Grand Banks Eastbay 58

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Photo by: Allen Schiller, East Coast Yacht Sales

Knowles had taken samples of the core material from a variety of places to determine how much of the interior skin and core had to be removed from any given area. In order to repair a damaged section of laminate, the crew had to make sure they were abutting a completely sound area.

After removing the inner skin and core material, workers cleaned the exposed inner surface of the outer skin and roughened it to encourage a good bond. Next, the team vacuum-bagged new coring into place, using epoxy resin. Bonding a new inner skin and feathering it into the surrounding area was the final step.

Epoxy resin has vastly improved the strength of repairs to composite panels, because it is a superior adhesive and takes out most of the doubt of how strong a secondary bond will be. Whereas a primary bond is the result of the chemical reaction among the materials in the laminate during the curing process, a secondary bond is the adhesive joining of two laminates that have already cured. (An example is tabbing a bulkhead into a hull after both have cured.) JBY’s crew replaced the bulkhead between the burned-out stateroom and the guest head by tabbing in a new one made in the yard’s laminate shop. The bulkhead in question has very little stress on it, so a secondary bond, which is about 80 percent as strong as the primary bond, will last a lifetime.
 
Construction drawings from Grand Banks allowed JBY to reconstruct the woodwork to the exact dimensions and appearance of the original build. Superheated smoke scorched quite a lot of the teak veneer but left the material beneath undamaged. JBY bought the veneer for this project directly from Grand Banks, so the hue and quality of the grain is exactly the same as you’ll find on a new boat. The yard also was able to buy from Grand Banks most of the shapely moldings that create a lovely transition from one flat panel to another. Only one of these wasn’t available, so JBY hired a local machine shop to make a special router bit so the wood shop could duplicate this particular molding’s shape.

Lockers immediately above the head of the guest berth acted a bit like a chimney, drawing extreme heat to the helm console located above and inches abaft the stateroom. All of the electronics and their wiring were trashed. In spite of the damage at the helm, the JBY crew was able to drive the boat north along the Intracoastal Waterway and eventually to Jamestown, using a handheld GPS and VHF. All of the equipment at the helm is new.

Most of the Stidd chair at the helm melted to its framework, and the overhead in the salon smoldered in the superheated smoke. After stripping the damaged overhead from the salon, the workmen had to grind away all of the smoke-blackened areas to eliminate any possibility of having the smell of smoke haunt the yacht after they’d completed their work. “One of the things that amazed me,” Tony Knowles said, “[is] you don’t smell smoke, even after the boat’s been closed up for a few days.” He assured me that this is a very good sign that JBY got the reconditioning correct.

Clem Napolitano, one of the partners in JBY, knew from the beginning that this EB 58, no matter how thoroughly and expertly restored she is, will carry the stigma of “damaged goods.” In the spirit of a perfectionist, he left nothing to chance. All the appliances are new, except the oven, which received a new control panel. All of the hatches and portlights are new, even though some were not damaged; all of the electrical outlets, lighting fixtures, switches and wiring are new; the windshield-wiper motors, which live behind the soffit in the pilothouse and weren’t damaged, are new.

Although the engine room remained untouched by the fire and the extinguishing water, JBY replaced the turbochargers and intercoolers with upgraded models, raw-water impellers, batteries, breaker panels, tank monitors and on and on (view a partial list of replacement parts). To add an exclamation point to the restoration, a representative from Caterpillar recertified the 1,550 horsepower engines for an extended factory warranty.

I saw this EB 58 for the first time in September 2011 at the Newport Brokerage Show. I thought it was a new boat until someone reminded me that the model is no longer in production. She’s a wonderful boat, her warm and intelligently designed interior captivating everyone who sets foot aboard. In October, I spent most of a day with Napolitano and Bob Peckam, of Milton Cat in Milton, Massachusetts, observing the process of certifying the engines for extended warranty, and became attached to the boat after I took the helm for our return to the yard. I was ready to move aboard.

View the complete photo gallery here.

Jamestown Boat Yard, 401-423-0600; www.jby.com; East Coast Yacht Sales, 978-744-7070; www.ecys.com