Theta Volantis Salvage

[tonyof971 18]

 Good day,

As suggested by some of you I create a thread for the salvage of our boat Theta Volantis.

This adventure will be a long one, but we have time, we are patient and the most important we are tenacious.

The "dead line" to achieve the refit is in three years

The team is composed by my little familly, some friends, a local shipyard who support us.

A lot of people critics our project, so many guys since the begining. I heard things like "You won't arrive in Guadeloupe with this boat, you'll sink before..." We are in Guadeloupe!

" You won't have the boat papers, never..." We have an official certificate of registration now!

Ok there's still a lot of time, efforts, and money to put in our Lady but "NEVER GIVE UP"  is our motiv.

So I would say, thank you, for following us.

Sailors Regards.

[PaulK 385]

Bon vent!

[woahboy 215]

2 hours ago, tonyof971 said:

 Good day,

As suggested by some of you I create a thread for the salvage of our boat Theta Volantis.

This adventure will be a long one, but we have time, we are patient and the most important we are tenacious.

The "dead line" to achieve the refit is in three years

The team is composed by my little familly, some friends, a local shipyard who support us.

A lot of people critics our project, so many guys since the begining. I heard things like "You won't arrive in Guadeloupe with this boat, you'll sink before..." We are in Guadeloupe!

" You won't have the boat papers, never..." We have an official certificate of registration now!

Ok there's still a lot of time, efforts, and money to put in our Lady but "NEVER GIVE UP"  is our motiv.

So I would say, thank you, for following us.

Sailors Regards.

Ignore the nay sayers. They’re just jealous.

[tonyof971 18]

When I met her...

 

[QBF 527]

I hope your shots are up to date! 

[tonyof971 18]

25 minutes ago, QBF said:

I hope your shots are up to date! 

Itook this pictures when I saw her the first time I will post some more fresh ones soon

[Rain Man 888]

Some quality time with a pressure-washer and she'll start to look like a boat again!  Big project, but it is great to see someone willing to save this boat!

[Bugsy 434]

I see this could be an interesting and informative thread.  Thanks for sharing.  Wishing you good success!

[MR.CLEAN 3,842]

Anyone have a pic of her in better days?

[Grande Mastere Dreade 2,173]

23 minutes ago, MR.CLEAN said:

Anyone have a pic of her in better days?

 

 

and based upon the pics posted earlier,  it's going to take a week and two dumpsters to empty that baby..

[MR.CLEAN 3,842]

holy fuck a sundeer!  Now i'll be watching.  thanks dread

[MR.CLEAN 3,842]

I could see moving the family down to the islands for a couple years and getting grimy some day for a boat like that.  

 

 

[tonyof971 18]

Last week end job. Remove all the head liners and their frames, hull liners, and starting to remove all the wiring.

[ROADKILL666 324]

That's going to be expensive a hell.Good luck you are going to need it and a lot of beer

[ROADKILL666 324]

Holy shit did you all see the wire in the head?

 

[couchsurfer 219]

Wowww,, quite a project.     You should leave all the barnacles in the head, as a momento!  

How far down was it?

[mcsailor0303 34]

Very cool boat, and inspiring project!

Best of luck to you and your fam!

This is a youtube channel I would follow...

[tonyof971 18]

in parallel working on the broken mizzen mast 
The brand FORESPAR the tube is not anymore produce and 21 feet is missing, probably we'll replace the mast except if we are finding somewhere the tube.

 

[tonyof971 18]

17 minutes ago, couchsurfer said:

Wowww,, quite a project.     You should leave all the barnacles in the head, as a momento!  

How far down was it?

Barnacles were covering almost the boom

[tonyof971 18]

20 minutes ago, ROADKILL666 said:

Holy shit did you all see the wire in the head?

 

That's worse below...

[tonyof971 18]

22 minutes ago, ROADKILL666 said:

That's going to be expensive a hell.Good luck you are going to need it and a lot of beer

That's correct it will be expensive however the plan is to do some races, so we want a light and reliable boat, a minimum of head/hull liner.

No more washing machine, AC.

A warriors boat

[southerncross 3,901]

Great boats.

I missed the story.  How did it sink?Hurricane?

Did you write to Steve Dashew?  He’s usually responsive.  Might have something to add.

