Restoring Ella
Ella Specs.
1985 Rosborough 35CF Custom
Length: 35′
LOA: 41′
LWL: 32’6″
Beam: 13’5″
Draft 4’2″
Displacement Dry: 12 tons
Displacement Wet: 14 tons
Construction of Hull: Solid Fiberglass
The Day Ella Became Family
“CF” stands for Canadian Fisherman. This designation is “designed to handle tough conditions typically encountered in Canadian waters. The Rosborough 35 CF is known for its sturdy build and sea-worthiness, making it a popular choice for commercial fishing and recreational cruising in challenging marine environments”. The Rosborough 35CF designation is for the “Hull” only, and all hulls in this series are the same. The designation “Custom” is a unique superstructure which is bolted to the “Gunwale” AKA “Gunnel” and sealed in place. If you are looking at purchasing a Rosborough 35, check this location for leaks as the age of the sealant has more than likely expired by now.
Our Story
Meet Ella, our 1985 Rosborough 35CF Custom. She was built in Nova Scotia and was delivered to the Port of NY Harbor Authority as a commercial support vessel. Her first name was “Union Jill” and was changed by the second owner to “Tide in Knots”. Ella was unofficially renamed ‘Salty” by one of the previous owners who fell on bad luck and she was damaged by a hurricane. Ella was sold as an insurance claim and the new owner started the refit project but had a change in life situation and that’s where we came in.
When we bought Ella, she had no name on the stern or on the legal paperwork and its bad luck to own a boat without a name. We found the unofficial name “Salty” on hand written notes which was about as dumb of a name as we could think of. Superstition and tradition is based on the idea that a “female figure, such as a mother or goddess, guides and protects a ship and crew”. Given our story and the blessings of Neptune and Poseidon, we were never going to anger the gods or chance fate.
After purchasing her and before getting underway, we performed a renaming ceremony with her new name Ella.
Rosborough 35 CF Custom (Purchase Photos)
Above are some of the photos from the day we purchased Ella.
Matt was the person we purchased the boat from. He is one of the nicest and most generous people you could ever know and he helped us out tremendously. There were a ton of parts and extras that he could have sold, but he chose to give it to us to help us out. We thank you for your generosity, Matt.
When we bought Ella, we knew there were a lot of issues with her. Most of the electrical systems had been removed for the refit but the electrician that Matt hired didn’t show up to finish the job which was one of the reasons he sold Ella.
I spent the first week of ownership tracing down wires and getting the Nav lights, Interior lights, and the engine controls working again. I knew that if I had the basic systems working that I could make it home and continue the refit. I ended up rewiring the whole engine harness because the dash cluster wasn’t working. At a minimum, I needed start/stop, temp and oil which was giving me major issues because of my lack of experience in engine controls. The oil and temp sender units on the engine send a signal to the gauges. A previous owner removed the upper helm control panel which is why I was thrown for a loop. I knew the panel had been removed, but I didn’t know that the sender units were based on resistance. Since the upper helm panel help wasn’t there, I was getting false readings at the lower helm due to the extra resistance from a dual helm sending unit. Once I researched this, I changed out the sender for a single station sender and everything worked properly.
When cruising, I will have spare single and dual station senders just in case.
Engine Problems (Perkins Range 4-200) AKA T6.354.4
I knew when I bought Ella that this was an issue and would have to be changed. This is an all to often situation that can cause thousands of dollars in damage and potentially destroy an engine. I found that a previous owner that fell on bad luck had this wet exhaust muffler made and paid good money to have this POS installed. This situation has saltwater sitting inside a steel housing where the water can’t drain. It will corrode and the hopefully leak down the outside of the elbow but this is seldom the case. The exhaust gasses can be corrosive when combined with salt water which will cause an internal leak letting all the salt water drain into the turbo and then into the exhaust manifold. This could have been solved by simply putting the water injection point on top where the water would drain downhill after the engine was shut off. This is what happens when you don’t know, you don’t research and you hire the cheapest person!
Bigger Engine Problems
We got the required items for safe passage running and got under way. We pulled into a transient dock for the night and had an amazing time with our new friends on the dock. The next morning, I did my engine checks and noticed a pile of white chalklike substance and started investigating. It was salt crystals… how did they get there? All the hoses were good and no leaks could be found. The cold weather flame assist starter was directly above the pile but that would be leaking diesel not salt and then my heart sunk, this was going to be expensive! Someone has stepped onto the flame assist and it was broken and this was the source of the salt however the leak and real issue had to be up stream. The flame assist screwed into the intake manifold flange so that means water was leaking from the intercooler $$$$$$$. To make matters worse, if salt came out the flame assist that means salt was in the engine intake manifold and int the cylinders as well. I pulled the injectors and pickled the engine with oil I had on hand. We continued home on the get home engine and started repairs when we got home. I am thankful that the flame assist was broken because I would have never known otherwise. The reason I stopped using the main engine and limped home on the wing engine was if it was already leaking now and the leak let loose, we could have had a massive rush of saltwater shoved into the cylinders by the raw water pump which would have killed the engine perinatally.
