Restoring Reverie

: The Art of Restoring & Sailing a Classic Wooden Sailboat

Tag Archives: wooden sailboat restoration


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Into The Light

The new year is upon us and it’s finally starting to look like January here along the Lake Michigan shoreline.  We had an unseasonably warm December due to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle.

   http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/ninonina.html

As avid cross country skiers, we were somewhat disappointed by the lack of snow.  As boat restorers, we took advantage of the mild weather to further the cause and get as much done on Reverie as possible before Winter set in.  Fortunately, we tempered these hours of work with some Grade-A, late season sailing aboard Prudence.  

Winter weather has now arrived and we got down near the single digits Fahrenheit last night.  Lake Effect snow has been quietly dusting us and the ground is now covered in white. Last week, we put a tarp over Prudence and brought her outboard in from the cold; time to replace that old water pump impeller I’ve been putting off all season.

Whenever there’s good news and bad news to be communicated, I prefer to have the bad news delivered first.  Candy coating something before the medicine does not help the medicine go down “in the most delightful way”.    Prepare yourself.  Gird your loins.  Here it comes.

If you have been following this blog, you have ascertained we are removing the entire deck of Reverie to get at the rotted deck beams and carlines.  I have no doubt in my mind that this decision was indeed, the best tack. It will also facilitate the replacement of broken frames.  The port-side tongue and groove decking has been carefully removed, labelled and toted off to storage. It proved to be a bit of a task seeing that many of the strips are in excess of twenty feet.  The port-side deck beams are now visible, as are the  areas aft near the cockpit and transom that get little ventilation.

The entire port-side sheer clamp is now visible and there is evident damage amidship.  The sheer clamp is a structural  member that runs stem to stern and serves to support the deck beams and provide resistance to the torsional twisting of the hull.  It is bolted along the inside of the hull at the frames and the deck beams are half-dovetailed into it.  It appears to be made of cypress wood; a good choice considering the need for a light, strong,  rot resistant wood.   I thought of white oak as an alternative for replacement yet was convinced otherwise after researching the weight difference between the two.  Had we gone with oak, there would be another 300 lbs. added to the sheer.

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The port-side sheer clamp showing evident signs of rot amidship.

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A closeup of the rot on the port-side sheer clamp.

Once the port-side deck was removed, it became time to prep the starboard-side deck for removal.  Julia began the monotonous chore of removing all the bungs from the toe rail in order to get at the 4 inch bronze screws holding it down every 6 inches.  While she did that, I worked on the deck hardware.  I removed the starboard winch, cleats, anchor chocks, spinnaker pole chocks and, with Julia’s help, the stanchion bases.

The stanchion bases are particularly hard to get at as they are fastened between the sheer clamp and the sheer plank.  Inside the cabin, it was a tight squeeze but in the cockpit, it seemed nigh impossible.  I had to lie on my back and reach through one of the cuddy holes in the cockpit with my arm fully extended all the while attempting to reach the nut I couldn’t see with a deep socket  and extension.  This maneuver was what I imagine it would be like wearing a blindfold while trying to steal a bag of chips from the top row of a vending machine by reaching up through the discharge bin.  While I attempted this feat of derring-do, Julia waited  patiently on the ladder ready to unscrew the fastener once I found the nut.

Lying on my back, in this twisted state, up became down and down became up.  I fished around here and there but could not find the nut to the stanchion base.  I rolled the socket wrench into the small of my hand hoping for some tactile reassurance that this wasn’t all a bad, painful dream and that I would eventually find the nut and bolt that were obviously eluding me.  I extended my forefinger here and there and suddenly, it felt as if I had stuck it clean through some wood!  “…all part of this bad dream”, I thought.  “Just relax.  Embrace the pain.  Find the bolt.”

My eyes were closed.  They were useless in this endeavor. All sensory input was being conveyed through an arm bent into positions it was never meant to be in yet, there it was: the sensation that I had my finger stuck clean through a piece of wood. I wriggled my forefinger around.   It was as if it was stuck through a hole in a sock; a 5/4 inch thick rotted sock.  I felt air on the other side.  Was my finger sticking through the sheer plank and the world outside?  “No”, Julia assured me.  “I can’t see your finger.”  Then, the truth set in.  I had stuck my finger through the rotten starboard-side sheer clamp!

