Selcruiser 27 Fjord Rebuild - rot?

[BobFar2013]

Hey - In 1974 I bought a Selcruiser 27 and kept for 2 years - never ran properly got frustrated and sold it. Ever since I wonder about the boat. Last month I found it living in northern BC Canada. So this week I bought it again. It now has a Perkins 6-345 Turbo and has been sitting for 3 years - but that is for the mechanics to tell me about.
My question is about rot. Many north American boats of that vintage have rotten stringers and transom.
Has this been found to be a concern with the Selcruiser? I cannot find any information on line as to whether the stringers are wood encased in Fiberglass like the rotting boats here or if Fjord used a closed cell product like Uniflight for instance.
As I have already bought the vessel you may assume I don't care - I plan a complete rejuvenation of the boat and I do care. If necessary I will start from bare hull and work up in a "renovation" of the boat. It's clear I have "a thing" for the boat and must have it back to as near Bristol as possible ..
I do not know of another one in Canada but would welcome knowing of any.
I hope all your answers are to the negative . I will keep you all informed of the progress with photos if you wish.
Sincerely
Bob

[Cruiser27]

Hi Bob, I ride a Selcruiser -73 myself and did a major refurnish in the "engine room" last spring in order to fit a brand new engine. Me and my mechanic had to rebuild the original stringers that had held the old V8 (they were too narrow) and when cutting them we realized that the one on the portside was in really poor condition. Water poured out of the cut and we left it to dry for a month. We came to the conclusion that the damage was limited to the part in the engine room, no rot found further forward. So, there´s the answer to one of your questions: the stringers are wood encased in fiberglass, but the Fjord factory had a good reputation regarding plastic constructions. I suggest you bore a small hole in each stringers lower part (that can easily be plugged with epoxy or likewise), if water leaks out you have a problem. I think a rot-problem in the transom is up to the amount of holes in it, especially below the waterline. Cracks in the gelcoat should be investigated.

These are solely my experiences and in general the Selcruiser is a boat I enjoy every minute in, at least since last summer...I would love to see how your project develops so keep in touch!

Regards,
Kim (here´s what it looks like when I nail it nowadays: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwIeKIWRs-U

PS. Most likely the rotten stringer was the result of installing a V8 with homemade mountings on a construction not fit for it. The weight and torque of the engine may have caused a crack in the fiberglass covering the wooden core and there was 3-4 inches of dirty old water in the bilge when I bought the boat.

[BobFar2013]

Thanks that is very helpful to know. And your boat is fantastic - 260HP - Now that's nice! My thoughts are leading me to Volvo D3-150. after reviewing the info provided by the original brochure showing Volvo MD32 with only 106 HP pushed the vessel to peak of 18 knts. But I am in early stages and will accept any and all input from members .

I have just been reading the original brochure wherein it talks about the aft cabin. It refers to the aft cabin as having the head and vanity. I remember the vanity but wonder if and when that design detail was changed as I have not seen any photos of the forward cabin without a head compartment. Now that there are such things as composting toilets a rear head is (forgetting the height restrictions) possible. Prior to that I wold not like to have a through hull to a toilet with the bowl that low in a following sea

[Cruiser27]

Well Bob, I live in Volvo Pentaland and I was really scanning the market for a well maintained second hand Volvo diesel last spring. There were some D3:s for sale but most of them with a sterndrive connected and at ridiculous prices. I also looked for info on the web about the D3 series and came across a lot of forums where owners were furious about the way they were treated by Volvo Penta when their brand new engines, mainly D3, malfunctioned, in some cases after just 10 hours. OK, they´re big on the marine market and arrogant but I think the D3-150 you´re thinking of is an improvement in engineering compared to earlier products like the 160, 200 and 220. I think it´s basically the same engine Volvo put in the XC70 I drive and that´s a lovely piece. They also seem to have reduced the weight which is an extra bonus. I chose Hyundai Seasall because at that time they offered the most modern and updated engine on the market (and when it comes to koreans I really trust their craftmanship), the price was way below a new Volvo and the ZF-drive was included.
Check out 170 hp Hyundai, it´s not a bad alternative. I´ve been told they tested that model in a couple of commuterboats in Venice, Italy, and they ran 3000 hours with just replacing oil and various filters.

I don´t know when Fjord altered the location of the head, but fortunately they did, maybe after they took over production of the Selcruiser from Selco. I suspect that my boat once had the head in the aft cabin, now it is on the portside up front. It´s a pretty new installation by some previous owner and very nicely done. The vanity in the aft cabin was in a bad state so i replaced it a couple of weeks ago with an ordinary table-like thing. What shape is your boat in right now? What are your plans with the cockpit, if you have any?

