Does anyone know anything about Dell Quay.
Ive bought a 17 foot Dell Quay Dory, weve had to take the deck up carefully as the expanding foam they are filled with was satuated with water. I had to dig the foam out with a spade. We have repaired the damage to the hull, added some stifferners and are going to fill her with modern expanding foam, the refit the old deck.
These boat have a good reputation, so we was suprised that once the old foam was removed the boat was verry floppy, basicly the foam is all that gives the boat its stiffnes, the layup is verry thin.
We have looked online fore Dell Quay but can not find them, does any one know if they are still trading?

:cool: I think they were bought out a long time ago and the name has since disappeared. They were a good sea boat but as you say, relied on the foam for strength and buoyancy.

edit note: space in the file name stopped the original from displaying. Fixed that. Newt

[ 12. June 2005, 07:37 PM: Message edited by: Newt ]

Looks like a nice project Sam, I dont know anything about Dell Quays but have read before about expanding foam absorbing water when it has been trimmed and the outer skin hes been cut, could you inject it through a small hole in the new deck when its already fitted? How did the water get in before?

PS. Looks like your dog has eaten a spool of your 'Greased Weasel' when you weren't looking and its started to come out the back end.
Luckily they only have 40m on them, otherwise you could have found a new use for one of them Berkley electric line strippers

Even modern foam will absorb water over time and as you found is impossible to dry out. A trick is to use some empty 2 litre fizzy drinks bottles as boyancy. Pour in the foam and it will fill around the bottles bonding the hull and bottles together.There is not so much expense involved in the PU foam and not as much to absorb water but will give the stiffnes you need.

Calculate the area you need to foam and use the right quantity/ mix/ temperature. Leave plenty of expansion holes to allow excess foam to get out from under the hull as the pressures involved when the stuff cures can be enough to split and / or deform the hull.

We used to make surfboard blanks out of foam, the first time my friend and I did it we nearly filled his dads garage. Still we had lots of bits for making petersons from.

thanx lads, we are using bottles to put under the deck, and the decks going down first then the foam is going to be pumped in through holes,

we are going to try and use about a third bottles to 2 thirds foam, also layed a pipe inside down the keel line and glassed it in with 3 layeres of glass, she now has 3 bulk heads glassed in plus several stiffereners.
she will be a tad heavyer than origanal but loads stronger.
she will firstly have my old 35hp 1978 johnson on her and im hoping to get around 17 knotts, then im getting a 60hp yamaha and hopping to get 25 knotts.
Any thoughts lads?

These were used by the Royal Marines and known as "Rigid Raiders"
They were used to deliver small groups of R.M. Commandos and their stores for raiding purposes.
Powered by 140 hp outboard, capacity was 6 troops and 200lb of stores, with a top speed of 25-30 knots.
Very tough craft!

My mate in Kilsyth has one of these, 15 footer,c/w a Johnstone 25 hp..and a nice trailer too..been on it at Dunbar, goes well....lucky git got it a couple of years ago for £200......he's an engineer, and made stainless handrails all the way round...like another chappie that I know !!!!