34’ webbers cove

I found one of the originals. I have been searching for a webbers cove from the late 60’s and early 70’s. But like most finding a downeast on a budget and raising a family at the same time is tricky. This one is a ‘71. The hull is good but the cabin was done without much thought to downeast flare. I think it will need some time, material and effort. Spend less and work more on it. She has a 3116 for power.
Well the good first:
Use her for the nice part of the season. Enjoy the time and work on a little clean up.
The bad:
She will need to undergo a little transformation during the off season. I figure block her up on the hard and do the bottom. New thru hulls and bottom paint.
Hopefully the good weather in the fall is consistent and lasts into November.
Here is a question for the gurus of this forum?
Stick build a cabin or I believe there is a top in blue hill Maine that might be available. Simple or build my own?

 

Congrats on your new project. Post a picture of the side of the house if you can. It appears to be all fiberglass now, so perhaps it can be saved without having to start from scratch.

 

Thanks. Excitement and nervousness taking this on. How are the improvements coming on your project? I read the posts and enjoy the work occurring. Thanks for reaching out. I think with this photo, it shows the trapezoid like shape, I think a chainsaw in the fall might be in order.
Jesse

 

My son has same hull. 1985 I think. Nice riding boat. Good luck with your project.

 

Thanks.

 

Agreed, it does look like it's time to "clean house" with that trapezoid house design. I thought it might be worth while modifying window openings without chopping the house off, but if your goal is anything with some eye appeal you will need to get the sawzall fired up. Redemption looks pretty sweet for an old Webbers Cove. Perhaps you can get some more pics and a few measurements from Skeetsdad to base your new design on. My project is coming along, but I keep finding things that must be addressed before launch time. For instance, the cutlass bearing is pretty bad so I'm going to change it. I could probably get by with it this season as is, but I'm installing a new DQX prop as part of a vibration and deck noise reduction strategy, so I have to make everything correct. It only takes a few minutes on any boat to find something that requires attention.

 

True. The eyeball picks up on inconsistencies quickly. All boats require a lot of attention. The older ones more than others. But, I’m lucky with this old one, the hull and engine are ok. I finally saw it out of the water today and there were a few surprises but nothing awful. Some attention to the running gear and a little work on the rudder post, thru hulls need some work but it looks ok on the bottom and keel. Time will tell.

 

Chop it off and start fresh. Leave the trunk

 

I most definitely will. Alright here is a question for all, someone painted this hull. I’m starting all the bottom reworks, transducers, intakes and even updating the running gear(shaft log, skeg and new fairing block/cutlass bearing).


I would like to rework the sides from the waterline up to the rails. I’ve heard that Awlgrip is the way to go. How prep intensive is it and how what grit should be achieved?
Also, I’m taking on grinding the bottom down to the glass.
Do I:
A: spend the money on interprotect
or
B: do I spend the money on some vinylester resin
to give this old hull some protection?
Still needing to build up a few coats of bottom paint.
I found a few surprises that need glassing.

Just want the money I spend to be worth the time and effort.

 

Your gonna grind the whole hull to fiberglass or just the bottom paint

 

Down to glass. As I look at the hull, she could use a little bit of care. Barrier coating or resin is the my dilemma.

 

Manually stripping paint on a "free time" per foot is actually much more costly than having it blasted. It's also a dream killer for many people. So my opinion is if you do it yourself, just do a little bit at a time and move on to other projects in between. That way you won't realize just how long you're actually under that hull scraping and sanding. But please consider having it blasted! And go with barrier coat. It's designed for that purpose and paint will adhere to it without sanding if you stay within the time window.

 

Thanks for the tip. I will follow that tip. Killing a persons will to do a project definitely kills their drive.

 

Couldn't agree more, I scraped, sanded, sweat, sweared at 30 years of bottom paint, never again. It's worth whatever they charge, you can work at more fun jobs which I'm sure theirs plenty of!

 

Spot on!

 

Guys! Thank you all. I will take all your advice.
Like an old sea captain once said to me:
“All boats are like whores, the old ones know how to take good care of you!”
Now after looking closely at this old webco, I truly understand what he meant!

 

shit my webbers took care of me more than a couple times in only the first season with her

 

I’m sure this vessel will do me proud when the updates are complete. I want to ask you a question. What degree transducer did you fit in the bottom on your 34’. I want to add a new one most likely a Garmin unit. While I have it on the hard, might as well fit a nice transducer in her hull. An airmar b60 looks like it will fit the bill. Any suggestions?

 

I dont know the angle of it. The transducer was upgraded with a simrad unit from the previous owner