1968 Hatteras 34 project

micky · Post by **micky** » Sep 23rd, '18, 15:59

Hi, I know this is a Bertram forum but I've been a member for a few years and a classic is a classic.

This boat had been at the marina where my dad used to keep his 43DC forever. In 2007, when my dad bought the 43DC I saw it for the first time and fell in love with it. I contacted the owner, an 83 yr old guy and told him I was interested. I went to see the boat and he told me it hadn't been moved since hurricane Hugo in 1989. The boat was completely original on the inside. I asked how much he wanted for it and he told me $40k so I just walked away. I kept seeing her every weekend at the marina. My dad sold the 43DC in 2016 but I still had my boat there (25 Mako). Last year (2017), hurricane Maria came and the complete dock where she was disappeared so I thought that the boat was lost, 2 weeks after Maria, I went to the marina to see what had happened and when I walked into the main dock, there I saw it. A guy had moved it with the owners permission the day before the hurricane, and it had survived but the swim platform was damaged, as well as the port back corner, it has some deep scratches on the side and the windows blew away and the pressure blew the teak doors.

Immediately I got 2 pieces of paper and wrote 2 notes that if they wanted to sell it I would give them $5k cash for it the day they found the note. I threw 1 note under the plywood doors and placed the other one with tape in the plywood doors. Two weeks went by and I got a call from the owner's (now 90 yrs old) daughter. They asked me for $20k and I say no, I made her a list of all the things that needed to be done on that boat, she started to lower the price to $15k and I said no, then to $10k and I said no, then to $8.5k and I wanted to go see it again as it had been 7 yrs. Engines started right up, 8kw Onan generator only has 257 hrs so I paid the $8.5k (we were in January 2018 at this point). I never did a survey or tested the boat. I figured that worst case I would sell the engines and generator and would scrap the hull.

Next few weeks I went to the boat and started cleaning the bilge with degreaser, a wet vac, and a small pressure washing machine. You cannot believe the amount of dirt, rust, sludge, oil, etc that I took out of this bilge.Boat had original A/C from 1977, original fresh water pump from 1968, an old and non working 20 gallon water heater, original stove, original refrigerator, and a microwave from around 1980. I ripped everything out. Moved the batteries to the corners in front of the engines, A/C units are going to be package units, relocated the water pump, water heater to the bathroom closet. Got a new SS fridge and the stove will be a counter top hot plate.

I continued to do some work on it in the marina and both engines thru hulls started leaking and one of the rudders didn't move, so decided to get her on a trailer and move it to my dad's shop. While I set up everything to d this movement, I cut out the back corner that got damaged by the hurricane, fixed it and installed it back. Also installed some PVC doors that the previous owner gave me and installed them, they are VERY ugly but its better than going in and out the window.

I was finally ready to pull her out of the water and took her to the other marina where there is a travel lift. When the boat came out of the water the bottom was covered with 6"-8" of everything possible so I scraped her and believe it or not, not 1 single blister. We placed it on the trailer and took it to my dad's shop 2 hrs away at 25mph. Once there we pressure washed the bottom to clean it as much as possible. There I started hauling ass every weekend. Replaced both alternators, both coolant pumps, both raw water pumps, took out both heat exchangers, took out the generator, replaced the DAHL filters with racors, replaced all copper fuel lines with hose, replaced all fly bridge gauges and wiring, all new thru hulls and seacocks.

After I removed the generator I decided to separate the shafts from the transmissions as I had removed the struts to replace the bolts and wanted to check for alignment. On the port side the shaft's coupler was loose, so decided to remove both shafts. I had them checked and they were junk so I'll be ordering both new shafts and couplers. Also I replaced the strut bushings when I removed the struts. All new grounding wires are new and the rudder bolts are also new. Also installed 2 new coolant filters on the engines as the original ones do not exist anymore. While I wait to place the order for the shafts (almost $2,500), I decided to start with the fiberglass on the outside, so I removed the swim platform, removed 2 huge trim tabs that were not original, removed the teak aft rails as they were almost non existant, removed 5 thru hulls from the sides that were not being used and sealed all the holes with fiberglass, from behind the trim tabs I sealed more than 100 screw holes in the transom alone, only 1 had water when I removed the screw.