/Kim

[BobFar2013]

Thanks for the info Kim - I have even been looking at Mercruiser gas engines which for 1/2 the price ($10,300 here) one can get 300 hp. The difference in price is many hours of cruising before one can use $12000 more fuel.
So I continue to talk while I await the boats delivery.
As to the condition - I can only go by photos and it would seem fair to good in condition. The cockpit - when I owned the boat in 1997 I removed the galley box under the helm and moved the galley to the fore cabin. That is still in place. I am not sure how I will utilize the cockpit or if any changes will be made,.
As this is a 1973 the head is forward starboard and from what I remember fine size for a then average person. I would like to install a composting head but the size may preclude that. It has a pump out system with macerator which I will likely find adequate as other more important work mounts u
The galley is propane as is the heater. I am considering wiring and all internals to be fried and will rewire and replace just about everything. 1973 is a long way off when considering such items.
So I am in a quandary and while I do not have the boat within my reach yet I will need to be patient. I would post the photos but they were sent to me as a word document and I cannot figure how to convert to a jpg from docx.
I will post upon arrival of the boat on or about My 8 as to what the condition really is and what I will be doing with the Perkins 6-354T.
Bob

[Nbottning]

Hi Bob!

I had to make a post here just to say Hi!
It will be really fun to here and see about your boat and maybe about boating in Canada.

//Per

[BobFar2013]

Cruising in this part of Canada is wonderful - The Gulf Islands and the North country leading to Alaska. But first I must spend as much time as possible getting TRUDY11 in ship shape order for such long trips. So here are some start photos showing the rough shape it is in - re-wire, re-power, and lots of cosmetics - maybe 8 months

[Nbottning]

Now i seen the pics. It´s a good start, hope I´ll see som more pics from the progress.

//Per

[BobFar2013]

Thanks more photos will follow - one day with the local inviro extraction company removing bilge water and diesel, tanks, hoses and anything coated and another two scrubbing out some 40 year old dust and it is now a work space one can "work in". Also lucked out and found six sheets of Sapelli to reface the worn wood work. And on it goes ..

[paxo]

Last year I took out the original Volvo B30C from my 1977 mod. Fjordcruiser and put in a Steyr 236 2005mod.
The Volvo had 141hp on the shaft and the Steyr has 206hp.
This seems to have been a good choice. The engine with ZF 45A transmission weighs only 333kg, and weight
is an important issue with this type of hull. With the B30C it did 18 knots, with my new engine it does 23 knots, but the practical
cruising speed has gone up from 7 knots (yes, because it was very thirsty and the engine didn`t trive over 12 knots
which made Big wawes) to 19 knots.

A top speed of 18 knots with the old 106 hp diesel, must have been with a totally
empty boat with just a couple of liters in the fueltank... (going downhill)

Regarding rot. I had to bore holes in the stringers to fasten some aluminium profiles for the new motor. The wood inside
was in perfectly good shape. To fit an 4 inch exaust, I had to cut a larger hole in the transom. This is laminated with balsa wood, and
the wood was still good!!

[BobFar2013]

I have stripped the boat down now to hull as much as possible. The stringers are fine the stern however after some very poor install of swim platforms is in need of some repair. This week we will be cutting the lower 14 inches out of the stern. Photos will follow. Engine wise I have pretty much decided on the Hyundai 170 package. Removing and stripping all cabinet work and finding the Sapele for the most part in excellent condition.
The only rot I have found so far was been in the centre deck rear cross member and both of the cockpit `seats (either side of the cabin entrance). But that is to be expected given the design of those particular corners. I am coating all with Clear epoxy followed by either spar varnish or clear acrylic. An on it goes ...

[BobFar2013]

The saga continues but well. The transom and decks have been rebuilt, new steering system full re and re of all through hulls, clean out complete and new cosmetics to replace 70's orange is underway etc. The time is near that I must chose and engine. So far the least expensive and useful engine is the Hyundai 170. (Yes I would love to have the V6 but that would price me out of any logical range of resale down the road. (Did I just try to introduce logic in a conversation on boats? Sorry, wont happen again.)
The 170 I am accepting as a 7-8 gph but I would like to know from those of you running gas engines what the consumption rate / mph you are getting. The new gas V8's and V6's advertise at about 14gph at 30 mph. That is almost equal to 8 gph at max 17 mph in distance travelled for diesel. But calculations are one thing - the real world experience of owners would be appreciated. All the best ..

[TomasR]

Haha....logic and price in a rebuild rot project...that made my day
Hope you find a good engine anyway and it is great to follow your project!

Best regards

[Lars Lundbladh]

Engine alternatives :
FNM or FPT
http://www.cryco.co.uk/fnm-marine.php
http://www.cryco.co.uk/fpt.php
http://www.cryco.co.uk/catalogue.php
FNM in USA/CANADA
http://www.mshs.com/eng_sales.htm

/Lars

[BobFar2013]

Thanks for the info - the diesels mentioned are rare this side of the pond if available at all. With the remote nature of the west coast outside of the major centres one must consider repairs and parts leaving us with the usual Volvo (over priced by all accounts) GM, Detroit, Yamaha, Yanmar (teaches Volvo how to over charge), and now Hyundai. The price of the latter is very low by comparison to most others - I believe they are making inroads by price challenge no doubt.
I would be interested to hear from anyone running a gas engine re power / fuel consumption.

The deck and stern are complete - this is a job I could have tackled but wow I am sure it would not have looked as good. Cam Williams of Williams Mobile Marine did the job and his attention to detail is exceptional. The fore deck took 14 hours stern 12.



The rudder tube is unique - and now I am in process of having a foundry create a new one for me. That as a result of getting ahead of myself and not getting a pro to check out how it functions. Turns out with a bit of drilling I could have bought off the shelf. This will set me back serious $$ per pound - but it will look really "pretty".