salon, Port Stateroom and Master Stateroom we decided that we needed to remove the rest of the interior for two reasons. We wanted to make sure that there was no rust in the other sections of the vessel (there wasn't) and we wanted the interior to match. I also don't need a fancy interior but my wife (the boss) cares very much about the interior and how it looks so I can't skimp of that. We'll be restarting the interior work this summer since we are almost done with all of the mechanicals and will be putting the boat back in the water soon. This vessel was always a passenger vessel. It carries 2000 gallons of fuel in four tanks and 1000 gallons of water in 2 tanks. We've added three marine sanitized devices and 280 gallons of gray water storage. At some point when we're in the water and can show all the electronics working we'll do a full video on those systems.
When we purchased it we knew the boat needed some work but after pulling the head liner for welding we discover rot in the wall. We then found a fresh water leak that caused rust on the salon floor and port stateroom. At that point we decided to pull the rest of the interior so that we could inspect the entire boat for rust. We did find more rust in the master stateroom and bath and forward stateroom and bath. We also found three locations were electrical fire had tired to start, so we then pulled all the old wiring. This all happened over the first 3 or 4 months of the refit. Almost all of boat systems (Bilge Pumps, DC Electrical, Stern and Bow Thrusters, Steering, Shafts and Props) have been overhauled or replaced. We still have lots of interior work to do but plan to do that once the boat is relaunched. Good luck with your search for a boat, hopefully it will be in much better shape.
@@BlueSkyTrawler , i know this company sea horse marine as well , visited this ship construction comp 15 years ago , also some others in China . The same troubles you get if you buy an old Nordhaven , the elecric wiring there is also catastrophic bad ! And the bubbles in the polyester hull is a challenge to refit . Looking for a boat from Netherlands ship yard , they made high quality steel work but its hard to find because this ships dosnt changes the owners often . Wish you all best for your refit job , you will got a nice Boat 👍👍👍
We looked at a steel boat from the Netherlands and loved the steel work and lines of the vessel (another trawler) but the two major issues were that the vessel was wired for European AC (230, 50hz) and every device on the vessel was European. The other was the engines were Fiat Marine Diesels and part availability was questionable.
What type of vessel is this? Who built her? Could you introduce yourselves and talk about your backgrounds in a future episode? Fascinating content. New subscriber.
The vessel is classified as a trawler and it was built by Seahorse Marine in 1998. It is an Oceaneer 55. My wife and I did put together an intro video but it was horrible so we never posted it. We'll try and put an intro together again.
Right now neither back-doors have screens. We will probably add a retractable one once we are back in the water. With the humidity in Florida we don't keep the door open very often. I assume we are talking about the window air conditioner in the master stateroom. That is just a temporary unit and will be removed once we are back in the water. For the salon we have a mini-split which works when out of the water. (the boat originally had 3, 2 zone mini-splits but they were broken when we purchased the boat). For the rest of the boat we have 6 marine HVAC which only work when the boat is in the water, which is the reason for the temporary window unit.
Then what? you bring a sack lunch to eat? there's no galley!!! Good luck fellas looks like a lot of work and a lot of fun.. wish I was young enough to help y'all..
It was built by Seahorse Marine in 1998. I believe it is a George Buehler design since Seahorse also builds the line of Diesel Duck Steel boats which are his designs.
It's finally great to see a motor vessel rebuild on TH-cam, considering everybody and their mother is rebuilding sailing vessels, and that ship (no pun) has literally sailed .. Looking forward to this project..Strange fact - 20 years ago I drank a plenty of Budweisers in that boat yard while dreaming of owning a vessel to cruise the 7 seas .. But I'm a northern land lover now with not even half of the 10,000 lakes to explore ... More power to you, and many prayers to a safe and enjoyable rebuild ... Keep doing what your doing .. Because what your doing is awesome..
Thanks for the kind words and encouragement.
Thanks for sharing your project!
this is such a cool build, looking forward to following along
Magnificent project !
Cool big boat. Love it!
Going to be a really great boat.
I just subscribed! These kinds of projects are so cool!
Lots more to come; stay tuned! Thanks for watching!
I'd love to see this when it's finished! What an amazing project. I'm very jealous.
It will never be finished.
Thanks for kind words.
@@cmh2111 Is any boat ever finished?
Monster project. Would like to see it now.
Yes, It has been a much larger project than we ever expected. We knew there were some rust issues on the roof of the salon but the rest of the vessel appeared to be in really good shape. The engines ran great and the interior looked good for a 19 year old boat. There was almost no rust down in the engine room or in areas that we could inspect. Then we started to peel the onion ...
While removing the salon ceiling, for the welders, I found some rotten wood on the starboard wall which basically fell apart when I pulled on it. Since a 4' by 4' section of wall now need to be rebuilt in the salon we decided to do a full inspection of the salon which required removal of the interior walls. The good new was very little damage had been caused by the water leaks from the salon roof just the original section that we had found. The bad news was that a fresh water fitting on the port wall had crack as some point. This had allow water to leak while the boat was on city water for two or three year. The water had slowly leaked down onto the the salon deck and then down into the port bedroom and master bedroom. We found extensive rust on the port side of those rooms. We now had to remove the interior from the salon, port stateroom and master stateroom. After pulling those interiors we decided to remove the rest of the interiors so that a full inspection could be done and all of the interior would match.
