Plentywahalla
Junior Member
I've joined hoping that someone can help identify the boat that we are restoring. I know very little about it as I inherited it from a dear friend who died. He had little interest in it but had inherited it from his brother so it had sat in his barn for about 20 years. I am a retired boat builder so when he knew he was soon passing he thought I should have it and restore it.
She is 18ft 4ins overall length 5ft 7ins beam. It has a triple diagonal mahogany hull with plywood decks. There are two additional tapered plies in the hull bottom that have been applied after demoulding which I think is a Stapely build practice. There is a 130 litre 7ft long welded aluminium tank under the sole boards. The engine was an inboard/outboard with a BMW 410 (115bhp) four cylinder slant four, similar to a BMW 2002ti engine but marinised by BMW Marine. The drive is a ZF Z-14 drive leg. Both the engine and drive leg are dated 1969. The original engine was with the boat but very corroded. It also came with a BMW 411 (130 bhp) engine recently rebuilt. This is basically the same engine as the 410 but upgraded with twin webers in place of the single solex carb. There are Gibson manual hydraulic trim tabs to the transom.
The hull itself was strong but there was some rot at the transom edge and the longitudinal bulkheads that held the tank had also rotted away. The tank is 3mm thick aluminium and was pressured tested as good. All this has been repaired or reconstucted and now we are starting to re-veneer the decks which had lifted. We are also reconstructing the dash and top where it had been covered in vinyl and rotted the plywood beneath. The plywood upstand in the pictures is not part of the build. It would orginally have had a wrap round screen and also coamings aft but these are yet to be re-instated. That is basically all I know but I have done some research and it appears that she would meet the Class 3 rules for an offshore powerboat racer. It would be great if I could put a name or maker to her. Many thanks for any information received. Richard
She is 18ft 4ins overall length 5ft 7ins beam. It has a triple diagonal mahogany hull with plywood decks. There are two additional tapered plies in the hull bottom that have been applied after demoulding which I think is a Stapely build practice. There is a 130 litre 7ft long welded aluminium tank under the sole boards. The engine was an inboard/outboard with a BMW 410 (115bhp) four cylinder slant four, similar to a BMW 2002ti engine but marinised by BMW Marine. The drive is a ZF Z-14 drive leg. Both the engine and drive leg are dated 1969. The original engine was with the boat but very corroded. It also came with a BMW 411 (130 bhp) engine recently rebuilt. This is basically the same engine as the 410 but upgraded with twin webers in place of the single solex carb. There are Gibson manual hydraulic trim tabs to the transom.
The hull itself was strong but there was some rot at the transom edge and the longitudinal bulkheads that held the tank had also rotted away. The tank is 3mm thick aluminium and was pressured tested as good. All this has been repaired or reconstucted and now we are starting to re-veneer the decks which had lifted. We are also reconstructing the dash and top where it had been covered in vinyl and rotted the plywood beneath. The plywood upstand in the pictures is not part of the build. It would orginally have had a wrap round screen and also coamings aft but these are yet to be re-instated. That is basically all I know but I have done some research and it appears that she would meet the Class 3 rules for an offshore powerboat racer. It would be great if I could put a name or maker to her. Many thanks for any information received. Richard