I writhed about like a crocodile being swallowed by a python,  still unable to find the damn bolts. I began to see a shining light through my closed eyes.  I heard a voice beckoning me.  “Come to the light!”   I reached out, with my contorted arm, and touched the stanchion bolt I so desperately sought.  I focused, careful not to let this moment slip away.  I got the socket on the nut.  Julia unscrewed it from above.

Bolt number two was right next to a frame but now that my arm was a bent pipe cleaner, I got the socket onto it, as well.  The two other bolts to the stanchion base were screwed through the deck and into the sheer clamp.  The cause of the rot, perhaps?  They pulled out without even needing to be unscrewed.  The stanchion base was finally liberated from the covering board.  It then took several minutes to extract my now serpentine arm from the labyrinth while I relived the pain of a long-ago separated shoulder.  Why did I ever think rollerblading was a good idea?

The outcome of these travails are the issues with the starboard-side sheer clamp that will be come into focus as work progresses.  It was  reminder that there is more than meets the eye in our little project.  We’re certainly not out of the woods with these hidden issues.  “… two steps back.”  I’m glad we found this out before Winter set in.   It gives us time to plot out the next course of action. These sheer clamps must be addressed before the deck beam work can start.   I guess that big slab of white oak we have will have to wait a bit before it’s sawn into deck beams.  Time to start shopping for some nice cypress.

Now that we’ve had our medicine, I must say that it has been a delightful season.  El Niño might be wreaking havoc all over the world but he allowed us to get out on our Com-Pac 16, Prudence for some extra-fine Fall/Winter sailing.  One of the real highlights of the season was sailing on Christmas Day.  There had been a raging gale several days before Christmas with 22 foot waves on Lake Michigan.  That’s 22 foot December, Great Lakes waves which are steeper and heavier than ocean waves. While not 22 feet, there were still some big rollers that picked up in the 20 knot afternoon breeze. The waves were very uniform with an occasional series standing above the others.  It was consistent and certainly memorable.

The icy, steel blue water was beautiful and deadly as we beat  5 miles WNW onto the lake.  We were driving so hard, we kept the Port Sheldon pier off our stern with almost no leeway to the South.  Prudence yields a bit to the currents so this was a pleasant surprise.  We would be able to triangulate back to the pier.  Three legs and we’d be home.   We ended up gybing off on the second leg then rounding back NE as Prudence didn’t want to tack into the rollers that were beginning to stand up 5 miles offshore.  On leg three, we ran S along the Lake Michigan shoreline back to Port Sheldon. That leg ended way too soon.

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October on Lake Michigan

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November sailing- Holland, Michigan

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November sailing. Coming into Lake Macatwa from Lake Michigan.

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Christmas Day 2015. 5 miles out, 5 miles back with Julia’s daughter, Chloe. Fine sailing. -Port Sheldon, Michigan

Christmas Day - Lake Michigan

Christmas Day – Lake Michigan

It has, indeed, been a delightful year filled with hard work and dedication that shows in all we have accomplished  It has been a year of change and sacrifice balanced with the enjoyment of life’s small pleasures.  It helps to have someone like Julia who can see the forest through the trees.  She has been working tirelessly alongside me.  Even during the 60 hours it took me to strip the paint from the port topsides,  she was there at the end of the day with a couple of cold beers that we would drink at the Sunset Lounge, our two lawn chairs in the shade of Reverie.  Here’s to everyone having an eventful and  productive 2016.  Cheers!


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Tung Oil and Turpentine

We are well into November and the weather has been good to Reverie’s restoration project.  The leaves were late to turn this year due to a warm Fall but they have now fallen  rapidly and carpet the earth in all shades of red, yellow and brown.  Still, the mild weather persists.   The birds aren’t quite so convinced of an eternal Autumn.  They know what’s about to happen and are acting accordingly.  We saw our first dark eyed junco the other day while working on Reverie; a sure sign of the change in seasons.  The shoreline of the Great Lakes is, well, a great place to watch migrating birds.  We were even  lucky enough to see 4 endangered whooping cranes the other day on a back road drive from Holland to Grand Rapids. Their size is impressive.

