Check out this very original Haines 1600SO ski boat. The owner was in two minds about whether to restore her or buy a new boat. So he asked us to give it firstly a health check to make sure there wasn’t anything majorly wrong with the old girl. Surprisingly the bones of this boat were in good structural condition, although the cosmetics weren’t great. So we got to work, stripped out the interior and all the external fittings ready for a good acid wash to deep clean the surfaces. One issue with this boat was on the foredeck where it had ‘crows-feet’ cracking in the gelcoat. This is miniature cracks very close together and covered most of the foredeck and can be common on older fiberglass boats. After discussions with the owner on how to remedy, we recommended epoxy saturating the foredeck forcing epoxy into the cracks. The idea behind this was to stabilize the cracking and rebuild the gelcoat structure which worked a treat. We then coated the red areas with a high build epoxy primer which was also applied over the epoxy work on the foredeck. This area was blocked down and painted in the same red. The white underside of the hull was detailed and polished to tidy it up. The owner asked for a new stainless fuel tank to be fitted with a new deck filler and breather. We also fitted a new auto bilge pump, transom ladder and new carpet inside. A restoration like this wouldn’t be complete without some custom U-dek decking pads to finish everything off and we think all will agree that it just gives that finishing touch! Being a family ski boat, now getting in and out of the water is a breeze with the new ladder and the U-dek leading into the cockpit. The owner is now off to get the new motor fitted and all new seats and upholstery including the dash console, can’t wait to see it all done!!