Rescuing a 1987 17′ Aquasport: Part 6

In Part Five, we took out the old deck. This time around we removed the hull liner. This took some really effort, but my son felt he wanted to get down to a bare hull before starting to build back. The first step in this process was to detach the liner from the hull itself. This required removing the rub rail and a large number of screws. Then slowly the liner had to be jacked upwards to free it from the gunnels.

Lifting the Liner on 2x4s

The liner turned out to be very heavy. So lifting it was no cakewalk. Gradually we worked it upwards on 2×4 lumber. Once the liner was high enough to clear the gunnel, with fingers crossed, my son flip it off the hull. It land with a thud. Done. Portions of the old liner will be reinstalled later on. But the rest will be customized to fit my son’s design.

Liner Removed

For the first time we had a complete uninterrupted view of the bare hull. Something that has not been visible for almost 35 years. A large amount of foam padding can be seen. This was installed by the factory to level the original deck. The foam will be scraped off and replaced as the project goes forward. And insides of the hull cleaned and prepped. Now is also the time to start planning how to rewire the boat, and locate a new gas tank, among other things. Onward!