28TE FULL Restoration

[Captnickm]

I thought y'all might enjoy this.

I bought my 1996 28TE after she had sank fully in salt water back in January. She then sat for almost 2 months before I got her which caused a fair amount of problems like seized motor, generator, corrosion and general mildew and dirtyness. She had been neglected for quite sometime before she sank, so that meant all systems needed to be gone through like hoses, seacocks, cosmetics and normal updates.

The motor was ironically brand new when the boat sank. It only had 20 hours on a new 370HP Cummins. So the first order was to get the motor out and rebuilt. Luckily the block was in good condition and only required honing, but needed mostly new internal parts, head job, pistons and some electrical.

After 9 months of steady work she is back in the water and being enjoyed by the whole family.

[Captnickm]

This is how I found her.

[Captnickm]

Luckily I was able to modify our Albin 27 trailer to fit her and get her out of the yard and home to work on her.

[Captnickm]

Generator coming out. I ended up not going back with a generator.

[Captnickm]

Cummins outage being rebuilt.

[Captnickm]

Doing my best to bring the Gelcoat back.

[Captnickm]

Mostly new wiring and updated AC and DC voltage monitors.

[Captnickm]

Motor ready for install.

[Captnickm]

Motor in and being rigged.

[Captnickm]

Her first sea trail went great. Perfect 3000 RPM max at 27 KNTS.

[Captnickm]

She still has plenty of work to be done and a few bugs to be worked out, but for the most part she is usable and running great.

[Captnickm]

Kids love the cabin more than the 27' for sure.

[Captnickm]

Fist sunset cruise.

[RobS]

Thanks for sharing and nice job saving her. Looks like the pulpit "tried" to keep the bow up!

Why did she go down?

She must have went down quick because that looks like a busy marina where you would have expected someone to notice the situation before it came to that...

A trivial question considering all the work that you did but did you pull the cabin headliner out? There's a pink foam insulation behind it.

[Captnickm]

Thanks.

I believe she was intentionally sank. The hard walled water hose on the head intake was cut. The boat has 4 bilge pumps on her that we're all turned off somehow.

I'm not sure how I got so lucky, but the headliner is still original. When I got the boat I thought for sure as going to have to pull it due to mildew and moisture. After a month with a dehumidifier and pulling all the fixtures to inspect the foam it was all dry and no mildew has shown up in the last 8 months. Hard to believe.

Yes on the bow pulpit. I had to rebuild it and the bow rail. I was able to shorten the bow rail and use 60* T fittings that I tapped and threaded where the set screws would go.