My sea lancer needs a complete hull strip and repaint. She also has a hooked bottom that prevents me from going more than half throttle before handling issues set in. She has no fronts seats. When I got her the drivers seat was gone and replaced with a horrid sorta seat that was crap when it was new. Two seasons ago the passenger side flip seat broke off the base. So I am using some free standing deck chairs. The rear seat was starting to weaken around it's framing so I removed it so as to prevent any further damage (with the intent of rebuilding it). The windshield is loosey goosey and needs to be refastened to stiffin it back up. Needs new floor panels. Thats the easy stuff.
The frames are only so so. In the bilge I'd rate them individually as 80% to 50%. Up the sides of course they are solid. The garboard panels are in need of replacement, especially at the bow, de-laminated in the bilge (I did arrest that issue by treating the bilge with smiths' penetrating epoxy sealer when O bought the bought on 2006). I've patched the bottom, caulked the keel and stem caps, all of which needs to be redone as she leaks alot. The Keel, Keelson, and as far as i can tell the Stem, are all solid, but who knows what they will look like from the bottom with the garboard panels off. The previous owner had a guy "restore" her and he did more harm than good. He painted the inside of the hull, and made some sort of repair to the transom with epoxy, so who knows what is under there. However, there is no sign of weakness or movement in the transom or with the repair. His work on the bright work is mediocre at best. On the plus side, the windshield, all the strakes, including the garboard strakes, upper keel (inside the boat), The deck beams and deck, The splash well and gunwhales, are all in excellent shape.
For this season, I am going to caulk up the bottom as best as possible so I am comfortable leaving her at a dock. Then I have to decide;
Mine is a Cortland boat. The construction is different from a typical boat of that era and makes for a much more complicated restore, or so I think as I sit in the boat staring at the bilge and pondering the approach and the amount of work. She as a three piece keel consisting of an inner lower, inner upper, and the outer keel. The frames run from the gunwhale, in between the lower and upper inner keels, and continue to the sister keelsons on the other side.
So the cross roads.
Embark on a minimum 3 year rebuild, that I am not even sure how to approach given the construction of this boat. Replace the frames, repair or replace the keel/stem etc as needed, New Garboard panels, likely repair or replace the transom. strip the outter hull, fare, repaint, And all the other work noted above for the seats, windshield etc. A BIG time/effort sink would be removing all that damned paint on the interior of the hull. Cortland boats used Nut/bolt fasteners for the planking, one every two inches, that stand proud of the surface. Gotta sand around each one of them after stripping the paint.
Or Flip the hull for a redo. Strip the paint, redo the fill of all the bolt/screw heads, fare the planks, repaint. In the process, with the outter keel and stem off, fare out the hook with Smith's Fill-it, then glass the garboard panels bow to stern (no glass on any of the planks). Reattach the outter stem/keel. Repaint the interior (vs strip and refinish), and then the work noted above on seats and windshield etc.
Or. Run her out this season, leaks and all, and send her down the road for someone else to care for her.
What to do? As the caretaker of this boat, I feel this to be the last season of use before work needs to be done.
![Image](http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w35/thegammas/Restoration/CPES14.jpg)
![Image](http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w35/thegammas/Restoration/Fullfloor.jpg)