On a somber note, today is the 40th anniversary of the sinking of the Great Lakes freighter, Edmund Fitzgerald. It vanished without a trace in a massive storm on Lake Superior and has since been found lying at the bottom of the lake broken in half by the mighty waves.  http://www.shipwreckmuseum.com/the-fateful-journey-62/

102 years ago, the Great Lakes Storm of 1913 sank 19 ships with over 250 lives  lost on the open waters of these inland seas.  http://www.nws.noaa.gov/com/weatherreadynation/news/131107_white.html#.VkH8LdKrTwc

Today, is nothing like those days.  It is calm and mild and I’m going off to work on Reverie for a while thankful for this weather as I solemnly recall those who lost their lives on the Great Lakes.

Yesterday, we passed a waypoint in the restoration project.  After 60 hours of scraping, sanding, and the cleaning of every single fastener hole on the port topside, I was able to apply a coat of tung oil and turpentine!  This was a process that took a lot longer than expected but we are pleased with the results.  The mixture, consisting of 50% tung oil and 50% turpentine, was heated to near boiling to facilitate its penetration into the thirsty yellow pine planking.  I could see it immediately expanding some of the surface cracks that had begun in the parts of the topside that had been without paint for an undetermined amount of time.  I worked this delightful smelling mixture into all the exposed fastener holes with a 3 inch chip brush.  You could see the hot oil and turpentine being sucked into the holes. It made all the time consuming work worth it.  There are certainly faster ways to strip the hull down and sand it but I would rather spend 2 or 3 or 4 times the amount of time to get it the way I wanted it and err on the side of safety.

The frames, which are basically the ribs of the skeleton, are laid out in a pattern of one very heavy white oak frame fastened with heavy galvanized nails and then two smaller frames fastened with copper rivets.   These smaller oak frames are steam bent and still fastened tight.   We will most likely add bronze screws to the heavy frames but that’s going to require some investigation of the existing nails.  For now, I’m guessing they have run their course in usefulness.  When white oak and steel get together, oak wins.  I removed the flat-head steel screws to the engine exhaust flange that was backed up with an oak block and there was barely any thread left.  The use of quality, hot dipped galvanized fasteners is a money saver and they served well for over 60 years but we’re going with silicon bronze.  The oil filling the fastener holes is a good thing.  It  expands the wood and seals it from the oxygen needed to create rot.

 The whole port topside consumed a little less than a half gallon of the tung oil/turpentine mixture.  The tung oil is 100% pure tung oil and costs about $70 dollars a gallon.  Tung oil cannot be allowed access to oxygen as this begins the curing process.  I poured off half the gallon of pure tung oil into a half gallon cider jug leaving no room for air and will save it for a later date.  That will keep for quite some time, as is.  I expected to use more of the 50/50 mixture but was happy to have used less, seeing we’re approaching $100 a gallon for this elixir, once the cost of the turpentine is factored in.  “Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.”  Last night, I had to scramble around for another half gallon container to put the rest of the 50/50 mixture in and came up with an empty half gallon bottle of Scotch in our recycling bin(now how did that happen?).   It was almost spot on one half gallon with a glass vitamin bottle to spare. Now I have to find some wood that needs treating today so as not to waste those precious fluids in the vitamin bottle.  That shouldn’t be difficult.   So, dear reader, I must be off and begin the next phase of the project which is to do the same thing to the forlorn  starboard side that now looks even more desperate compared to the freshly oiled port-side.  I will leave you with some pics of the progress.

Best Regards,

Roger

60 hours of scraping, sanding and oiling. Done!

60 hours of scraping, sanding and oiling. Done!

Reverie's lovely overhang. The one small plank is a former repair made of dissimilar wood and will most likely be replaced.

Reverie’s lovely overhang. The one small plank is a former repair made of dissimilar wood and will most likely be replaced.

Starboard topside looking forlorn and in need of help.

Starboard topside looking forlorn and in need of help.

Yikes!

Yikes!


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Time Is of the Essence

 

 

October is upon us and the race against the elements rages on.  My fit of optimism that predicted the scraping, sanding and oiling of the topsides was, of course just that: optimism.  In my dream world, it was going to take 20-25 hours per side to finish this project.  Now, my optimistic estimate is for each side to be completed in 50 hours per side.  Yes, it’s boat work and that’s how it goes.  The real time consumer has been cleaning out all the fastener holes.  They are filled with hardened putty and require a bit of concentrated heat to soften up then carefully dig out.   I want to get each one as clean as possible to facilitate the penetration of the 50/50 mixture of 100% pure tung oil and turpentine.  Any place there is exposed end grain needs to be soaked in this formula.  This mixture gets heated to near boiling and soaks into the wood quite well.

There are many hundreds of fastener holes and, depending on each ones depth, take a minute or so apiece to clean. The strength of a wooden boat lies in redundancy.  Many small fasteners and components are put together to effect the strength required to withstand the stresses incurred in a seaway.  The stress gets distributed across the greatest area possible and, voila,  you have a sturdy wooden boat.  You also have hundreds of fasteners that demand attention.  It only takes the failure of a few in a series to set off a chain reaction that could lead to catastrophe.

During this phase of paint scraping, I also had to determine the best way to preserve the waterline.  The waterline was already there so, to lose it then have to set up the procedure to draw a new waterline seemed to be the kind of redundancy we should like to avoid. Preserving the existing waterline is one of the reasons I chose to do the topsides first and address the hull below the waterline as a separate project; that, and the fact that the bottom paint has no bare spots and, therefore, is still protecting the wood.  It’s those bare spots on the topsides that initiated this phase of the restoration.

The waterline runs from the bow in a 3 inch strip and expands to 4 inches over the last few feet near the stern.  Easy enough.  I can mark where that begins and add that taper.  I was going to tape along the bottom of the waterline and work from that but the blue painters tape that was already there wasn’t holding up to the heat gun.  I chose to sharpen the scraper to a knife edge and work along the boot top (waterline)/bottom seam in an upward fashion so as to preserve the waterline.   You can see in the photo, where I have the waterline removed, that it worked well and there will be an accurate line to follow when it’s time to paint the new waterline.

As the sanding progresses, the hull is revealing itself in a very positive way.  It is nice to see the yellow pine exposed for the first time in over 60 years looking as if it had just been fastened.  It has withstood the test of time admirably and is a testament to it’s efficacy as a planking material.  I have a shop vac rigged up to the discharge of the sander and it is working quite well at keeping the dust down.  With this system, it is virtually dust free.  I’m still wearing a dust mask and ear protection but it is much more comfortable than the dreaded respirator.

We took a break from the topside project to begin construction of a better tarp frame.    With Winter coming on, the frame needed a steep pitch to deflect the incessant lake effect snows that dump on the shoreline of Lake Michigan. The frame will be reinforced with more rafters as the season progresses but, for now,  it’s enough to withstand the wind and rain. We had a makeshift setup last Winter and had quite a time getting the snow and ice dams off the deck.  This new structure will also serve as a beam to lift the cabin off the boat.  Julia is working on getting all the fasteners out of the cabin and cockpit (a whole lot of work in one small sentence).   Then, we will lift the cabin top off with a block & tackle and get it off the deck in order to have better access to the deck beam and carline repairs.  It will also make it easier to strip the inside of the coach roof and cabin sides as it can then be flipped upside down rather than us being showered by scraped varnish.

There is a bit of momentum and the only unknown factor is the weather.  If it all doesn’t get done before the snow flies, that’s the way it goes.  In the mean time, onward we plunge; led by an optimism that suggests a certain naivety while providing impetus to move along with this tedious, dirty job of stripping, sanding and oiling the topsides.

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The Elephant in the Room

As the last week of August fades to memory, it’s time to reflect on what’s been done and plan for the cooler months ahead.  For many people, summer ends at Labor Day; the tug of the academic calendar is just too much for folks raised to abide by the “back to school” mentality.  They may not be in school or have children in school but the hand is writing on the wall.  We are bombarded by yet another consumer milestone.  “Buy, buy, buy”, the ads say.  When I’m out shopping, I feel like maybe I should pick up a fresh pack of crayons or maybe some paste.

Here in West Michigan, we see the last of the tourists “recreating profusely”; they’re squeezing that last bit of juice from the lemon before it’s time to get the kids off to school.  Then, it’s a little easier to breathe around here.  We don’t have to fight the crowds to get around and no longer have to plan our sailing time during the week.  It was so hot and humid for the first part of August, there was not much going on in the way of boat work.  I’m not partial to heat indexes in the lower 100’s and the fact that I’m using a heat gun only reinforces my prejudices.

Late July and some of August saw us dutifully removing the rest of the covering board and begin the process of removing the deck from Reverie.

