Osprey Eagle 5.6 project

[Tim M]

Thought I'd post some photos of my Osprey project. So....here they are:

[Tim M]

1-5: the rib as it was before I collected it. It's a 1992 (I think) model. Formaly used as a dive rib by a dive club in Leicster. Was fitted with twin engines at some point, but a knackered Mariner 75 when I bought it. As you can see there is wiring all over the deck, a piece of drain pipe coming out on the console, and is pretty dirty:

[Tim M]

6: Got it home and took everything off the boat - all wiring, controls, instuments etc. Then gave it a good hose down to get all the mud off. Looks better already!

7: The tubes were covered in dirt. Used some Starbright inflatable boat cleaner and as you can see they came up really nice!

8: The boat having been toally cleaned.

9: One of the grablines had fallen off before I got the boat. One of my tasks will be to fix this....

[Tim M]

10: this is where the repair work starts. Having removed the old Mariner 75 the boat was now totally clear ready for me to tidy it up. First job was to glue that grabline down. I was originally going to get a proffestional to do this. I took it over to Fineway Marine in Worxham (Norfolk) to get a quote. Steve the RIB man there told me that the Osprey Eagle was prone to the grablines falling off becasue the fabric used for them wasn't actually hypalon - it was some weird french fabric which had a habbitt of splitting. I asked how he would repair it, and he said Sixaflex is the best thing for this as hypalon paint (edit: I mean glue) doesnt hold it over time. After a bit of a think I thought I'd have a go my self rather than pay him £100 to do it (and a few other things). I'm very pleased with how it went; now it's set it seems very strong and look good too.

11: Another of the gluing. As you can see I masked off the tube before putting the Sikaflex on. I was a bit concerned that the tape might not come off to easily as Sikaflex is known for being very strong. However when it came to peeling if off all went well and I was left with a very tidy repair.

12: A little bit of the rubbing strake was also coming off. Bit of sikaflex under there soon solved the problem. I also repaired the broken bit (as seen in pic 1). This looks good as new now. Very pleased.

13: A frame - now you see it....

14: Now you don't.

[Tim M]

15: The a-frame. Plan is to replace the navlights and VHF arial and give the stainless a polish.

16: Sikaflex needs removing from where the Aframe was fixed before painting.

17: Being a dive boat there was an 8 bottle rack in the back. I decided I remove this (long term plan is to put a couple of jockey seats in the back if they'll fit).

18: The backrest on the jockey console was part of the bottle rack. I had to carefully grind the rest of the rack off preserving the backrest. All went to plan.

19: I was a tad concerned about the base of the rack. It was glassed to the deck and I assumed there would be some bolts or something too. In the end I cut carefully around the bottom with the grinder, and to my supprise the hole thing came away from the deck with very little fusss and no mess. Just three little screw holes left in the deck to fill.

[Tim M]

20: With the bottle rack out of the way I started to prepare the deck for painting. I filled and smoothed where the bottle rack had been with some filler, then sanded the whole deck. What a jolly job that was
Photo shows the deck having been undercoated. I put a dash of the final orange paint into the white paint to hopefully get a better colour.

21: The removed bottle rack. Destined for ebay I think.

22: Next job was the "nose cone". Being an Eagle is had a GRP nose cone rather than a soft one. This wasn't very pretty before; lots of scratches etc. I decided to fill all the holes and spray paint it to make it look pretty. This photo shows it after two thin coats of primer.

23: Removed that backrest and finished off the bits where I had carefully grinded off the rest of the rack. It's currenlty hanging in the kitchen awaiting a final coat of orange paint.

24: Next job was one I had been dreading and putting off. The console was full of holes, some tiny same massive. I did consider replacing the whole console but this was going to be very expensive and time consuming. In the end I thought I would give repairing the old one a go. I had to fill the big ones with firbeglass and the little ones with filler. This took all day as there must have been about 40 hole of various sizes. After loads of sanding and more filling the console is now as smoother as a piece of glass. I left the intrument holes as I'm planning to get a nice pannel made up to go over there with some engraved bits on.

25: Nice and smooth....

The deck has also received the first coat of paint. I think this is going to be too slippery, so I might put a little bit of sand in the next coat. Three coats should do it I think.

[Tim M]

Seem to have lost pic 23:

[Rogan]

Looks like a great project! Hows your transom? Any water ingress around the mounting bolts on the transom? I am working on a Zodiac Hurricane 440 right now. Just removed engine and A frame. Transom looks good but drilling and drying bolt holes where small amount of rot occured.

[Tim M]

Transom is in good shape; the previous owner was obviously a big fan of sikaflex becasue everything was absolty caked in it. Good in terms of preventing water ingress but a nightmare when it came to removing it all so I could paint it!

[Tim M]

Nose "cone" now repainted: