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Margery Bradshaw 2006'- Fast 48' Fishing Boat Almost Completed

posted Jan 27, 2010 6:48 PM by Sophia Chiou   [ updated May 1, 2010 3:06 AM by Emmanuel Castrinakis ]

Margery Bradshaw sent us this input about her project of the last 3 years at Loughborough Marine in Newport , Rhode Island. She has been working on a custom made 48' fishing boat doing interior and exterior work working with mahogany , teak and other fancy wood. Margery has always been a source of humor and optimism while at school for those who met her. She is a mother of two sons one of which is with the US armed forces in Iraq. Read her report.


"For the last 3 years I have been working in the Loughborough Marine boat building shop on 312 Connelly Hwy, in Newport is the shop address and the office addres is 56 Bridge st Newport.Newport RI. Their first project was custom build fishing boat, without a name so far, which they started in 2004.

She is a 48' sport fishing boat. The owner had a 45' hull that he wanted to restore and stretch 3 feet. The first builder, built on top of the hull instead of removing a plank and replacing it he just built all the new planks over the old. So the boat had a lot more flare in the bow, which is kind of nice. The planks are 3/4 African Mahogany, which marine ply on the outside, then there are 3 layers of fiber glass 1708 weight. Then it is coated with Ampreg 20/20 and baked. So the hull is thick and strong. We then flipped the boat over. The first builder laminated the frames out of the African Mahogany, they are 1 1/2 x4 inches thick. That's where I came in. The deck beams are laminated fir and will be exposed in the cabin as will the planking. In the cabin there is a Master Berth in the bow, then the head with a sink and a shower, the main salon with a settee and a dinette, the galley with a sink, a microwave, and a stove top with 3 plates. and a small berth which we call the kids berth which has a bunk on the bottom and a fold down bunk on the top so it can be used as a settee. There are two hanging lockers in the master and a set of 3 draws in the master berth. The kids berth has 1 hanging locker and bi-fold doors.

I made the sole which is cherry and sapeele, I book matched the cherry and used 1/4" strips of the sapeele between the book matched pieces. It took about 6 weeks start to finish.

The bulk heads are 3/4 marine ply or a sandwich of marine ply with divine cell (there are some curved bulk heads and this was the best way to do it. And they wanted to safe weight).

The decks are again a sandwich of ply and honeycomb. Which I vacuumed bagged 1 sheet of ply and the honeycomb then took that to the boat and vacuumed bagged that to the beams then we vacuumed bagged the top sheet of ply. Then we glassed the deck. We started with the rail, there is a layer of 1708 and a layer of 10oz. We vacuumed bagged this on in stages, we would skip the next section so we could make sure every thing was over lapped.

The same was done for the bridge deck and the cockpit. The cockpit then had teak and holly on top.

There is a very large fish box that is almost the beam of the boat, you could fit a few men with cement shoes in it with no problem, LOL

She has 2 Yanmar engines and two 450 gallon fuel tanks. She should do around 35 knots (at least that is the plan)

David and his brother Joe are the owners of the facility and the sport fishing boat is the first to be built at this shed by Dave. His brother Joe, has a shed in Portsmouth RI. and is currently working on a 78' sail boat refit.The brothers are from England and have been in Newport for over 20 years. David is an avide sailor who has sailed the world. Dave has worked at a number of boatbuilding facilities in the areal. He also shrink wraps boats in the fall. Dave is currently looking for another project, possible a Hinkley picnic boat restoration. (which I hope he gets sooner then later)

The project has been in the works for 5 years now, we should be done early this spring (March/April). However, last Sunday the owner called us and said he was pulling the plug on the project. Our project manager has managed to get us another weeks work on the boat but at this point I think its a day by day wait and see if I have a job the next day."