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That went as well as it could and we are now able to see the extent of the rot to the port-side deck beams.  There weren’t really many surprises as I was expecting to find more rot than was visible from the interior.  After all, that is one of the main reasons we are completely removing the deck.   We got 3 rows of the tongue and groove decking off yet, something wasn’t quite right.  There was an elephant in the room and it wasn’t going away.

The warm weather did slow us down but it was the impending cold weather that made the elephant more apparent.  While focusing on the deck and executing the plan to remove it, time was ticking away.  After seeing what would need to be done with the deck beams, the seemingly innocuous topsides began to call out for help.  The paint was crazed and peeling.  There were bare spots from an attempt, made by the previous owner, to sand them.  I’m not sure how long ago the attempted sanding took place but the sections of exposed bare wood was showing signs of weathering that could lead to wholesale splitting of the lovely,  longleaf yellow pine that planks our fair vessel.  It was time to feed the elephant.

Completely stripping the multiple layers of topside paint was the only course of action seeing how the paint had split and cracked where it hadn’t already been sanded.  Reverie has been out of the water for years and the planking is a lot drier than a wooden boat’s should be.  Dry planks can stress the fasteners and shrink the dimensions enough to cause problems when it comes time to recaulk the seams.  If the seams are caulked when it’s dry, the expansion can cause undue stress and actually cause the fasteners to pull out.  Not good.

It’s going to take about 30 hours per side to strip the paint and a good 20 to do the sanding and oiling.  After the oil dries, the initial coat of primer goes on and Reverie will be much happier.  So, Julia gets about 100 hours of work time off while I    take one for the team since there’s no reason we should both be exposed to this mess.  She hasn’t stopped work altogether; she’s working on removing the multitude of bungs (wooden plugs that cover screw holes) from the cockpit coaming when I’m not making too much of a mess.

Wearing a respirator for 80 hours is not something I’m enjoying but it has to be done. I have the heat gun set just hot enough to lift the paint but not hot enough to burn it.  I’ve done some research on the release of lead and other toxic substances and am working at a lower temperature to avoid as much exposure to lead as I can.  I watched a video on youtube of this guy using a heat shrink gun and literally burning the paint off the topsides.  He said he can get a whole boat stripped in one day.  He wasn’t wearing a respirator.  I think I’ll err on the side of caution.

See you when it’s done.

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Off With the Deck?!

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Reverie’s beautiful lines are evident even with her hull looking this way.

 

Boat repair and restoration requires both optimism (This can be done.) and realism (This is a mess.).  Lately, it’s been a healthy dose of realism.  A lot of the early work on Reverie has been assessing the situation of the leaking deck by finding the damage and what caused it. Rainwater from deck leaks is the culprit, of course, and the damage is insidious at best.  This water coming down from the sky contains a rich collection of fungi and molds ready to set up shop on any food source.  A wooden boat left out in the elements, uncovered for several years, with a leaking deck is a great place for these tiny creatures to do their business.

We got a tarp over Reverie last December, the first day we saw her.  I knew that was the only way to slow down the rot that was beginning to consume her.  Rot needs moisture and the first step was to get that out of the equation.  The next step was to find the entry points where the green water was coming through and stop it.  That was pretty easy as there’s rot in all of the places where the rain water was leaking below.  As I was poking around in the tight confines of the forepeak, (Reverie was designed for sailing and not so much for below decks comfort), I found mushrooms had been growing in the corner joint of the fore hatch carline. They were dried and no longer actively growing but they were there.  I’m sure spores are everywhere!

The next work session involves the complete removal of the fore hatch and immediate treatment with sodium tetraborate (good ol’ borax).  We’re using borax to initially treat any spots that have begun to rot.  It has excellent anti-fungal properties and is safe to use.  It’s major downfall in marine use is that it’s water soluble and will leach out of wood that comes in contact with water.  The immediate goal is to kill what rot is  in the wood already and worry about long term treatment as the restoration progresses.

The real damage from all of this leaking water has been to the deck beams and it is obvious many of them need to be replaced.  Getting at the deck beams is the reason for removing the covering board (the strip of teak that provides an edge for the decking and runs the full length of the hull).  To get to the deck beam end requires removal of the jib tracks to get to the toe rail to get to the covering board. This all reminds me of the children’s song, I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly. I just hope it doesn’t get to the point where I swallow the horse!

 

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A big section of toe rail comes off!

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Stanchion bases half screwed into the sheer clamp, half through covering board. I would like to see them 100% through bolted.