Last week I removed the lower station and removed all the gauges, controls, switches and fiberglassed all the holes. I'll be putting it back to use it for storage.

Link for pictures:

https://imgur.com/a/noQ3eUv

As I continue to update I'll be posting the pics with the descriptions.

micky · Post by **micky** » Sep 23rd, '18, 16:00

Today I installed both fuel coolers on the engines. I'm finally done with them. Also spent half the day sanding and fixing the lower station and its ready for a final sanding and primer.\

Tommy · Post by **Tommy** » Sep 23rd, '18, 21:28

Mickey, you are correct, a classic is a classic, and your vintage Hatteras qualifies. A fellow board member, Thudd, is also restoring a classic Hatt; a 41 I believe. Hatteras Yachts are built like tanks, so I’m not surprised that your hull has held up so well. We are mighty proud of Hatteras here in NC. Where are you located, and what engines: 6-53s? I wish you continued success on your restoration.

Tony Meola · Post by **Tony Meola** » Sep 23rd, '18, 22:43

Welcome. Now Timmy akas Thudd will have someone to hang out with other than us Bertram guys.

Tommy I believe Timmy's new planter project is a 34 also. Hopefully he will jump in here to say hello.

That is quite a project, you have there. You are more than welcome here. Rebuilding a boat is rebuilding a boat. Same process and needs no matter what the make. Only thing is that we may not know all the weak spots on a Hatt, like we do on the Bertrams.

One more thing, you have not beaten Tom's old project 31. That one had a tree growing out of it when he bought her.

Hopefully we can help you along the way so feel free to ask questions.

micky · Post by **micky** » Sep 24th, '18, 07:19

Tommy wrote:Mickey, you are correct, a classic is a classic, and your vintage Hatteras qualifies. A fellow board member, Thudd, is also restoring a classic Hatt; a 41 I believe. Hatteras Yachts are built like tanks, so I’m not surprised that your hull has held up so well. We are mighty proud of Hatteras here in NC. Where are you located, and what engines: 6-53s? I wish you continued success on your restoration.

I'm in Puerto Rico, I'm friends with another 3 board members. Engines are 4-53 Turbos.

Carl · Post by **Carl** » Sep 24th, '18, 07:56

Welcome aboard!

Dad has a 1966 28' Hatteras, great boat!
Not Bertram great, but still great.

Good luck with your restoration and this forum has a ton of knowledge for the asking.
You may get a little ribbing from time to time on your boat choice...but its all in fun.
As you said, a classic is a classic.

Carl

thuddddddd · Post by **thuddddddd** » Sep 24th, '18, 09:46

Welcome aboard.. and good luck with the project .... don't listen to these guys .. they have real boat envy ..... RLDT's (rolling little death traps 31 Berts) are the short bus's of the yacht world .. and our 34's are near the top of the food chain .....

thuddddddd · Post by **thuddddddd** » Sep 24th, '18, 09:47

BTW..... honestly .. there is a lot more information and "skills" here than over on the Sams page ....

buzzk · Post by **buzzk** » Sep 24th, '18, 13:01

I used to own a 67 34’ Hatteras convertible. It had Detroit 453T 170hp. It was a good solid boat. The Detroit’s ran well, leaked a little oil and was a little slow burned very little fuel. But overall it was a great boat.

micky · Post by **micky** » Sep 24th, '18, 15:55

buzzk wrote:I used to own a 67 34’ Hatteras convertible. It had Detroit 453T 170hp. It was a good solid boat. The Detroit’s ran well, leaked a little oil and was a little slow burned very little fuel. But overall it was a great boat.

