Volga Hydrofoils Messageboard

The story starts there where someone else says she actually was expecting a boat shiny painted with wood work, whereas I was already fine with what I had and intended to do some minor repairs to start with boating as soon as possible and then see what could be changed or refined. This someone was off corse no one else than my wife who then bluntly said that she will not join any kind of trip with a boat which was not completely overhhauled and probably putting our family's live into risk on sea. One boatbuilder, whom we consulted, made her believe that for all such repair work we should pay already so much money like for a new boat, because what was only useful would be the hull and nothing else. Which meant that all russian onboard equipment should be going directly to scrap, especially the engine. In fact he was right in what he said because we went to hell with my obsession to repair an engine originally (I certainly will be back on this issue) . I think that his intention was rather to sell one of his ready boats, which bursted somewhere in the darkest place of his body, due to the crisis. He tried to make his own boats more attractive propagating that they have a camera and also a toillet of which he said, that this is what women want/need.

Besides this the prices given for the overhaul were so expensive, that I had to made up my way to experience it on my own.
The boat was in a very bad condition after the transport from Batumi. Deck was bumped at several places, paint was so old and top coating was of poor quality cracked and dirty. There was no other way than painting and mending the deck.

The guy who repaired the bumps on the hull did not want to stress the hull too much as he feared the rivvets to crack. He wanted to fill remaining gaps with mastic. Another option would have been to cover the boats deck like some other Volga owners did. Now Volgas have a rather flat deck compared to other contemporary wooden boats and according to me this can in some cases look like glueing a table on deck. In the istanbul boatshow fair I ran into a boot/fair, which was selling superlight PVC hardfoam sheets, which can be glued on the hull with epoxy resin and later easily shaped by sanding. The material is extremely hard against impacts and superlight. It is extremely easy to shape and when used together with epoxy and glassfibre or fabric it becomes even more resistant. I bought 20 mm thick sheets glued them on deck with 2K epoxy resin, cut away the edges and rounded them with sandpaper. Later on we applied on the top one more layer with fabric, fibreglass and epoxy resin. This was then also sanded. The deck was now completely even, 22 - 25 mm higher than original and with a rounder shape. The sheets where so firm and robust that they did not show any deformation even when you were jumping on them.

Everything was ready for Sika bonding of the wood. With the wood layers of 5 mm the deck will get taller by about 30 mm, which was also intended.

(Frankly speeking this could also have been done with ultralight marine plywood and the result and sturdiness would have been probably better than of this material. The rounding effect for itself was not significant. I didn't want to exagurate it.)

The wooden deck design was copied and/or refined from other Volgas or Rivas. We started with the edges where there used to be the rub rails. Later on we made the sides and the middle for the frame. The wood was applied in such way, that all parts had the width. . We then inserted white wood between the mahagony. After sanding the front this is what revealed itself: Lamination of the engine room hatch Fitting of it Although we have shortened some components on the engine like filter and decreased height of water tank, we had to make a cut-out for the engine. To make a nicely shaped breathing hood will again be a challenge.

The piece cut out of the hood was then used as roof for the air inlet.

Hi Georg,
very good craftsmanship>
Congratulations.
when will you float the boat?
Christian.

... continue

Beautiful! I think I should plan a trip to the Bosporus when your Volga is finished - seeing this beauty in all it's splendor in real life will certainly be worth it! And some people tell me Istanbul is also quite pretty... perhaps if I have some time left then I will go into the city as well then

Maurits

The *uck is, that it is not finished yet!

Hi, the progress is slow as usual. We had to change the team. The old one deserted after being payed 90% of the job. The problem was that the chief of the crew had different ideas to make the carpenting than what was orginally agreed upon. You come up with a concept, you explain it, everybody agrees and when you return after a couple of days, you suddenly see, that they made something different. I doesn't help to take out the original plan papers (you even left a copy to them off) and to show them that they did it wrong. They don't agree on this and say that the concept was wrong, so you let them built and then destruct their work again to come to the result you want to have. Obviously there is one thing to be learned: While doing such job, you need to have someone to understand you and to think the same way like you, otherwise you have to be next to your boat and guard the work and shouldn't leave your office. Impossible with me! So I am obviously trapped in my project and nee to destruct every second work they did as they continously do what they think is right, but is not. This story is about stupidity, wasting time and destructing materials and spending money. As the owner of the boat, you are simply always the victim of this. The new team is not much better than the old one ... enjoying as usual practice of claiming to know everything better, while doing things that were not agreed upon. The hood was changed. The Air Intake was too high anyway, so we lowered engine foundations welded them deeper and the engine was no more coming out of the hood. The way for lowering the hood was open. It was decided to lower it by 7,5 cm. The old version had a front part which was 1-2 cm higher than the back. The hood was cut, and lowered but it was done front and back on the same height, instead of having front part a little bit higher. The mistake is mine! After all it is hard to say whether the top was to be lowered by 7,5 cm or to be lowered to 7,5 cm height. Whatever! You can see now that the box/seat is now taking shape ... correctly. That was the step of the month. Besides this we already applied the varnish on the wood and it looks good ... even although this has not been the way I wanted (like usual). Here some more photos ...
My original design of the cockpit was also raped, as it was intended to have the dashboard plate under the deck. However they introduced a construction that urged us also to change the design here. Instead of coming out down-under it will be somehow attached to. I will try to make it not be visible ... otherwise I will also destruct and rebuilt it. The front looks more promising now. However not Tritone but Bitone. The tone difference can not be recognized. The floor plates of the pool are framed by 5 cm. ... Scrap! It will be redone... with 1,5 cm frames only. The design has a line and the floor plates were designed with a single line. The carpenter said, that the frame gives a longer life to the wood. TheNo compromises with self-inventions of stubbern carpenters. It will be changed!

