Restoration Tips


Here is Snapdragon, the Pearson Electra that my students restored. She was donated by a former teacher, and just needed some TLC. The classes worked on her all year, lots of sanding and painting. We replaced the front hatch,tiller, outboard mount and some of the teak. We also repaired the rudder, removed the old head and installed a compass and knot meter. We still need to finish the rigging and replace all the lines with new double braid.
The kids had a great time, learned a lot, and now have a beautiful little
yacht to practice sailing. She is the flagship of the Ballard High sailing
team. I can't imagine why she wouldn't be around for another 40 years.

7/24/03
Ken,
I am a teacher at the Ballard Maritime Academy at Ballard High School. We have been given a 1964 Pearson Electra sailboat, and will be beginning a restoration this fall. We found a trailer for the boat, and the plan is to bring it into my classroom at the school for the work. It's still up in there whether it will fit in my shop door or not.
Assuming it does, we will be doing lots of little repairs and updates. Some of the jobs include: Electrical --  voltmeter, new lights and wiring Rigging -- replace standing rigging and all lines    Mechanical -- remove marine head, plug through-hulls, install porta-potty, bilge pump, repair hatch, outboard mount, runners and rails, replace deadlights.
Visual -- repair cracks and chips, repaint hull and topsides, restore teak and non-skid.

The boat is in fine shape, it's just been sitting outside uncovered too long. I've got a great group of students who can't wait to sail this fine little yacht.
I've been studying Don Casey's Sailboat Hull and Deck Repair, and purchasing supplies for our project, but I would love to hear from others who have undertaken these jobs and get shortcuts/tips/words of caution from others, or other references I might find.
Also, if there are other Pearson Electra enthusiasts in the Seattle area who might be interested in sharing their expertise, I'd love to hear from them.

Thanks-
John Foster
Ballard High School
Seattle

Inboard Engine

 I found a BMW D12 10 HP diesel engine that I am refitting jackpot with. The original Palmer came out with a LOT of tugging (It's amazing what a boom vang can be used for). I've glassed in a new bulkhead to hold an Aqua drive thrust bearing and CV joint. This will dampen the vibration of the one lung BMW and allow me to rotate the engine to a horizontal position. It will save 5" in height in the companionway.
I am documenting the whole project with pics for anyone who is interested.
I still have the original Palmer MORC engine with all of the manuals and hardware. I rebuilt the carb in the shop and solved the fuel leak problem. Still, gas in the bilge is not a pleasant experience.

I have finally finished the inboard refit with a small BMW diesel. There are many marine inboards which will fit nicely. I have notes and info on fitting the Electra with offshore electrical systems, exhaust, cooling, plumbing, fuel, etc if anyone is thinking on losing the outboard. I also have the nicely running Palmer (the original gas engine designed for the Electra) with manuals if anyone would like to keep their boat original or is looking for PARTS. I intend to take Jackpot offshore and the diesel seems the safest and most reliable. I can motor at 5.5kts using .38 gallons per hour.
I used the space behind the rudder for a 20 gallon fuel tank. As you can see in the second photo, it throws the balance of the boat off a bit... but not much. Note that I am sitting on the lee side as far back as possible (My sails are trimmed so terribly in the pic that sitting forward and windward would not have helped ;o) ) Without anyone in the cockpit the boat is balanced with a full tank.

Rudder

As far as the rudder goes, I had to rebuild mine too. A quick bit of helpful
tech: use epoxy glue with sawdust mixed into it (like a thick paste). The
sawdust goes into suspension in the glue, and the final product can be
grinded or sanded to shape. That is assuming that there is any mohagony left
to work with. Mine was very badly eaten away. I had to spend about 6
different sessions with the epoxy and really ended up piling it onto to the
"rebar" supports and outward, then just ground it to look like the rudder
should.