What was your cruising speed rpm and speed and top speed with those engines? Do you remember if the props were 3 or 4 blades and the pitch and size?

buzzk · Post by **buzzk** » Sep 26th, '18, 08:48

Micky, I had a pair of 3 and 4 blade. But I normally ran the 4 blade props. From what I remember I cruised around 12 to 14 and top was 18. Trim tabs were very important. The tabs made a big difference. I believe the 453 naturals top rpm was 2500 and the 453t was 2800rpm. I had the 453t. To fit them in the boat Hatteras used inclined model 453t. The boat was real smooth and raised fish. I see that you sent me a private pm but I lost it. Please resend it. My boat didn’t have any blisters either. The years that Hatteras built the 34 blistering isn’t a problem.

micky · Post by **micky** » Sep 26th, '18, 10:26

Thanks for the info. The PM I sent you was the same as my last post. I have the same engines you had.

micky · Post by **micky** » Sep 27th, '18, 07:46

buzzk wrote:Micky, I had a pair of 3 and 4 blade. But I normally ran the 4 blade props. From what I remember I cruised around 12 to 14 and top was 18. Trim tabs were very important. The tabs made a big difference. I believe the 453 naturals top rpm was 2500 and the 453t was 2800rpm. I had the 453t. To fit them in the boat Hatteras used inclined model 453t. The boat was real smooth and raised fish. I see that you sent me a private pm but I lost it. Please resend it. My boat didn’t have any blisters either. The years that Hatteras built the 34 blistering isn’t a problem.

What was your cruising rpm? Around 2400?

buzzk · Post by **buzzk** » Sep 28th, '18, 15:57

Micky, I don't remember. But I still have a folder on the boat and I'll see if I can find it. I see that you took the trim tabs off. You really need trim tabs on that boat. I had factory original but I think it may have performed better with bigger tabs.

micky · Post by **micky** » Sep 28th, '18, 16:25

Yes, I removed them as 1 was broken on the hinge and it only had 1 actuator per side and they were over 3ft long. Also, behind them there were over 100 screw holes (now sealed). I bought the Boat Leveler actuators to put the originals back in service.

micky · Post by **micky** » Sep 28th, '18, 16:32

Today I installed the 6000 btu A/C for the V-berth. I'm waiting for the insulated 4" duct to arrive so that I can install it. I installed it in the front closet. I still have to make a cover for it so that nothing falls on top of it. The starboard pieces around the unit is to hold it in place as I don't remember where I stored the original brackets.

micky · Post by **micky** » Sep 29th, '18, 14:15

So yesterday afternoon all 12v lights shut down at the same time. I went to the engine room and the battery charger had tripped but I tested the batteries and they had 12.4v. I reset the battery charger and all the lights came back so I knew something was going on. Today I went to check what was happening and found that the battery charger was not connected correctly. 1 of the output was connected to one side of the parallel solenoid, the other bank to the other side of the solenoid and the third output was connected directly to the house selector switch, the selector switch wasn’t connected to any battery!!!!!! Also the negative wasn’t connected to any battery, it was connected to the grounding strip used to bond all the underwater metals.

So if I turned off the engine selector switches the batteries wouldn’t get charged and is the draw from the boat was more than the charger’s output the charger would trip.

I connected everything like its supposed to go and now everything works as it should.

micky · Post by **micky** » Oct 5th, '18, 14:30

Today I finished the V berth A/C installation. I installed the duct. I used a "modified" 3" pvc toilet flange.

After the A/C. I removed the railing. It was loose, it had screws missing letting water in and half of the screws it had were 1/4"-20 bolts screwed into the fiberglass. After the removal, I used a grinder to remove the gelcoat and open up the area and put fiberglass mat where each leg was attached to the boat.

Tony Meola · Post by **Tony Meola** » Oct 5th, '18, 22:52

Keep the updates c oming.

thuddddddd · Post by **thuddddddd** » Oct 10th, '18, 07:56

Looks good

Dug · Post by **Dug** » Oct 10th, '18, 19:40

Pretty cool boat!