That is the current situation: The woodwork of the floorplates of the pool was redone, with smaller frames. What you can see on the back is the box/bench partially retracted.

The fuel cap and the air inlets were installed as well. We started to add preinstall the cockpit gauges or their housings. The housings do not fit well, due to last minute decision changes with their distances. They still need to be symetrically fitted properly.

WOW, magnificent! The deck looks stunning in the overview-picture from above!

What kind of material are you using for the deck inside the 'cockpit'?

Maurits

The material is pvc hardfoam sheets, we are sanding. The pipes for the gauges are Aluminium and they will be fixed via epoxy. The bezels are of stainless steel and what you can not see on the photo there are stainless steel guide/cover pipes, that will be shaped to the dashboard. The dashboard will after proper sanding be covered with epoxy and glass fiber, later a UV resistant beige artificial leather will be glued on. Below there will be an aluminium cover with all other switches, radio etc ... best regards from Turkey

Cockpit has been covered with glass fiber and was epoxied.
It is still incredible ugly naked and has to be reshaped with mastic.

Renewed and installed lifting jugs. Stainless steel. We had welded the on the old construction.

Some messages before you were able to see the hood with a frame. The frame was never requested by me, but the sparkling intelligence outbreed of a so-called "master" who boasted himself having studied and educuted in England (or/so-what?). He favoured somekind of Southhampton design of a Waterproof Hatch, probably invented by some British Boffins, who must have fighted all their lives against their boats soaking water in English rainy weather, which we for what-ever-reason obviously do not have here in Turkey(!?). It soon and most unfortunately turned-out this highly and insistively defended idea of an outragious 'masterpiece' from unquestionable technical brilliance was indeed unuseful, as it was not only hardly possible to open the hood properly, but there was also no (invisible) hinge for carrying and opening this hood on the market. The opening of the hood would therefore only have been possible if you provide hinges first lifting about 2 cm and after open the hatch/hood. There are no hinges available on the market, so you need to produce them on your own. So after having had this onboard, we had to search for weeks for a suitable solution to make it work properly, while the glamourous inventor of this design appeared from time-to-time, telling us the Russians did everything wrong in the past anyway and so they did it with this boat as well (!?). We asked him bluntly, whether we should consider his brain being appointed by her Majesty the Queen?

We decided to chop off the f*cking ''waterproof'' frame, suddenly were back to the plain design roots, and now we were able to use the old original Volga hinge-style, of which we replaced the aluminium part with a steel one. We therefore again have in hand something operationable by not being ugly at same time and this is a truely unbritish way of doing it. (Now, for those opposing: anyone having an oil leaking Triumph, Norton or Enfield in his garage will immediately confirm, what is said!).

The new paint pattern with the chrome stuff

Before starting with the screen, we had to make a welded stainless steel rim (holder) and had to bolt it on the hull. The rim had to fit the shape of the wooden inlays and had to go in paralell to them. Our mistake was that we used a rim with only 1 cm. We experienced that 15 - 20 mm would have been much more sturdy. Last not least for fitting the screen better.

A welded steel model was made first, which could not be used by the screen maker. The effort for it was in vain.

So we were advised to make a plywood form instead and for this we were asked to buy a special plywood on the market called ''prostitute-plywood''. This name was given, due to it's fame of being able to turn in any direction.

Even if donated with promising name, the prostitute plywood revealed itself as tricky and difficult to handle. Some rainy weather made it wavy and worn-out. To apply a sample in plexiglass revealed itself more usefull than fighting around with the hooker-plywood. (Several failed tries led me to this way. The applying of the plexiglass took only 2 hours.
What you might not be able to see, is that the new screen is already 10 cm lower than the original one. The original (later version) was oversized for protecting the passengers of wind and spray, but the estethic of it suffered under it, making it look like ''Barbie Runabout''!

Of corse another 10 cm lower would definitely have been more sexy on this boat, but I did not want to sacrifice the comfort f5urther. The windscreen is having 55 height instead of 65 cm.

With the ready form, I intend to make an Akrylic version instead of plexiglass.