[tonyof971 18]

7 minutes ago, southerncross said:

Great boats.

I missed the story.  How did it sink?Hurricane?

Did you write to Steve Dashew?  He’s usually responsive.  Might have something to add.

Thanks, yes she sank after IRMA in Sin Marteen and yes I'm in contact with Steve Dashew

[Rain Man 888]

Any chance the missing piece of the mizzen is still on the bottom?  If recoverable and not too badly damaged a sleeve might be possible.

Oh, wait, the "before" picture shows it already missing.

[southerncross 3,901]

1 hour ago, tonyof971 said:

Thanks, yes she sank after IRMA in Sin Marteen and yes I'm in contact with Steve Dashew

Best of luck.

I’ve had close up looks at Beowulf and the sister ship but never a Sundeer.

Worth the effort IMO.

[Blitz 85]

How many dead fish did you find during cleanup?

[duncan (the other one) 670]

6 hours ago, tonyof971 said:

That's correct it will be expensive however the plan is to do some races, so we want a light and reliable boat, a minimum of head/hull liner.

No more washing machine, AC.

A warriors boat

Good move.  Why re-line when paint will do?

[bigrpowr 195]

1 hour ago, duncan (the other one) said:

Good move.  Why re-line when paint will do?

yep.. skip that!

[couchsurfer 219]

 

...BAIL!  Definitely.                 ...then fix it up, and sail it!   

[Sail4beer 2,100]

Damn! 

You got some work ahead of you.

[Wess 2,457]

Oh man and I thought I had it bad bringing a dead 36 tri back to life.  Great project and good luck.

[PaulK 385]

Maybe you could create a volunteer helper list and people could sign up to help out? It would be more interesting and productive than poking into 250 t-shirt shops or sitting on a beach with nothing to do all day.

[WhoaTed 41]

Yeah, right out in no time, just get one of these and you’ll be golden & sailing in a day or two.

[billy backstay 970]

Where was this sunk, and for how long?  Why did she stink?  This thread is begging for the back story, some history.  Best of luck!!  I cannot imagine tackling a project like that!  Was the boat insured?

[QBF 527]

37 minutes ago, billy backstay said:

Where was this sunk, and for how long?  Why did she stink?  This thread is begging for the back story, some history.  Best of luck!!  I cannot imagine tackling a project like that!  Was the boat insured?

You can find the back story in a post I made in the Zombie thread in Cruising Anarchy.

Here is the link

 

[billy backstay 970]

1 minute ago, QBF said:

You can find the back story in a post I made in the Zombie thread in Cruising Anarchy.

Here is the link

 

 

Thanks for that, QBF!!!

[Ishmael 6,168]

This is going to be way interesting. Thanks for sharing.

[tonyof971 18]

Honey....I was looking for your hair dryer fuse but.... I think that we have a black out.

[SloopJonB 8,324]

Is that a boat or an office building?

What an insane amount of wiring for a sailboat.

[tonyof971 18]

7 hours ago, SloopJonB said:

Is that a boat or an office building?

What an insane amount of wiring for a sailboat.

So heavy too, it will be much more simple. The washing machine is already in the bin

 

[Student_Driver 164]

Is it going to take longer and cost more to do the rebuild in the caribbean?

 

Am thinking that parts need to be shipped further, import and customs could be expensive (duties etc.) and cause more delays etc.

At the risk of hijacking the thread, if hypothetically, one was retired and wanted to take a year (or more) to refit/rebuild a boat like this, where in the world would be the best place to do the work considering cost and talent/experience of local workers, tariffs and duties on imported parts/materials, favorable weather, economic but suitable work yards etc? I assume that Marina's catering to yachts will cost more to do work which one might get done cheaper at a commercial maritime facility.

Have often wondered whether US Gulf coast, or mid-atlantic with a larger commercial fleet might offer a suitable place to do the work and at more competitive costs than Ft Lauderdale/Miami or Mallorca etc which cater to yachts and price accordingly.

Thinking more outside the box, would Turkey, Thailand or other less developed countries with maritime industry might offer experienced workers at lower wages.

