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Restoration.


Springsong

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The second picture you see is the Russian red wood we have chosen for use in the bottom planking in the restoration. The grain is quite red in colour and reasonably straight, which I am assuming is a benefit to a boatbuilder or a joiner.

The first photo is of the new piece of garboard plank, as you can see it has been scarfed into the old wood I think for two reasons. One for strength two to create an uninterupted flow for any water that may lie in the bottom of the boat on it's way to the bilge pump at the lowest point of the bilge. I should add this has not been finally fitted there is still a considerable amount of fettling to be done yet.

The third photo is the new aft deck which also goes up the side deck some 2/3 feet as well. This has yet to be epoxied which will happen on Monday weather permitting. I am glad to say I managed to take that photo myself from four steps up the ladder, another first, so hopefully before to long I shall be able to get in the boat, then there will be no holding me, i shall be in everyones way.

Finally the starboard bulkhead is fitted in place so the structial integrity of the aft end is now at least as good as new, and when everything is clad and that glued with epoxy it in fact have more rigidity than when it was new.

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Hi Barry loving the resto mate

couple of questions for you mate.

did all the ribs need replacing or were some salvageable?

same realy for thee hull does it need a full plank replacement on the hull?

Jonny

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Hi Jonny

In answer to your questions the ribs considering her age are remarkably good, we have a couple of broken ones aft and some which have sat in bilge water which are a little rotten, but nothing that a little application of epoxy wont put right. The broken ones we will probably double up which means running a new one alongside the old broken one. Of course we have yet to examine the front half of the boat, the bows taking the brunt of most collisions I am not necessarily looking forward to seeing what is up there, and apart from anything else we don't want to completely demoralise the boat builder.

As far as replanking is concerned certainly most of the aft 10 / 15 foot of the bottom seems to be a poor state. The sides apart from the waterline seems to be pretty sound, again not entirely sure about the bow section yet. The problem with mahogany and these types of hard wood they just do not like getting constantly wet, then drying out, then getting wet, especially in fresh water. So the very act of motoring through the water, then stopping, or even another boat going past will over a period of time cause the timber to rot. Those boats built of these types of wood which live on the sea have a much extended life as the salt water appears to pickle the wood thus preserving it. This is why we are replacing most of the planking with Russian red wood, a third the price of Mahogany and will still give forty years, and if treated correctly now,maybe more of life. When you consider that the Mahogany we are taking out is only forty nine years old, and much has already been replaced, no contest.

Any way I am rambling, I hope this answers your questions.

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The rotten wood in the starboard cabin side has been cut out ready to take the new mahogany. It is remarkable how close in colour the new and fifty or more year old mahogany is, although when varnish is applied we shall see.

The new wood is epoxied in place and plugged. We think that glue failure is the probable cause of the need for this repair, if you look at the wood in front of the window you can see where we have rubbed it down, this looks to be ok, presumeably the weight of the roof helped to prevent water getting into the joint and therefore speeding up the rotting process.

The garboard plank epoxied and screwed in place.

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  • 2 weeks later...

We have reached a little of the chicken and egg situation. We cannot really do to much to rebuild the inside of the boat untill the planks are in the bottom, this because we need access to the planks from the inside to rove the copper nails. Nonetheless Will has made a start with the frame work for the gas locker and the shallow locker behind it. The second photo shows the plywood fronts which will have hardwood, probably sapele, tongue and groove facings. If you look in the bottom left corner you can see the cut out for the steering cables to run underneath the locker. The locker will have a plywood bottom with a finger hole so that it can be removed enabling access to the steering gear for maintenance. The locker tops will again be Sapele to blend in with the hardwood theme and also of course for strength as they will be the steps from the deck to the cockpit sole, highly varnished naturaly so wipe your feet !!

The next three photos are all of the new planking. We now have four planks, in the first photo shows the transom end with some sawn off others still waiting, the second shows the other end showing the different lengths depending where the rot finishes. The third photo is a little difficult to see but you should be able to see the reddish coloured ends to the planks to the left of the new ones, this where the mahogany ends have been squared off with a router to ensure a straight edge for the new wood to butt up against.

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  • 3 weeks later...

There hasn’t been a huge amount to report over the last couple of weeks the November weather has been against us. Today we have been down and the aft cockpit is starting to take shape, the frames are made now for both sides and across the stern, they are faced with ply, which as yet is not fastened because it will have to be remove again to allow the copper nails to be hammered over, and the bilges to be primed and painted.

All this ply and both sides of the bulkhead will be covered in hardwood tongue and groove and the locker tops/steps will have varnished sapele.

These are the doors which we are going to restore, there is some talk of putting some windows in but we have not yet come to a decision.

This is the last but one plank to go in the bottom on the port side, which

when complete will allow us to finish the aft well and also to make a start on the galley frame work.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Jonny we have not yet decided about the engine I think for now we will stick with what we have, but watch this space.

I haven’t been too clever over the last couple of weeks so today was my first day back as it were. In my absence work has of course progressed .

Will has made two gratings which will be the floor for the aft cockpit, these I think will look really stunning with the varnished tops and the tongue & groove.

The bottom planking port side aft is now complete apart from plugging the screw and nail holes and caulking the seams and with just some planks to go in the side the jobs a goodun as they say.

Jock is on with priming the bilges and the insides of the hull, these will then have a coat of grey bilge paint to finish.

Finally the rudder stops have been chipped of and cleaned and given a coat of red oxide to protect them, I shall more than likely give them another coat before the are refitted. The steering quadrant will also need a coat of the red oxide at some point before all the furniture goes back in over it.

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  • 2 months later...

Well we have done nothing really for nearly two months. Today Jock and I went down to check her over and to spray the seams on the cover; there has been a little water ingress and we could not decide wether it was condensation or water getting in. We took a trip down to Brian Ward's at Brundall station to look at light and fittings. The decsion has now been made, we had hoped to use LED bulbs but they just do not give enough light for main saloon lights and I am not keen on the blue light they give. So the two cockpits are sorted the galley and saloon are sorted and the front cabin done lightwise just the heads and shower. Will has made the aft cockpit seat/locker covers and when I actually get all these items I shall post photos. cheers

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  • 1 month later...

It seems to have been a very long cold winter although I don't think we have seen the last of it we went down to the boat today to get started.

Ivor is fitting one of the longest of all the planks we have to fit. It is on the turn of the bilge so has to be hollowed out, and to make matters more awkward the plank above has a "hole" in its edge. This means the new plank will have to be around an eighth of an inch wider over about nine inches of its length; you can see this "hole" above the clamp in the photo. This with the plank below which has already been fettled will complete the port side aft planking. This long plank will be scarfed into the other piece of new wood already fixed, this because otherwise the plank would just have been too long.

In the mean time Willhas been fitting the locker lid/seats in the aft cockpit, the fixed pieces are all glued and plugged already. The tongue & groove is to be ordered tomorrow, friday, from Tim Collins who is going to make it for us I think from sapele, this will then be pinned to hold it in place whilst the epoxy glue goes off.

This is really going to be a very pleasant place to relax, I can feel a G&T coming on just thinking about it. ice slice

I don't think I shall ever be able to get up the ladder and into the boat sooooo Ivor is going to build me a set of stairs which will enable me to not only get into the boat but work on the cabin sides to prepare them for varnishing, once that is done the roof can have its scrim put on making the whole aft end water tight. :clap

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Good to see you more mobile today Barry, the boys got that plank sorted then! PL9 might get an undercoat on by the end of the weekend, if I manage to finish the plank I was playing around with :o

cheers

Mat

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi all thanks for the comments.

Jax I would love it to be this year but realistically May June next year, even that might be pushing it.

Jonny we are changing the layout but only in as far as we are going back to how she was origonally with a full width galley. The only other difference will be starboard side forward we are getting rid of the stupid quarter birth and will be making a wet room, which was I think just a wash basin in the origonal plan.

First two photos show the new wood going in the starboard side, first looking forward then aft. Ivor in between everything else has made ome little cleats to tie the cover down to, the screws we were using was allowing it to come loose.

The new rear bulkhead was for some reason starting to bow so Will has put some threaded rod right through the bulkhead and the locker supports which has tied it all together and really put some strength into it; I would not like to run into our stern it really is very strong.

Finally the gas container is now fitted in its locker ready to be connected up.

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Not much to say really, just that I went to the boat on Sunday to keep Jock company as he was doing some bilge cleaning and painting. Anyway here are some more photos of the progress.As you can see the bilge was pretty dirty I guess from stagnant water over the years.

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  • 2 weeks later...

We have had two productive days albeit rather cold ones especially Thursday

I have been plugging the screw and nail holes with hardwood plugs, I have used these in both the mahogany and the pine, we tried using softwood plugs but they just crumbled. This is not an issue since the hull is going to be painted white.

Whilst I have been doing that Ivor has been planking the starboard side amidships. The bottom board has a little piece just below it which is the result of rot creeping from the board above , but not enough to require a whole plank.

On the Thursday the second board was fitted and the third made ready, by the time we left all that remained to do was actually screw it to the frames. No nails could be used here as the water tanks sit just below the deck and as a result there is no access to turn the nails.

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