Though several people (not boat builders) said it was not worth it or safe to put back together, most people just laughed, however I got a distinctly positive reaction from people who built or repaired fiberglass boats. Though the initial idea I had for repairs was close to what they said, the interesting part was that I wanted to do was overkill and might have actually degraded the strength of the Whaler design. Basically the plan is to line the two halves of the hull up, and fiberglass them together. Simple. Right?
Despite being a 13'3" boat like the Classic Whalers, this hull is considerably wider at 5'11 and has more glass and about double the weight of a Classic, coming in at a hefty 600lbs. Needless to say it is not possible for one person to safely lift, left alone flip over. To do that, I needed to install a chain hoist in my garage, luckily I had wanted one for helping with my motorcycle and other projects, so with the help of Harbor Freight, I got a reasonably priced 1ton hoist and installed it. Though a little challenging to flip, as I had to position the cargo straps on the boat so the boat would naturally tilt when raised on the side, after they were positioned, it went very smoothly.
I took a break here to construct a table to put it on to help line the halves up and hold them in place, and move around as needed. I also took the time to chase down an outboard I had spotted at a fair price, and though a little under powered, as a very reliable old 2-stroke, I think it will move the boat plenty fast for me. It is a 1993 Tohatsu m25 long shaft, a tank. And after addressing a couple of minor issues, sketchy spark plug boot repair, and warn impeller in the water pump, I was able to fire it up and run it, compression is great. FYI this was run exclusively in salt water, for a 30 year old engine I'd say it's hard to tell. That is Tohatsu!
The wire and device you see here is a stock (working) rectifier for charging a battery, even though it's a manual start (starter is easily added) these engines were designed for working boats with various electronics. Again, that's Tohatsu!
