The saga of a neglected
Richardson Phantom Express
Barry and Moira's web site

 
 
This poor old girl a Richardson Phantom Express Cruiser was found in a back yard near to where we live.  The superstructure
had been blown off in a heavy wind and it was lying on the ground among other parts of the boat.



Specifications: More specs to come as we get them
 

inside boat
 
As you probably can see the boat is in very bad condition. I am in the top right picture, my wife says it is a good picture of me. The bottom right is another of me shaking my head and thinking 'what have I got myself into'. The left top is looking port side at the mess and condition of the cabin. Bottom left is what's left of the helm.
 

helmcabin fronttransom

No wonder the top blew off.                    Kinda drafty                                        Transom

 
The picture right is the transom deck. It is made of teak and has not rotted but it is badly cracked. After finding out how much a piece of teak would cost to replace it (mega $$$) I am going to try and epoxy it back to gether using the Smith &Co method.  

The railings are bent because of poor storage though a winter outside. The horse supporting the tarp kicked over and ice and water in the tarp  bent and broke the railings.
This is the area that I am going to start with.  I think that it will give me a feel for what is to come. 

As things progress  I shall update my pages, any comments and suggestions would be appreciated. I can be reached at moiranic@eagle.ca 

the restoration
we hope
Not much to report as yet but we have taken the back decking off the transom. Underneath the 3/4 marine plywood is virtually gone I have a part of a piece that can be used as a template. It was covered with tar paper that was ok.  The plywood was screwed to the aluminum frame with 3 inch stainless # 16 self tapping screws.
More Pictures to come .
transom1 transome2
This is transom deck after it had been epoxied 
 
 This the transom deck after It had been repaired. The trim underneath was stained with varathane mahogany stain.
We went with stain because of all the different weathering of the wood on the boat made it all different colours.
The old plywood was replaced with 3/4" pressure treated plywood and then covered with flashing
self adhesive asphalt tar paper.
The hatches were taken out to repair and to see if the teak could be cleaned. They were sanded 
but on the whole were left rough ( the boat had been heavily sanded before and the deck varied in
width from 1/2" to 5/8"). We felt that sanding them smooth again would make them too thin. They were then treated with Cetol M one coat just to protect.
We are also taking off the teak railing decks on both sides to replace the plywood. We found insect
nests in the plywood. The insects were all dead. Thank goodness we found a place inside so the boat could dry out.
 

If you look at the above picture you can see the a white line. The deck is sagging the frame is
rotted. Hopefully we can sister the frame after jacking up the deck.  (The whole rear deck was pulled up new stringers were installed upon 2" angle aluminum and  the deck reinstalled July 2007)
More to be posted later.

The first order of business was to get the cabin secure. The the fiberglass on the roof had to be taken off and all the remnants of the original roof cloth.then the roof had to be repaired at the corners and also other parts. Then it had to be fiberglassed again. The front windows had to be built from scratch. Took me about a month. There is 4 angles to work with plus they have to be flat so the glass can fit. It was fun !!$##$%***. Along the side of the cabin the wood had rotted because of the sliding windows drain hole was plugged so I  rebuilt them then decided to clad the wood with aluminum to help stop the rotting

repaired cabin roofcabin fibreglassedcabin sidediagram

While we were doing the roof some of the interior or the cabin was being done new struts for the windows, new glass, new wood walls and a total  renovation of the galley . Completion will come later after the boat has been rewired.

galleycabin1cabin2

Because of the large amount of rot on both side walls we decided to replace.  Below after we ripped out the side walls.

 
portgutted1side ripped offrot
         Now came the part to rebuild sides. We decided to build the helm windows and rebuild the helm roof top all at the same time so we could put it all together          all at once. (yeh right) We almost did it but then we had an epiphany why not enclose the helm cabin.

helm roof rotroof repairroof repairedroof fiberglassed

Helm roof rot.                            Repairing roof                            Roof repaired                            Roof fiberglassed

side wall
helm windowshelm windows installedhelm roof temp

Sides installed                            Building helm windows                Helm windows installed            Temporary instalation of roof

Off came the roof and we increased the length of the side walls and of course build in the helm.

wall extensions1helm built inbuilt in helm 2side wall2enclosed helm

While all this was going on  before we put the helm roof on I took the motors out to have them repaired. They could not repair them as they could not find parts.
So I found motors that had come out of a 38' Pacemaker that had been burnt. (I hate it when somebody does that  when all was wrong is that the hull needed to be partly rebuilt.) I had the motors rebuilt and reinstalled before we put the roof and cabin on. The back wall and the door of the cabin can all be taken out if  the motors need to be hauled out and repaired. Because of the original state of the boat the wiring looked bad I had it checked and I was told it would be a good idea
to rewire as it had been done twice before and there was wire everywhere. So I hired an boat electrician to do it. He told me to take out the helm and cut all the wires and he would rewire the whole boat. He started then vanished. I found him and he said that he would do it. He vanished again. I found him at his new job,he would not talk to me. f***## A@#**??. The boat is in Peterborough Ontario in storage at the moment. I have moved to Kingston Ontario. I am proposing to move the boat to Merrickville Ontario.  I have not done a thing on the boat for a while now because I am waiting to have it rewired so I can finish.


 stain and varnish protectstain and varnish protect2stain and varnish protect2starboard


While I was waiting for the jerkass to do the wiring we figured it would be a good idea to protect the wood that we so carefully sanded so to keep us busy we stained, painted and varnished almost every thing. If you look at the helm starboard side you can see the mess of the wiring.
~~~~~~~~~~~
The boat was moved to Aylings Boatyard, Merrickville, on June 22, 2010, to get the rewiring/electrical done - this, of course, needing to be done before we can put the boat back together.  We asked if the boat could be moved in dry weather(it hadn't seen rain for a number of years plus there were no helm cabin windows) and of course it got moved in the worst rainstorm of the summer, it took a while to dry it out.

As at late January, 2011, we are still waiting for the electrical to be done.  A small portion of this work did finally get done in August and September, but still a far cry from being completed with wiring still to be done and no instrumentation as yet.  We have put as much of the woodwork back together as we could having been assured that it would not get damaged again.

For all of you who have enquired as to the suitability of having work done on your boat at the Merrickville yard, I will keep you posted via e-mail.  We are planning on having more work done on the boat there depending on the outcome of the electrical.

BIG KUDOS to R & S Glass of Kemptville who put the glass in our Pilot House windows.  We went to see them on a Wednesday. They sent someone to measure on the Thursday and had the windows installed by the following Tuesday morning.  Very impressed with their efficiency and workmanship.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
          helm rebuiltmap table and helmhelm entrancehelm entrance2    

                            Helm                                        Map table and helm                                                                            Helm entrance






This is as far as I have got for the moment.  I am hoping to publish pictures of as many Avro Richardsons on this site as I can.  If you have an Avro Richardson please send me (Barry) a picture if you would like yours included, along with details you would like published; e.g. boat name, location, registry #, etc.         moiranic@eagle.ca

Updated Jan 03 2011.