Trojan Boat Forum

Hey all
just wanted to say hi. I am new to the forum and about to become a new to owning a Trojan. I have always admired them from afar and final have the chance to own one.
Looking at all the posts, you guys are great and a wealth of information. Looking forward to interacting with everyone

About to purchase a 1988 10 meter express. In good condition considering her age and past owners lack of TLC, but still in good condition. Engines/generator are in excellent condition (my strong suit). The only issue that bothers me is the radar arch was cut and hinged for what i assume is low clearance bridge use where the boat used to reside. In doing this, they did an alright job, but cracked one side of the arch and repaired it by bolting a piece of angle iron to it. Also noted wet rot in protions of the arch. Fiberglass is not my strong suit but was wondering what something like tis to repair may run as I am taking this into consideration in the offer. Got some quotes, but they range from $2k to $5k, mostly due to hourly rate differecnes in vendors.

Anyway, glad to be on board and part of the community.

Mark

Pictures, pictures, pictures. Welcome to the club.

welcome to the forum !

photos would sure help in giving an opinion

Welcome aboard and please post pcs as soon as you can.

i redid my arch after hurricane Charley had at it 8 years ago

1. remove arch

2. mark and label all of your wires

3. remove all the vinyl covered bolsters

4. remove all of the wood inside the arch - or what's left of it

5. have two square aluminum tubes bent to fit the inside curve of the arch

6. fiberglass the tubes to the arch and tie them together at the arch base with aluminum flat stock

7. reinatall all the components - your arch will be tighter and more steady than new and there will be no exposed wood up there to ever rot again.

in your case you will have to remove the hinge/angle iron feature and reglass it back together

use marine grade heat shrink tube over marine grade connectors for the rewire

RWS

Welcome. I would use aluminum, as mentioned by RWS (he knows...) for structural support for arch. Iron, untreated, will rust with the slightest moisture and you'll have drip stains everywhere...

Fill us in on your location and update us with pics.

Welcome to the forum

I'm currently redoing the radar arch on my 10.8 M Express. The original quote was 6 to 7,000 dollars. I decided to do it myself. It's a huge job, which took me several 100 hours. The $6000 was actually pretty good. I recored the top with core-cell in lieu of balsa. I was going to bed in some aluminium for the sides for structural support, but it was getting to be too much to shape it. Instead, I used 3/4 inch plywood soaked for a day in CPES and then bedded it with wests epoxy. Any place the hardware and bolts come through was completely bedded with epoxy. I sanded everything down, primed with awlgrip 545 and topcoated with awlcraft 2000. Glad i did it but it has been a bear of a job. I'm still wetsanding and polishing to finish up.

Double post

Welcome to the forum, I have not done my arch yet but someday I may have to, I think it will be a big job but if you take your time and prepare it can be done, fiberglass work is really not that bad and the guys on this site will help you with the process, good luck