My 88 dilemma

[Century63]

I have an 88 Pirata. The boat was in great shape and well take care of. However, the floor and stringers were toast. I had Donnie Bennett do the work. He told me it won the contest for taking near two months to dry out after he took about 500 lbs of foam out of it. It is all new and will last me the rest of my time. The Pirata cost near 50,000 new back in the day. Where else can you get a boat like that today for less than 15000 (cost and repair).

Century63

[csuggs]

Everyone here has good points. From what you've described, I would bet money that you've got wet floors and stringers all the way. Before you dig any deeper you need to decide if you like the boat well enough to keep her. Because soon you will dig yourself to the point of no return and a rebuild will be inevitable. Not trying to scare you from that, because I did the same thing and have no regrets! But my boat is now a "keeper" with around 20K invested. Again, NO REGRETS!

[88pirata]

Well I've removed most of the floor and the foam as well,as much as I could anyway
I think I am now ready to pull the cap off the boat,I've drilled out all the rivets and built myself something to lift the cap with
My question now is ,I was planning on lifting the cap off by using the cleats in front of the windshield and a 4x4 beam going from speaker hole to speaker hole in the rear
Is that adequate lifting points
There are pictures in my album of my latest progress
I am going to pull it apart this weekend

[TitanTn]

Well most importantly it looks like you've got some quality help! I love the look on your son's face where you can tell the fun of ripping out foam has become work. Great looking lift for the cap, but also it's a great looking garage where you lifted the boat off the trailer. I'm guessing you had temporary access to that place, but what a luxury! Keep it up. You're making good progress.

[Salty87]

My question now is ,I was planning on lifting the cap off by using the cleats in front of the windshield and a 4x4 beam going from speaker hole to speaker hole in the rear
Is that adequate lifting points
There are pictures in my album of my latest progress
I am going to pull it apart this weekend

where's the photo album, i don't see a link?

the windshield/bow area will be very heavy...esp closed bow. i ran (3) 2x4s standing vertically, tied the cleats to the boards and then separately the boards to my lifting frame. at first i had the 2x4s laying flat but they snapped pretty quickly. the 4x4 beam should go closer to the driver area. mine had speaker-sized holes that were hidden by upholstery...right behind the drivers seat area. the rear can be held up with 2 fingers...there isn't much back there that's part of the cap.

you can get a pretty good view here:




I almost forgot...once you've got the hull out of the way, you'll want to support the bow area from below too. I can almost see a bend in the bow.


good luck!

[sybrmike]

I'd use 6 points on the Priata. Like Salty said, most of the weight is up front on the Salt & imagine it's even worse on the Priata. I used the rear cleats, front cleats, and then ropes passed through the fresh air vents to a 2x4 underneath the vent openings. Otherwise, I think you risk cracking the top cap just ahead of the windshield.

Top Cap 005.jpg

Top Cap 004 small.jpg

[88pirata]

photo 1.jpgphoto 4.jpgfloor is off and foam is on its way out

[88pirata]

ATT_1371528578788_photo 4.jpgATT_1371528595354_photo 2.jpgATT_1371528573094_photo 5.jpgthere goes the top

[TitanTn]

Congrats on your progress. What's your timeframe for this build?

[88pirata]

I actually just put the top back on so I hope to be on the water by July, I just figured out how to post pictures so the progress will look quick
but ive been at it for a while