Restoring a Leisure 17

I don't know a lot about sailing, I'm far more comfortable on motor boats, however when the scout group that I help with took delivery of an old leisure 17 last year I took a liking to it. She was in reasonably good condition to begin with. The previous owner had not sailed the boat in a long time and the boat was sitting in the sailing club yard for a few years. Having developed some leaks over the years the cabin was full of rainwater and the boat just seemed pretty run down. Seeing the potential a few of us asked the group for some money to restore the boat. With a budget of just €600 and a limited knowledge of sailing boats we got started. The following content on this page documents our progress and I will update it as we go.

Before we started any work we went out sailing a few times and one problem was becoming serious. Water kept finding its way inside the cabin and from there seeping through cracks into the hull. To fully drain the hull we had to drill a hole at the lowest point and give it plenty of time to dry out. Water flowed steadily out for 15 minutes once we made the hole! Inside just behind the cabin door we cut a hole in the floor and installed an inspection hatch so that we could see if any water was getting in and be able to pump it out. We also sealed any cracks we could find in the cabin using either fibre glass repair or silicone.

The top and bottom mounts for the mast foot had become rotten and we made new ones from teak wood. The mast foot itself was in good condition so it was removed and refitted with the new mounts. Below the mast foot base we found plenty of places where water could get into the hull and these were sealed. Outside the boat there was damage to the fibre glass and this was repaired and painted.

Originally the Leisure 17 would have had a 40ah battery which could power the navigation and cabin lights. This battery could be charged by being connected to the outboard motor. We fitted a 30W solar panel kit, with charge controller, to a 75ah deep cycle leisure battery. We we're hoping to get a smaller battery but this one came available at the right price and the panel seems to manage it nicely so far. We used a dual battery marine switch to isolate the charging circuit from everything else. This means that we can leave the battery charging while everything else is isolated or have both going together. Having the larger battery will allow us to fit a VHF base station (hopefully next season) to the boat. At the moment it's all LED lighting.

Most of the other work carried out was general maintenance including: