Searider 5.4 Project

[colcreate]

Thought you might like to see this:
www.avonsearider.co.uk
It's been sat rotting in my garden for a couple of years before I decided to start restoring it this summer.
It's going to be all black and stainless, eventually!

Jobs completed to date:
Completely stripped it down to a bare hull.
Scrapped the console, tubes and fittings.
Removed layers of paint and old repairs from deck.
Grit blasted old gelcoat.
Removed hump from deck & re-glassed
Fitted new glass fibre drains.
Filled in 2 dozen+ holes in transom.
Re gel coated deck in black flowcoat.
Flipped it over and started on hull, nearly gave up...
Grit blasted hull to give good key for repairs & gel coat.
Structural repairs to hull, flange, bow and transom.
Filled in extensive damage to hull with grp and gel coat.
Applied thick black gel coat as a guide coat.
Hand sanded it all off.
Filled in more imperfections with black gel coat.
Hand sanded it some more.
Applied another guide coat of black gel as a practice.
Sanded and filled some more.


Jobs to be completed:
Hand sand for final prep.
Spray several coats of black gel coat and pray.
Lightly sand and polish to a deep shine.....
Flip it back on it's new trailer.
Fit the brand new Avon MOD tubes I bought.
Add plenty of Black Hypalon wear patches to tops of tubes.
Black rubbing strake all round.
Fabricate and polish lots of shiny stainless stuff.
Fabricate a unique double console, Black & stainless...
Fit nice big 80hp two stoke.
and add water....

[BogMonster]

Blimey that's a job and a half

Full credit for tackling something like that - way beyond what I would attempt

[martini]

Fair play, most people would've called that a write off

[Downhilldai]

Originally Posted by martini

Fair play, most people would've called that a write off

Financially, it probably was.

[chewy]

You'd have thought Avon would have had the avonsearider addy!

[Jizm]

Impressive so far, looked like a lost cause to begin with o fair play.
Keep the updates coming.

[diverdad]

Fair play to you, that is a lot of work you have done there.
My crompton was in a similar state but I don't have a forklift in my back garden to move it around! (I had to pay some nice people to repair it for me).

Well done and keep us posted on the progress.
All the best.

Lee

[ollyit]

simply awesome work mate

[BLACKSTORM]

Looking forward to this one

[colcreate]

Thanks for the positive comments. Some of the other project pictures on this forum inspired me to get stuck in and sort this one out. It's my third rib project; the first was a scratch built aluminium hull, the 2nd a 6.2mt nightmare which I have just sold and now the Searider.
(6.2mt pictures below: When I 1st bought it, at its first build & when I sold it (minus all the good bits)).
I give a mate £300 for the Searider a few years ago (without engine) because it had a great galv trailer. The new tubes were bought seperately and were an absolute steal. They were the main reason I didn't scrap the boat.
Now for some advice, I want to mount a large full width console as far astern as I can to leave enough space in front to kit up for diving. Instead of seats I am thinking of a padded stainless leaning post frame. My question is does anybody have any experience of weighting a Searider at the stern like this and how do you all think it will handle?