Excerpt from Ensign Site

On Removing rudder: When dropping rudder (for rebuilding) is it necessary to remove BOTH the strappings from the keel AND the base shoe --or just one of them?
Skip: Just the strap.  This was my way.  I have rebuilt about 5 rudders as the glue that Pearson used seems to go bad.  In doing that I always had to take the rudder and its post out from under the boat.  The brass strap you mentioned, is not to bad a problem.  Drill out the heads of the copper bar that goes through it (one side only), punch it out, spread the strap to remove it, lift the rudder post up about an inch, pull it beside the keel block you mentioned and drop the post and rudder down and out.  A strong suggestion.  Drill a 1/2 to 3/8 hole in the top of the rudder post.  Insert a rod or drill bit into it when you
replace the assembly.  This rod after it passes through the bushing at the top of the rudder post tube will help you steer the whole rudder post through the bushing.  

The next problem is to replace the strap.  Buy a piece of soft copper the size of the one you drilled out earlier.  Cut it so about 3/8" protrudes out each side of the strap.  The peen it into the counter sunk holes of the strap.  I use two sledge hammers to make the job fairly easy.  You will be surprised how easy this is.  It is probably a good idea to throw a little epoxy or rubber sealer into the rod's hole to keep the hole water tight.  I have had a problem a couple of times finding a copper bar of the same diameter I took out and have used just 00 gage wire.  Most electrical supply houses will just give it to you when you tell them what you are going to use it for and you only need about a foot.  When you are done, fair in the strap with epoxy fill.  I saw one boat at the Nationals that the keel was thinned down for the strap and the you couldn't tell it was there except where it went around the rudder post.

Ensign Newsletter Editor: First I removed both the shoe and strap.  After you remove the shoe you'll see why.  I bet you'll find it's saturated with water and you are best getting it all out.  With both removed as Skip mentioned, remove the putty in the through passages and dry the area with a hair dryer for as long as you can.  I then filled these passages with epoxy thickened with high density filler.  Sand the filler flush with the holes, refit the shoe and strap, and mark the centers of the holes.  Drill and tap the epoxy for 10-24 threads.  I found 3/4" bronze screws from several sources such as Jametown Distributors.  Next butter the whole works up real well with a good bedding compound such as Boat-life.  Do not use 5200!!!  You want to be able to remove it someday and 5200 will give you future nightmares.  Force the shoe back into place making sure plenty of bedding oozes out from the seam and tighten the fasteners.  Please ensure the fasteners are bronze and not stainless.  Let the bedding cure for a day. 

Tiller

 H&L Marine Woodworking in CA can make replacement 
tillers.

I brought a laminated tiller from West Marine. It needed to be ordered out of the catalog, and I ordered a stock size for faster delivery which required some trimming, however tillers may be custom ordered.

From Peter Bigelow owned #284 and is looking for another Electra

  1. New tiller from H & L in California -- $63.00 for a beautiful new tiller.
  2. New Winches – I bought on-line from ARCO (Australian Winch Company) their #8, which is the US equivalent to #16. ARCO owns the old castings/tooling tot he Barlow and Bariant winches. The two winches I bought – chrome – were beautiful, and delivered via FedEX cost me $350.00 US – for both. Bruno at ARCO was very nice but delivery was slow. ARCO has a web page with pricing, etc. I would defiantly do it again as I bought for less than ½ the cost of Harken or Anderson. ARCO also has self-tailing and smaller winches, etc.
  3. I was looking at having the coaming and winch blocks replaced and in that research learned that the mfg. of the bronze winch blocks used by Cape Dory is still in business and is named Cavalier. The are located at the Robinhood Marina in Maine (former owner of Cape Dory’s business) and were quite reasonable. The CD Typhoon uses the same size – and it offers an alternative to those who are not necessarily looking for an exact replacement.
  4. Defender Marine in Waterford CT was the supplier of the other "stuff" Defender has the best prices and were easy to deal with. They have a great web page and – if anyone is close enough to CT, they have three times a year a warehouse sale which has really big discounts for even non-stock items (20-30%) and bigger discounts for stock items. (as an example I bought a new 8hp Honda outboard for $1,300.00 – and it lists for $2,400.00) BTW the motor did not go with the boat!