Interior Refurbishing

When I began this project in late 2017 my first priority was to rebuild the transom so I could get it on the water the next summer and evaluate my suitability to motor boating. Even then I was thinking of project phases (yes, I was a project manager for part of my career). After the transom, Phase 2 would be getting the outside of the boat presentable, which I did in 2018-19. It turns out there was a Phase 2a, which involved troubleshooting and fixing the outboard, which came very close to stranding me. Twice. Phase 3, which I began in October 2019, was to get the interior looking decent. 

I'll document that process below, probably in more detail than most want to read. I started this blog as a potential resource for those contemplating or beginning a similar restoration. I hope it will be of some use in that regard.

Interior of the Offshore when I first looked at it in the fall of 2017.

The Skagit 20' Offshore model was apparently not very popular. Production records were destroyed in a fire not long after the company was dissolved in the early 1960s, but those in the know think that only a few dozen were built. Advertisements indicate that this model was targeted toward fishermen and water-skiers because of its larger cockpit. In 1958 the baby boom had been holding steady for 12 years and the larger cabin of the Express, which included a sink and cabin table, was more appealing to budding families who wanted to overnight on the water. 

I bought the boat partly because of the larger cockpit, with a cabin one could overnight in but not much else. If you plan on spending a night or two on the water you will almost certainly want to stay at a dock, in which case you can cook meals there instead of on the boat. Most marine parks have tables on the dock or nearby.

On to the interior restoration

I began the interior restoration in the cabin, which I hadn't really paid much attention to, in the fall of 2019. Turns out it was not only incredibly filthy, but the aftermost 1/3 of both bunks were rotted due to leaking side windows. I went into this phase thinking the interior was sound and all I had to do was some light sanding followed by paint. Once again I was way off the mark.

Forward part of the cabin, before commencing work.

The cuddy cabin in the Offshore consists of two 6+' bunks and a marine toilet between them (originally under the hatch in the above photo). In those days toilets expelled waste into the water, but those started being banned in the early 60's. My boat still had the the through-hulls installed; I elected to remove them and fill the holes by using epoxy resin and multiple layers of fiberglass mat.

I've read of people removing the bronze through-hulls and filling the holes only to have them fail. This is obviously very bad and perhaps fatal, but I suspect they just patched the hole with fiberglass resin, or didn't bevel the the area properly. If you plan on doing this I suggest watching a YouTube video such as this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVLRjxe_iUw. Since my repair was below the waterline I beveled both sides of the hole before bonding gradually larger diameter circles of fiberglass mat. Using epoxy resin is preferred over polyester because the former bonds to old fiberglass significantly better.

Intake through-hull, with one layer of 18 oz cloth on the inside.

Intake through-hull, with four layers of 18 oz biaxial cloth on the outside and the same on the inside. This picture was taken after I used a stripper to remove the bulk of the bottom paint, but before sanding down to the gelcoat. After filling the hole I faired it with thickened epoxy followed by fairing compound.

The discharge through-hull was quite a bit bigger than the intake (for obvious reasons). This shows one layer of bias cloth.

Port bunk in the aftermost part of the cabin, with line where I cut to remove the portion with rot.

As you can see in the above photo, the plywood was badly checked, as was the the bulkhead. My vision of a quick fix soon evaporated, so I dug in to do a proper job. 

Only the plywood and the aft inboard horizontal support contained some rot, so that was relatively easy to replace. Fiberglass tabbing between the hull and the bunk had to be ground off, which is a messy job in an enclosed space. I used a respirator while doing that.

New plywood and side support. I faired out the checks in the plywood (bunks and bulkhead) with epoxy fairing compound and laid down a fillet of fairing compound between the hull and new plywood instead of the original fiberglass tabbing.

The bunks are supported by cleats along the hull and bulkhead along 2" X 2" lumber on the inboard side with a vertical support (photo below). The support was a half inch piece of plywood tabbed onto the stringer below. That is actually a tastefully graceful design, but to bridge the gap between the two horizontal supports they bolted on a hunk of wood. I don't know for sure that this is from the factory or was added by a previous owner, but either way it's pretty cheesy.

Inboard bunk support.

I removed that block of wood and fashioned three 1/2" inch plywood supports that I bonded on to the original. It's stronger than factory and also better looking.

Modified port bunk support.

New bunk supports in place.

Starboard bunk replacement completed.

Both replacement bunks were bonded to the supports with thickened epoxy. I use GelMagic by System3 for little jobs like this.

