Avon ex D-Class Repair

Imonaboat · 19 September 2010, 22:00

First of all, hello everyone, new here.
Secondly i've bought myself a little bit of a winter project, see pic.
It's a 4.5m ex-rnli lifeboat, needs a bit of work but still in ok condition. Has had a few additions, mainly for fishing.The keel on this is a rigid beam of wood inside the skin and bolted to the wooden floor. Is this supposed to be there? I'm thinking it had an inflatable keel that went, so someone put this on instead. It works but the problem being that the beam isn't in continual contact with the skin anywhere other than the at the front of the hull, so the underside isn't in constant tension.
Only having experience of smaller SIBs before and only driving not repairing them at that, this is something new to me so maybe i'm missing something obvious, but anything i can do in order to sort this out?
Any help would be much appreciated.

m chappelow · 19 September 2010, 22:15

Firstly welcome to ribnet ,,
Do you know if its an avon or R.f.d type ,some were zodiac but yours doesent look it ,depending which type and year some did have wood keels
you may also find this youtube film of interest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NndOU...eature=related

or if the link doesent work try searching,,
Every second counts RNLI promo film part 1 or 2 ,,
films typical 1960s but some good footage of the early D class if you wait it out a bit .
mart

Imonaboat · 19 September 2010, 23:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by m chappelow

Firstly welcome to ribnet ,,
Do you know if its an avon or R.f.d type

or if the link doesent work try searching,,
Every second counts RNLI promo film part 1 or 2 ,,
films typical 1960s but some good footage of the early D class if you wait it out a bit .
mart

Thanks.
I was told it was an Avon, but can't be definite it is. Here's another pic if that helps.
Interesting vid, it looks like the boat at the very start of pt2.
Also on the boat is the registration WF 97, I was told this might be its registration when in use with the RNLI and that this could be used to trace its history, but they weren't sure of that themselves.

m chappelow · 19 September 2010, 23:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Imonaboat

Thanks.
I was told it was an Avon, but can't be definite it is. Here's another pic if that helps.
Interesting vid, it looks like the boat at the very start of pt2.
Also on the boat is the registration WF 97, I was told this might be its registration when in use with the RNLI and that this could be used to trace its history, but they weren't sure of that themselves.

looks Avon,they had the compass bang in the middle of the floor cut in the foam mattrass ,great news for any crew member that landed on it

with regards to the number 97 in those days most carried it painted on the inside on the sponson cones ,so it might be just visible if its been painted over or worn off or stamped into the transom ,

Number looks feasable as i have just been looking at some photos and clocked one same type with number 94 late 1960s

try the rnli archivist down at poole hq ,think he is only there about 3 days a week and he does it voluntry so may take a few weeks or so might be able to help if you send him a letter, you may be lucky and get a photo and the service history from him ,also nice if you know which stations she was operational at ,may get one of the old crew members to give you a few storys about her ,though a lot of stations were tempory and only ran during the summer months and many closed down compleatly unless they were attached to a permanant one .
though i cant think what the wf stands for could have been recently used as a tender to another boat ,,probley stands for waymouf,,lol,,

Imonaboat · 20 September 2010, 10:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by m chappelow

looks Avon,they had the compass bang in the middle of the floor cut in the foam mattrass ,great news for any crew member that landed on it

with regards to the number 97 in those days most carried it painted on the inside on the sponson cones ,so it might be just visible if its been painted over or worn off or stamped into the transom ,

Well there is no foam there now so its all a hard landing!
The WF 97 is stamped onto the transom. Will look into finding out about its history, will be like looking into the rabbit warren!

Its good to hear that it is supposed to have a wooden keel at least.

How do i go about tightening the underside to the keel??

m chappelow · 20 September 2010, 14:59

some had wood some had inflatable ones , wood keels were prone to breaking and cracking especially the part where the deadrise starts on the bow , inflatable ones were the better ,
it could be that yours has had a replacement made at sometime over the years and perhaps it dident fit that good and if the floor fabric has stretched a little and wood has shrunk a bit ,,how much slop is there between keel and fabric floor ,

Imonaboat · 20 September 2010, 17:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by m chappelow

some had wood some had inflatable ones , wood keels were prone to breaking and cracking especially the part where the deadrise starts on the bow , inflatable ones were the better ,
it could be that yours has had a replacement made at sometime over the years and perhaps it dident fit that good and if the floor fabric has stretched a little and wood has shrunk a bit ,,how much slop is there between keel and fabric floor ,

I see. I had a look and the keel is a plank of wood about 6 1/2cm wide running the length of the boat with holes drilled through it. I couldn't get a good pic but it looks like the (badly) drawn one attached. Is this the sort of thing they used to have? It does possibly look newer so could well be that someone has replaced it.

There is no slop around the bow, but it increases as you go towards the transom. The maximum is 7cm in from the Transom and the slop is about 6cm give.

As this boat as only really used for fishing before this, i expect it didn't bother them but i was hoping to be able to launch it through surf and i expect this would be an issue? Like I said i've not had any experience driving these, only the Arancia and Achilles boats.

m chappelow · 20 September 2010, 19:58

looks right ,seem to remember that it had a few more holes ,,though it could be a replacement that some one has made, think i would try it and see how it goes first ,might be easier to shim /pack it out with another strip of wood if there is any problems ,you could always then make another and slightly larger near the transom to taking the slop out of it ,i would have thought the bow end is more likely to have an effect on handling than near the stern .