The first year was spent removing the old interior and repairing rusted steel. The second year was spent putting in the new interior walls which is about half way done. At the start of the third year we decided we needed to get the boat back in the water. So we started working on all of the vessel systems which has taken way longer that I ever expected. My wife now just multiplies any estimate I give her by three. Of course Covid and lock downs did not help either and there are still major shortages of parts. We are very close to being ready to go back into the water but may wait until the end of October to avoid the rest of the hurricane season. Once in the water we'll finish the interior and finally go boating.
I know I have not posted any new videos recently and that is because we have been trying to get the boat ready for going back into the water and while we were shooting lots of raw video we just have not had the time to turn it into a video.
I'll try and put together another tour video in the next couple of weeks so that everyone can see the updates.
Nice ship!
great work!
Thanks for watching!
Very interesting! I was wondering if doing a refit on an older boat or just going ahead and spend the purchase budget and refit budget on one that's "ready". I know a good electronics package with radar autopilot etc. can get well over $100k I've seen a few of these old steel trawlers still mostly in fishing configurations, The interior finish out isn't as important to me as large fuel tanks reliable mechanical plumbing electrical the get there and back stuff.
Thanks for the comment,
After working on this project for 3 years I would go with your suggestion. We did not plan on a major refit but after removing parts of the interior for some of the planned work we found new issues, which is always the catch since a surveyor cannot see behind the fixed interior. Once an issue was found we had to remove more interior to determine the extend of the damage and where it stopped.
After we had removed the interior from the Salon, Port Stateroom and Master Stateroom we decided that we needed to remove the rest of the interior for two reasons. We wanted to make sure that there was no rust in the other sections of the vessel (there wasn't) and we wanted the interior to match.
I also don't need a fancy interior but my wife (the boss) cares very much about the interior and how it looks so I can't skimp of that. We'll be restarting the interior work this summer since we are almost done with all of the mechanicals and will be putting the boat back in the water soon.
This vessel was always a passenger vessel. It carries 2000 gallons of fuel in four tanks and 1000 gallons of water in 2 tanks. We've added three marine sanitized devices and 280 gallons of gray water storage. At some point when we're in the water and can show all the electronics working we'll do a full video on those systems.
Great Vid , 👍👍👍 , a lot to do on this trawler , looking also for a ship like this !
When we purchased it we knew the boat needed some work but after pulling the head liner for welding we discover rot in the wall. We then found a fresh water leak that caused rust on the salon floor and port stateroom. At that point we decided to pull the rest of the interior so that we could inspect the entire boat for rust. We did find more rust in the master stateroom and bath and forward stateroom and bath. We also found three locations were electrical fire had tired to start, so we then pulled all the old wiring. This all happened over the first 3 or 4 months of the refit. Almost all of boat systems (Bilge Pumps, DC Electrical, Stern and Bow Thrusters, Steering, Shafts and Props) have been overhauled or replaced. We still have lots of interior work to do but plan to do that once the boat is relaunched. Good luck with your search for a boat, hopefully it will be in much better shape.
@@BlueSkyTrawler , i know this company sea horse marine as well , visited this ship construction comp 15 years ago , also some others in China . The same troubles you get if you buy an old Nordhaven , the elecric wiring there is also catastrophic bad ! And the bubbles in the polyester hull is a challenge to refit . Looking for a boat from Netherlands ship yard , they made high quality steel work but its hard to find because this ships dosnt changes the owners often . Wish you all best for your refit job , you will got a nice Boat 👍👍👍
We looked at a steel boat from the Netherlands and loved the steel work and lines of the vessel (another trawler) but the two major issues were that the vessel was wired for European
AC (230, 50hz) and every device on the vessel was European. The other was the engines were Fiat Marine Diesels and part availability was questionable.
Very nice Lady, keep the hard work and thanks for sharing, is my dream too do the same, congratulations and thanks again!
What type of vessel is this? Who built her? Could you introduce yourselves and talk about your backgrounds in a future episode? Fascinating content. New subscriber.
The vessel is classified as a trawler and it was built by Seahorse Marine in 1998. It is an Oceaneer 55.
My wife and I did put together an intro video but it was horrible so we never posted it. We'll try and put an intro together again.
@@BlueSkyTrawler Thanks! It looks like a massive project, but is really enjoyable to watch. Good luck with everything!
Awesome video! I am in love with this boat design. From the Seahorse Oceaneers to Jay Benfords Florida Bay Coasters. Beautiful ship
Does the backdoor have a screen?
The air conditioner looks very seaworthy.
Right now neither back-doors have screens. We will probably add a retractable one once we are back in the water. With the humidity in Florida we don't keep the door open very often.
I assume we are talking about the window air conditioner in the master stateroom. That is just a temporary unit and will be removed once we are back in the water. For the salon we have a mini-split which works when out of the water. (the boat originally had 3, 2 zone mini-splits but they were broken when we purchased the boat). For the rest of the boat we have 6 marine HVAC which only work when the boat is in the water, which is the reason for the temporary window unit.
Then what? you bring a sack lunch to eat? there's no galley!!! Good luck fellas looks like a lot of work and a lot of fun.. wish I was young enough to help y'all..
The galley has not been built yet. It will be installed on the port side of the salon. We will probably start work on that in July or August.
When was she built? Is she a George Buehler design?
It was built by Seahorse Marine in 1998. I believe it is a George Buehler design since Seahorse also builds the line of Diesel Duck Steel boats which are his designs.
5 cabins and NO galley
Actually when we finish the interior it will have 3 cabins, a salon and galley and a media room.
@@BlueSkyTrawler Awesome! Really looking forward to the build!