Hook, Line and Sinker: Haines Hunter project boats part 3

That’s not new; each year the Hook, Line and Sinker pair commit to a project boat, finding an old boat in need of a restoration and a repower with a Yamaha outboard engine.

This time around, Andrew has found a little-known Haines Hunter Tri Hunter 170, while Nick has turned his attention to one of the most popular boats of its day, a Haines Hunter V19r.

>> Hook, Line and Sinker: The hunt for the perfect project boat

To mix things up a bit, this time around we’re tracking every dollar spent on them – after all, the working title on these builds is “Project Boats on a Budget”.

Here’s the latest update on where the Hook, Line and Sinker builds are at.

I now understand why so many wrecks lie in paddocks or parked up beside a house awaiting restoration.

The dream of restoring a bargain-priced hull may seem real when buying it, but the magic fades as soon as the reality of what is involved hits home. Fair to say, I feel a little broken.

You might remember that the structure of my $5000 Haines Hunter Tri Hunter 170 was rotten to the core – so rotten, in fact, that it was almost at the point of being too dangerous to use.

How bad? We reckon it is only a matter of time before the engine tears off the transom, sinking the whole thing.

My plan to save money – these are project boats on a budget, don’t forget – was to help Michael, my fibreglass-work mentor, with the rebuild.

However, laying fibreglass is something of a skilled job, and I’m sorely lacking in that department. Adding to the pressure was the realisation that filming Hook, Line and Sinker was keeping me away from the project far more than I’d hoped.

Making things even worse was the news that Michael could only give weekends to the project. His work so far had been great, but with only a few hours at a time here and there to spare, progress has been frustratingly slow.

Replacing the Haines Hunter Tri Hunter 170’s plywood stringers and transom wasn’t too bad. Things moved on, and the hull soon had a floor.

Next, the bow was fitted with a huge plywood casting platform with built-in storage space – so much space that we could fit it with an Engel fridge on a drawer. The platform will be a great spot to fish from once it is finished.

Things were progressing quickly, and spirits were high. Then it came time to reattach the deck.

It didn’t fit.

The new deck’s bodgy fit relates to the original layout of the Haines Hunter Tri Hunter 170. Before being torn apart, the boat was a bowrider with a pair of helm windscreens – a deck design that was way ahead of its time.

When Andrew and Michael pulled the deck off the hull, most of the original structure hidden beneath it was cut out to leave behind what could technically be classed as a flimsy bit of fibreglass – a blank template for the rebuild.

However, the classic deck is very different to the one that is replacing it. The process of repeatedly lifting the deck off the hull and lowering it back on again to check if it fits – recutting and reshutting – has been the worst part of the job.

It has been so tedious that the whole build seems to have stopped as the weeks and months drag on.

In the meantime, Nick was sending me photos showing that his boat was at the stainless steel shop, then the storm cover shop, and then came the message that he was booking it in to fit it up with a new Yamaha outboard engine!

However, there is finally light at the end of the tunnel with the deck finally glassed back in place.

A word of advice, though; if you are diving into the world of old boats, go in with your eyes wide open.

Unless you plan on taking the hull to a factory full of experts and throw gazillions of dollars at it (just like Nick did with his V19r), or you have the skills and the time to work on it, the whole process will be very slow.

A conservative estimate of work on the Tri Hunter would be 35 weekends at six hours a weekend, making for a total of 210 hours … and we’re not even finished yet!

As I write, the Tri Hunter’s top sides are being painted.

I’ve also ordered gear from BLA Marine Products, including a Minn Kota electric trolling motor, a pair of 9.0-inch Humminbird Helix sounders with side imaging (one for the helm, one for the bow), lights, pumps, wires, a Seastar hydraulic steering kit, and I’ve even met my new engine – the mighty Yamaha VMAX 115 SHO.

Next time, expect me to be on the water and leaving a V19r in my wake!

At completely the other end of the spectrum from Andrew’s project boat is mine: the Haines Hunter V19r.

The boat I bought is a very early model – late 1960s we think – sterndrive version of the classic V19r hull complete with driver and passenger ashtrays, chrome Mercruiser gauge cluster and push-button radio.

After buying it, I’d made contact with Mick Taranto from Gippsland Composites, who was doing some nice timberless rebuilds using a product called Thermo-Lite.

Thermo-Lite is a composite board that replaces plywood. The brochure claims it is lighter, stiffer and stronger than plywood, and best of all, it will never rot.

Speaking of rot, it was interesting to see what damage five decades had done to the V19r’s structure.

In that time, most of the floor and all of the stringers had reduced to something akin to black cardboard. The only thing holding up the internal structure of the boat was a liberal coating of fibreglass that supposedly was put in place to protect the timber from the elements.

The transom wasn’t as bad, showing signs of rot around the hole put in for the big sterndrive, but otherwise fairly solid.

The transom’s good condition relative to the rest of the boat’s timberwork didn’t make much difference as this was to be a full composite rebuild, so every scrap of wood had to come out. Well, almost every scrap.

Somewhere in its life, maybe as far back as the factory but more likely sometime later, the boat was fitted with a nicely made teak and glass windscreen.

It’s the kind of thing that today would cost a fortune, so we decided it was too good to throw away, especially given the alternative was a charmless, predictable fibreglass wavebreaker.

The windscreen’s timberwork, we decided, would become the bridge between old and new, a nod to the Haines Hunter V19r’s 50 years of provenance. Turns out it would also become the source of quite a few problems along the way.

The hull restoration was a big job but straightforward; fit it with new stringers and cross members, and fill the entire subfloor area with closed-cell foam.

This step stirred a bit of internet chat, with some questioning the foam’s value as a safety measure. But foam filling is more than that; yes, it will keep the boat floating should the very worst happen, but it also gives the hull extra stiffness, and extra quietness. Foam is a great sound deadener, and quiet boats are nice boats.

The most challenging task for Mick and the Gippsland Composites team was remodelling the deck to allow us to keep the old windscreen yet provide a reasonable helm position allowing the boat to be driven sitting or standing.

The screen raked much more steeply than a wavebreaker would be, so there are some sharp angles to contend with.

The result, in my opinion, looks fantastic as the proportions are right from any angle, and with the seat boxes and seats in place, the driving position is good.

The powerplant – what should be a match made in heaven – is already settled. A lightweight four-cylinder Yamaha F200 two-stroke outboard engine will go on the back, and I’d be expecting 40 knots-plus top end. More importantly, we should also get a 24-knot cruising speed at 3500rpm, all while burning 20.0 litres of fuel an hour.

That’s the dream, anyway.

I decided against using a transom pod this boat and instead will transom-mount the engine, really only to preserve the purity of the hull – the V19r has the reputation it does for a reason.

Because of this, I didn’t want to risk stuffing up the ride and handling with a hull extension, all just to gain an extra 500mm of cockpit space.

All said and done, the excellent composite restoration that included new hull gelcoating, painted topsides, an aluminium bump rail, fuel tank and insulated seat boxes came in at $25,000.

Counting the $4500 I paid for the boat and trailer that means I’m $29,500 in the red. However, in return I now have a gleaming white, fully composite 6.0-metre Haines Hunter with a half-life equivalent to Uranium 238.

There are still a few little jobs to do. Next stop is GM Marine Stainless, and after that I’ll need some covers and clears. Then the electrical fit-up, deck hardware, engine...

That’s a few jobs. Better have another look at that budget.