New Featherhead

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Feathersarefun
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed May 13, 2020 7:04 pm
3

New Featherhead

#1

Post by Feathersarefun »

I inherited an old Feather Craft, the boat sustained some damage during Hurricane Katrina. I have been unable to see her in person with everything going on.

I am currently researching to find out the type of Feather Craft boat and year. I do have a few very fond memories in this boat when I was very little and I am looking at restoring her to prior glory.

If you have any idea about the year and model from the pictures that would be great. Also if anyone has any recommendations feel free to share.

Happy to be here!
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kmorin
Donator 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24
Posts: 1734
Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2008 1:37 am
15
Location: Kenai, Alaska

Re: New Featherhead

#2

Post by kmorin »

Fthr's-fun,
welcome to the forum, and pretty sure you realized most of the boats here are welded plate? So while we've had a few riveted, super thin scantling skiffs before, not that much expertise in the riveted joints here- we tend to want to weld anything where metal touches metal.

If the skiff were mine to restore, first thing I'd do is power wash her insides/bilges/interior so you get all the organics that might have collected- out! Then get some acid (zep-a-lume from the ZEP chemical co.) and wash her out- etch to clean bare aluminum.

Then I'd fill her about 1/3 full of water with the bilge (drain) plugs in... to see if she has hull seam issues that would be need to be tightened up? If so, learning to blind rivet isn't hard, and tightening the rivets is usually the first step in getting seams in this type of boat back in service- no leaks.

However, there is one major pain in the stern! The seams in this type of hull were sealed by thin strips of rubber- with no long lasting adhesives, and this elasotmere- what ever its compostion had shown a tendency to get stiff, inflexible and even brittle over the years (well decades).

So if the hull has leaky seams, and you end up deciding to tighten some rivets, that process can (has been known to in the past) actually make the seams worse- due to shattering the now potentially brittle rubber gasket.

If thats' the case then you end up drilling out the rivets, gluing in a new rubber strip- then redrilling the rivet holes in the new rubber strip- then re-riveting to get a water tight seam.

There are lots of other methods, just glue the seal, put glue in- then tighten the rivets etc.... but that water-in-the-bilge test usually tells you a lot about the scope of your future hull work.

Keep us posted! we all enjoy pictures of boat projects, Welcome Aboard, hope you can find some good information to help your project at the AAB.com Forum.'

Cheers,
Kevin Morin
Kenai, AK
Last edited by kmorin on Wed May 13, 2020 8:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: typo's
kmorin
oldboat
Posts: 26
Joined: Sat Jun 15, 2019 9:42 pm
4

Re: New Featherhead

#3

Post by oldboat »

Hello !! great boat !! look up Feathercraft boats on google and go to their website.. its a great site and a great group of people that will help you with anything you need to know about your boat and its restoration !! I believe you have about a 1954 Vagabond !!
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