Handmade Matt: Sailing Boat Restoration. 1960's Classic Sailor.

Mystic 21 foot 1960's Sailing Boat Restoration

I've really enjoyed giving this boat a new lease of life:

This is now a truly beautiful example of a classic

1960's plywood sailing yacht

Designed by a famous boat builder

Robert Tucker, constructed on the Isle of White

Stock photo:

Mystic 21

Bilge Keel

3 Birth

Vire 7 Inboard Engine

This boat was in a sorry state when I got her but a lot of hard work payed off.

She's now a real gem. Before and after photos are to follow.

Click on any of them to make them big.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

AFTER

The interior of this boat was all original even down to the light fittings. A beautiful time capsule from the 1960's It was filthy though and full of junk. Days of sorting and cleaning resulted in this fantastic little cabin:

INTERIOR AFTER:

AFTER

The first job was to work on the deck. I could tell something beautiful lay underneath the crust but it wasn't until I began to "excavate" this lovely boat that I realised just how beautiful it was

BEFORE

DURING

Weeks of scraping and sanding, with a little bit of filling later she was finally ready for the first of seven coats of varnish. There's not a lot I can say about the preparation here, there's no shortcut or magic trick other than using the right tools and putting in the hard work. An electric heat stripping gun made it possible.

The hull was very solid but filthy with layers of caked mud from an estuary. Again, mechanical removal of all the barnacles and growth was a long and tricky task. When scraping or sanding old anit-foul paint it's very important to do it wet to minimise dust but still wear gloves, eye protection and a breathing mask. The coating is designed to be toxic to protect the hull against marine life wishing to colonise the boat. Again, for the same reason one must be very careful when applying the new anti-foul.

BEFORE

Once the surface was prepared the boat received and entire hull coating of waterproof primer. On an old boat sometimes you won't know what coatings have been used in the past. This raises potential compatibility issues with new coatings. If a new coating reacts with an old coating you could find yourself doing a lot of work trying to mechanically remove it. For this reason, do test patches first and leave for a few days. Additionally, this primer was a top of the range product designed to barrier and make compatible non compatible coatings anway. Belt and braces.

DURING

Finally the new black antifoul coating was applied.

The most challenging part of this project was fixing a hole in the boat caused by rot. All the offending soft material had to be cut out. I then treated the whole area with an anti fungal solution and allowed it to dry out for a few weeks ensuring all traces of the problem had been removed.

BEFORE

The inside of the hole was reconstructed in layers using fibreglass. The imperfections in this repair were then filled and sanded appropriately in a seemingly never ending cycle of sand, fill, sand, fill, sand, fill. A new timber section of bashing strip batten was then attached and sealed in place with numerous sunken and capped stainless steel screws.

DURING