Seapalm · Post by **Seapalm** » Oct 11th, '18, 20:35

Bertram's little Cousin!

micky · Post by **micky** » Oct 12th, '18, 18:31

Its been raining the whole week. I'm going to try and finalize the fiberglass tomorrow.

micky · Post by **micky** » Oct 19th, '18, 17:33

Finally it stopped raining after about 3 weeks. Did a little fiberglass work. Finished with putty where the railings support attached to the hull and then started repairing 4 cracks where the flying bridge attaches to the cabin. Will finish this tomorrow.

Terry Frank · Post by **Terry Frank** » Oct 20th, '18, 20:11

Timmy, aka Thudd is your go to guy with info on Hatts. He has a wealth of information to share. Best of luck with the project.

micky · Post by **micky** » Oct 30th, '18, 20:35

Finally finished fairing the cracks where the fly bridge meets the cabin. Also fixed a lot of cracks around the side vents that were done by the hurricane. One of the shaft tubes was cracked so also fixed that and removed the mahogany spray rails. Still need to do fiberglass work in that area.

micky · Post by **micky** » Nov 3rd, '18, 18:31

Today finished fairing the air intakes, and where the front spray rails were also had to re-shape the nose of the hull.

micky · Post by **micky** » Dec 8th, '18, 17:55

So progress has been slow this past few weeks as I've been tied up with work and broke a prop shaft on the Mako and had to buy a new lower unit but this week there will be some progress. Today I installed both new shafts with new couplings and drippless seals.

micky · Post by **micky** » Dec 10th, '18, 19:28

I had been chasing a water leak for some time as the fwd bilge always has water but the engine room is completely dry. On saturday it started to rain and I found the leak in the anchor locker, it was coming thru the bolts that hold the anchor roller. As you can see in the pics, it wasn't installed correctly so that it was aligned with the windlass. I removed everything but the balsa in the area is compromised. So I removed all the gelcoat and filler in the area and I'm making a "step" in the front so that I can level the roller and it will be aligned with the windlass. The "step" will be two 3/4" pieces of marine ply attached to the deck with cabosil and SS screws . I attached the first piece with the cabosil and the screws, then the second one was attached to the first one using the same method. Tomorrow I'll put 2 layer of fiberglass mat over everything. I still need to grind further back the gelcoat for the mat to extend 6 inches behind the "step.

Yannis · Post by **Yannis** » Dec 10th, '18, 22:15

Micky,

It looks like you need more height.
And the whole thing with the ply should be seriously through bolted, not just screwed. The stainless roller should be also through bolted.
Also, just two layers of fiberglass may not be enough.
Ask me how I know!
Go to the post “Windless B28”, where there are some pics from my boat too.

micky · Post by **micky** » Dec 11th, '18, 05:27

Yannis,

The roller, windlass and cleats all will be through bolted. The cleats have a 1/2" square aluminum backplate. Windlass and roller only had washers but I than on putting a plate for both of them.

Yannis · Post by **Yannis** » Dec 11th, '18, 09:56

Windlass, roller, anchor have to be in a row, preferably horizontal.
Everything has to be 10 ton strong.
No need to reinvent the wheel.

micky · Post by **micky** » Dec 11th, '18, 19:02

Today was fairing day. Started by fairing the front of the nose and then gave the angle to the back of the new "step". Tomorrow will put some mat over everything.

micky · Post by **micky** » Dec 12th, '18, 16:57

Today I finished glassing the wood up front. Used 2 layers of mat. Also fixed some soft spots up front and in the back. Tomorrow I'll start fairing everything up front.

micky · Post by **micky** » Dec 13th, '18, 14:15

Today just finish fairing the joint between the deck and the new "step". Ran out of marine filler.