[SloopJonB 8,324]

On 3/26/2019 at 11:10 AM, Grande Mastere Dreade said:

and based upon the pics posted earlier,  it's going to take a week and two dumpsters to empty that baby..

A lot more than two. When I bought my old Columbia 43 it hadn't been under but it was closing in on that fate.

It took SIX dumpsters just to get rid of the crap we weren't keeping.

 

A boat the size of Theta? My guess would be a dozen dumpsters at a minimum. Unless you're talking about 14 yard construction bins.

Hell, just that wiring would take a dumpster.

[fufkin 387]

On March 29, 2019 at 7:28 PM, tonyof971 said:

So heavy too, it will be much more simple. The washing machine is already in the bin

 

Tonyof971, what a great boat! You've gotta unique opportunity. The pictures of the cables got me thinking...you should weigh it out...everything you bring off the boat and everything that goes back on. Also, the location of the weight...yeah the washing machine in the bin counts as well. (is there a scrap price per lb on the cable in your area?...free takeaway)

At least keep a mental note of the weight and location and it will help you with the trim and the logic of this great design down the road. 

Good luck!!

[ROADKILL666 324]

Any more recent pictures of your progress 

[tonyof971 18]

Here we are, after 25 days, a lot of liters of beer, in the shipyard.

Below some pictures of what has been done.

We almost finished to remove all the wiring, there is still some in the engine room and now as we removed main engine and generator it will be much more simple to do it.

I can say that now there is no more mud on board, blidges pump are working easier now.
Our main goal was to take care of the hole in the hull and we finished the external skin in fiberglass, removed all the damage balsa core.
Almost all the fiberglass job was done from inside. We used a pvc panel installed outside to keep the hull and deck shape shape, prepared. Localy it's difficult to find the balsa core in 25mm so I don't know yet what I'm gonna use, Airex foam  or something like that.
At least the boat is dry now and we can finish almost all the fiberglass job from inside.
We still have to do a mold for the link deck/hull.
Step by step we are going forward.

Everything was done, as usual, by ourself the kids participated and learned a lot of things.

 

[SloopJonB 8,324]

Wow - wish my project was progressing 1/2 as fast.

[tonyof971 18]

On 4/9/2019 at 2:20 PM, Student_Driver said:

Is it going to take longer and cost more to do the rebuild in the caribbean?

 

Am thinking that parts need to be shipped further, import and customs could be expensive (duties etc.) and cause more delays etc.

At the risk of hijacking the thread, if hypothetically, one was retired and wanted to take a year (or more) to refit/rebuild a boat like this, where in the world would be the best place to do the work considering cost and talent/experience of local workers, tariffs and duties on imported parts/materials, favorable weather, economic but suitable work yards etc? I assume that Marina's catering to yachts will cost more to do work which one might get done cheaper at a commercial maritime facility.

Have often wondered whether US Gulf coast, or mid-atlantic with a larger commercial fleet might offer a suitable place to do the work and at more competitive costs than Ft Lauderdale/Miami or Mallorca etc which cater to yachts and price accordingly.

Thinking more outside the box, would Turkey, Thailand or other less developed countries with maritime industry might offer experienced workers at lower wages.

Hello, that's correct it will be cheaper if we are going in South America or in Trinidad and Tobago, however here the labor cost for us is 0 as we are able to do everything by ourselve.

[Rain Man 888]

On 5/17/2019 at 9:04 AM, SloopJonB said:

Wow - wish my project was progressing 1/2 as fast.

Less time on SA and PA in particular might help...  Don't get mad, I have the same problem, maybe there is a cure somewhere....

[SloopJonB 8,324]

Good advice under any circumstances.

FWIW my time here is not taken away from my boat time - several personal situations leave me with dead time to waste here.

[RobbieB 1,172]

Wow!  Knocking out a lot of work fast!  The rig was cleaned and back up as well?  Did this really start in March?

[tonyof971 18]

On 5/20/2019 at 11:31 AM, RobbieB said:

Wow!  Knocking out a lot of work fast!  The rig was cleaned and back up as well?  Did this really start in March?

Thanks Robbie, No we didn't take care of the rig yet, Roughly, yes it's started in March, Théta Volantis is in Guadeloupe since longer but the job really started when we get the official boat papers.

[j 4 4]

How goes, @tonyof971?