Fjordling 17 HT Full Restoration & first day on the water

This video is a collection of still images and a couple videos at the end of my restoration of a Linge Design Fjordling 17 HT. I bought this boat over 9 years ago with the intention of restoring it, however it sat rotting away in my storage unit for most of that time. 2 years ago I decided enough was enough and I actually wanted to get this on the water for the first time in my ownership.
When I first got it the deck was spongey and rotten, typical with boats of this age as water gets in under the deck and saturates the foam and thus making it heavy and inefficient on the water. So I set about ripping out the old fittings, rotten deck and foam. I did try and fit a new deck back then but my boat building skills weren't the best and I wasn't completely confident in what I had done so after the 8 years in storage I took it back home and ripped out what I had started to redo it all with the skills I had obtained since then.
New wooden stringers were added, fibreglassed in and gel coated, taking into consideration drainage should any water get under the new deck. The transom and knees attaching to the new stringers were beefed up with multiple layers of chopped strand matting and the new deck was tabbed into this too with 2 thick layers of chopped strand and surface tissue matting over the top. Finally adding pigmented gelcoat and set box supports before setting about on the rest of the build
Everything was pained in Jotun hardtop marine paint and International Danboline bilge paint and international antifouling.
New window rubbers were fitted along with a new rubbing strake, stainless steel steering wheel and new teleflex steering system.
I wanted a reliable and newer engine than what it came with so we opted for a 90hp Mercury Saltwater series outboard with low hours for its age.
All of the electrics were completely redone, with a 2 way split charging system for the outboard. So the engine can be run on battery 1 or 2 or both combined to give me more amps if one of the batteries is running low or is faulty. The electrics for the fish finder, chart plotter, lights etc run off this system but can be isolated via a separate switch on the main switch panel on the dash board
The ending videos are of the test run we did end of season this year 2024 on the river Frome in Wareham UK. There's a couple small jobs left to do to call it finished such as attaching an auxiliary engine bracket, having some seat cushions made and finishing the hatch and seats up front in the cuddy but overall I am very pleased with how its all turned out and can't wait to use it properly in 2025