Yannis · Post by **Yannis** » Dec 13th, '18, 16:01

Micky,

When you will install the windlass, you will tighten those bolts as much as possible.
You do not want any play of the windlass on its supporting surface.
Are you sure that while exerting so much force to secure the bolts this top layer of glass will not crack?
If this ever happens, you might have to start all over.
The double ply support looks fine, it’s the top fiberglass thickness as well as the width of the bonding surface all around that puzzles me. But then again it could be that the pic does not convey the real message to me.

micky · Post by **micky** » Dec 13th, '18, 16:34

Yannis,

I've done the same thing twice before without any problems and didn't do it as good as this one. First one was in a 1969 Concorde 35 and a 1974 Hatteras 43 double cabin. Let me see if I can find pics and post them.

micky · Post by **micky** » Dec 13th, '18, 16:55

Hatteras 43

Tony Meola · Post by **Tony Meola** » Dec 13th, '18, 21:24

Mickey

Coming along nicely. Will that step up cause a person who is expecting a flat area stumble while forward?

micky · Post by **micky** » Dec 14th, '18, 15:29

Tony Meola wrote:Mickey

Coming along nicely. Will that step up cause a person who is expecting a flat area stumble while forward?

I don't thing so. At least on the 2 previous boats it hasn't been a problem, its only about 1 3/4" high.

micky · Post by **micky** » Dec 14th, '18, 15:50

I've got a donor boat. A 1989 Bertram 50 that is going to be scraped. I took the ladder from the flybridge to the tuna tower, the railing and the grab rails leading to the front. I'll start cutting and modifying over the weekend.

Tony Meola · Post by **Tony Meola** » Dec 14th, '18, 21:13

Scraping a 50 Bert. Oh that hurts.

micky · Post by **micky** » Dec 16th, '18, 14:01

Did the modifications today. All is ready to be welded and need to buy 1 more rod holder so that they look symmetrical, this one will go left of all the others.

Tony Meola · Post by **Tony Meola** » Dec 16th, '18, 21:29

Is that the original railing system?

micky · Post by **micky** » Dec 17th, '18, 09:30

From the B50, yes.

Yannis · Post by **Yannis** » Dec 18th, '18, 12:07

Micky,

You’re a Jack of all trades!

micky · Post by **micky** » Dec 18th, '18, 18:16

Yannis wrote:Micky,

You’re a Jack of all trades!

Hahaha, yes I am. I'm only 34 years old but learned from my dad. He did the same thing I'm doing when I was 5 years old and he did it with his dad.

Yannis · Post by **Yannis** » Dec 19th, '18, 15:35

Enjoy and pass along the skills!
Like they were passed on to you.

I wish I could have had a 34 footer in my 30’s !
(Not that it is so bad to acquire it in my 50’s...only that’s a lot of work...my next boat must not require any work...is there such a boat though?)
I’m looking at the Uniesse 40 fly...the 2, not the three cabin version...I’m I sick or what?

micky · Post by **micky** » Dec 19th, '18, 15:58

Yannis,

When I was a senior in high school (2002) my dad bought me a 1984 Shamrock 20' with a Yanmar just so that I wouldn't go to Cancun for the senior trip as the stories he had heard from there scared him. In 2005 We stripped the boat completely and repainted it completely and I had it until 2010 when I sold it and bought a 1996 Mako 19 with twin yamaha 85's as I wanted 2 engines and faster boat. I had always wanted a Mako 25 so in 2015 when I started working as an engineer I sold the 19' and bought the 25' but I had been eyeballing this Hatt. since around 2007 as it never left the dock. They guy always asked me for $40k so I walked away a few times. In 2017 after hurricane Maria the boat survived it but the boat got a little bit damaged so I placed a note under the door offering him $5k for it and I walked away with it for $8.5k (that's what my dad paid for the shamrock)

Yannis · Post by **Yannis** » Dec 19th, '18, 17:00

Goood!

Same here, we always had little boats in the family.
As for the b28, I got it for less than half the asking price...but then, that half that I had saved I put it into the boat in improvements.
I love how it turned out to be , a beautiful and very practical boat!
I wish you enjoy the fruit of your labor!