Another part of the cabin that turned out to be a bigger job than imagined was what I call the cabin surround. In the second picture of this post it's the part below the cabin windows. Made of cast fiberglass, it has nicely done cutouts along the sides that allow for convenient storage. Mine was painted over and, again, I was planning on lightly sanding then painting it until I began removing the screws and realized it was gelcoated in the original red. I had to remove it to do a proper job, and that meant cutting it in half in order to get if out of the cabin (it must have been placed there before the deck was installed). I stripped all the paint off, then primed and painted it in Fire Red.

Painting the starboard half of the cabin surround on my super-fancy custom paint stand.

After undocumented hours of sanding, filling, and painting I'm pleased with how the interior turned out.

Finished cabin.

Aforementioned modified bunk support. It was difficult to get the spray gun down there for proper paint coverage, and same with the spatter coating. You have to get on hand and knees to see it, though, so it's good enough for me (and probably was for the factory).

Cabin with cushions. These are more maroon than red, but they came with the boat and are in decent shape.

Cabin looking aft. The cutout to access the helm box wiring had a fold-up table installed over it, which I'll probably replace at some point.

All of the screws that fastened the windshield, upper bulkhead, and helm box were exposed nuts. I departed from originality by covering them with stainless steel acorn nuts ($$).

Starboard cabin side showing the cubbyhole cutouts in the surround, which makes for handy storage of small items. 

Moving into the cockpit means going through the door, which also had issues. A previous owner used carriage bolts to stabilize a split hinge stile. I completely disassembled it and pieced that stile back together using GelMagic.

Gluing the hinge stile...think I used all my clamps!

Door reassembled, ready for more sanding, fairing, and painting. Very strong and square.

Work in the cockpit consisted of lots of sanding and fairing of the floor. This was in pretty good shape, since a previous owner had laid down a second layer of plywood (no, I don't want to know what the the condition of the original layer is in...it feels very sturdy and the boat had a full canopy after that which protected it from rot). There were a few little spots of rot, especially where carpet had been installed and fastened with staples. Hundreds of them. So, after tediously fixing those and fairing portions of the floor that were mildly checked I got to priming and painting. You will see in the pictures that I decided to retain the cabinets that were previously installed; they are very handy for storage, and the footrests hold fuel tanks which help balance the boat while underway.

Cockpit prepped and ready for painting.

Final coat of Hatteras Off-white, before painting floor and spatter coating.

Below are some pictures of the finished product. These were taken the day after a inaugural jaunt up to Sucia Island with my wife, sister, and brother-in-law. Wish I had documented that in photos under full sun, but these photos in my driveway will have to do for now. 

On the left is the original interior paint, hidden behind the helm box (the paint may have darkened with time), with the new paint job on the right. I believe most Skagit interiors were light gray. Mine might be one of the few ordered with off-white, which I think looks better. 

Newly-restored cockpit. Note the conduit on the starboard side; more details on this below.

From astern. 

Not bad looking from 15' away!

This trailer is old and quite shabby looking, but it has very sturdy bones and the Offshore fits it well .

I've named the boat Phoenix, after the ancient legend of a mythical bird rising from ashes or its rotting carcass. The latter might have been true if I or someone else had not rescued it.

A lot of wires and cables need to be strung between the helm and transom. Some of these boats had frames fitted from the factory that supported these runs, but mine did not. To get the boat on the water the last two years I tabbed some cable clamps to the hull, but that was quite unsightly. In probably the biggest deviation from original, I decided to fabricate a conduit to enclose the engine/instrument cables along with steering and speedometer lines. The easiest way to do this would be running them through a PVC or ABS pipe, but my old engine requires that the throttle cable be fixed a least 16" from the throttle box. This meant I needed access to the inside of the conduit. 

I cast the bottom part of the conduit using the same mold as the transom support beams (see Transom III post) with 17 oz bias/mat cloth. Since the cover needed to be removable and was not structural, I used 6 oz cloth. When the bottom portion of the casting was removed from the mold it tended to warp inward at the top, so I inserted a 3/8" thick lath to keep it open and also serve as an anchor point for the cover, using SS sheet metal screws.. I installed it all before running the wires because I painted the entire cockpit, including the spatter coats, before mounting the helm box and running the wires and cables to the stern. That meant removing the cover (a pain in the butt, because of very limited clearance for removing and reinstalling the screws holding on the cover in the back) then reinstalling it. This whole sub-project was a lot of work, but I'm happy with the final result.

Conduit (right) and cover (left). Those inserts along the sides of the conduit served as stops for the lath, which I removed after they were bonded in place.

So, that's pretty much the project. I'll probably redo the topsides next year, and replace the rubrail with the proper size. I'll let you know how that goes. For now: