Shetland Black Hawk - Avrilanne

[damianpotter]

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Here is our Black Hawk called Avrilanne. This one is hull no.419 which I believe was built in 1980. She is powered by a 70hp Johnson with a 7.5hp Mercury as an auxilliary and with two people aboard she will do about 20 knots.

We bought her at the end of January as an upgrade from our 536 Safety First, which we have had for about five years. She had been stored inside and unused for a number of years. Although everything needed a good clean, all of the upholstry is original and in good condition. The only items that we had to replace were the floor carpet and the curtains. We made and fitted new hardwood cabin doors and companionway hatch and these look superb - much better than the original louvre doors. The hull had been painted up to the rubbing strip which did not look good and this took a considerable amount of time and effort to remove. It was worth it though, and the finished job looks great, having been machine polished and new logos fitted. It seems that the reason for painting was several areas of damage around the bow, which I have repaired with gel coat. I managed to get a reasonable match after a lot of mixing - the repairs can be seen if you look, but it still looks better than all that paint! The superstructure is original and responded well to polishing.

The motors were transferred from the 536 so their condition is known, especially the Johnson which I rebuilt a couple of years ago. We have fitted VHF, a Depthfinder and steering compass and will be using her for inshore coastal work. She is based in Weymouth, Dorset.

Future work will be to remove the many layers of antifouling and start again, and to strip and refinish all of the black painted alloy components on the superstructure - window frames, deck fittings etc.

I will post some internal photos soon - here's to a good summer (hopefully!) and plenty of boating.

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[colinpearce]

Goodness! I had double take there

Looking good Damian, love to see the rest of the boat

[damianpotter]

Hi Colin, thanks for the compliment. I have posted a pic of the cockpit that I took yesterday. Will take some more and post soon. Really pleased with the logos - they transformed it when I put them on!!

Thanks,

Damian.

[colinpearce]

I see you have just the one cockpit seat, that's a lot of extra walking room compared to ours. We are trying to get the time to fit some replacement seats, hopefully reversible ones on height adjustable pillars. We should be able to fit these a little closer to the sides, along with them being narrower that should leave enough room to get through to the cabin with a little more dignity than we can now.
Hope you got the logos stuck down with a little less stress than we did, NEVER AGAIN!!!!

[damianpotter]

Yes, only having the one seat gives more room, but we miss the second seat (we had both in the last boat). So I have managed to find one, but it came from a F4 so it is the same type, but wrong colour. I'm going to fit it and see how we get on, then hopefully recolour it to try and match what's already there. The pedestal idea sounds interesting - I guess you will have to shorten or remove the benches to get them in? Be interested to see some pics as and when you have done it. Fitting the logos went reasonably well for us - but I know what you mean having had "fun" with this sort of thing in the past.

Took a few more pics of it the other day:

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[Neily]

It's always good having a nosey at others boats

Don't know if this is just a problem I have or if other hawk owners also suffer from this, but do you get water puddles gathering where your VHF is?

[damianpotter]

Hi, yes I did have this problem when I first bought the boat, but applying sealant around the glazing in the windscreen seems to have sorted it. I used black automotive silicon, but will be looking to completely replace the rubber seals in due course.

[damianpotter]

Hi Steve,

Yes - she has been at home on the trailer since the autumn. Should be back in the water soon hopefully - just got a few jobs to do, including antifouling it & servicing the engine. Look forward to seeing some pics of your boat - might see you out on the water sometime?

Regards, Damian.