 

So, our work is exemplified in a children’s song.  So be it.  The initial tack was to get the covering board off which would provide access to the outer ends of the deck beams.  While the toe rail was fastened to the covering board with 4 inch long bronze screws, the covering board is fastened to the sheer clamp and beam ends with steel screws.  These screws are proving to be formidable opponents to extraction and it looks like they have a date with a date with a sawzall and metal cutting blade.  We’ll remove all screws that will come out willingly but the others will have to be cut.

One of the three king beams needs to be replaced.  The king beams provide support for the the mast amidship and can only be extracted by removing the top hull plank known as the sheer plank or sheer strake; unless the entire deck is removed.  Examining the sheer planks, as we worked on the toe rail removal, I began to seriously wish the sheer planks could stay right where they are.  Both port and starboard sides are in fine condition and removing them would mean ‘fixing something that ain’t broke’.  I began to seriously consider removing the deck altogether.

Removing the entire deck might seem extreme but the main issue Reverie faces is this leaking deck. The deck is Douglas Fir and appears in fine condition.  It is attached to the deck beams by a method called “secret nailing”.  Secret nailing is done much the way that wooden floors in houses are laid.  The tongue and groove strips are nailed diagonally through the tongue so the groove covers the nail.  Secret nails go into the beams and then additional nails are driven horizontally through each strip tying the strips together even more. A real advantage of this method is that it leaves a nice, clean deck free of bung holes that are all invitations for water entry.  The major disadvantage is that it is a real pain to repair.  I don’t relish the thought of ripping up this beautiful deck and having to shell out for more lumber.  One of the reasons we took on this project was the condition to the wood.  The only real wood I thought needed replacing was American White Oak, readily available and relatively cheap here in Michigan.  Nice, long, clear lengths of Douglas Fir isn’t going to be cheap.

Remove the sheer planks or remove the deck?   And the winner is: Remove the deck.  Loathing the thought of removing perfectly good planks that are screwed and riveted was what got me considering the deck option and, from there, it began to make more sense.  The damage to the deck beams that can be seen is most likely the tip of the iceberg.  I’m sure there’s plenty more rot in the beams that has yet to rear it’s head.  The mushrooms growing out to joint in the forehatch carline is a real red flag. With the entire deck removed, all of the tops of the beam can be assessed and a fresh coat of red lead primer can be applied.  I’m hoping we can disassemble the secret nailing and reuse the old deck but not banking on it.  Que sera, sera.   Off with the deck!

Cheers,

Roger


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Toe Rail & Covering Board

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“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.” ~ Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

 

Here we are, watching March, 2015 fade to memory. This year, March came in like a lion and has remained roaring ever since. The Great Lakes region has been sunny and dry, for the most part, but it has been “…summer in the light and winter in the shade.”, as Charles Dickens put it.  I started work yesterday morning in 24° Fahrenheit with a strong North wind gusting 25-30 mph.  The temps stayed steady throughout the day but it was “summer in the light” and there’s work to be done

The Great Lakes began to shed their ice in early March.  The Coast Guard, police and fire rescue crews have had their hands full with idiots on ice ever since. Every year, overzealous ice fishers, snowmobilers unaccustomed to the laws of physics and errant sightseers end up falling through the ice or somehow trapped on a floe drifting off into the open water of the Great Lakes. As more and more people are taking to the water in small craft, there has been a surge in kayak, canoe and paddleboard related incidents as well. This is nothing new, as we can see from previous generations: these people breed.

The work at hand is to get the port-side deck beams in order.  The leaking deck caused them to rot and I’m sure there’s more to discover once things are taken apart.  So, the bronze jib track, the toe rail and the covering board need to come off to get a look the deck beam ends below.  The deck beams are not as accessible as the carlines, which make up the framing for the hatches and cabin.  The deck beams run perpendicular to the keel line of the boat and their outboard ends are worked into the sheer clamp.

The sheer of a boat is the edge where the topsides meet the deck. It is an important aesthetic point in boat design.  The sheer clamp is the board that runs inside, along the topside and provides a band of support for the deck beams.  On larger boats, there is often a board that sits on top of the clamp called a shelf. Reverie only has a clamp that the deck beams are tied into.  The situation gets complicated by the fact that the deck beams are tied into the clamp outboard and not accessible from inside. .

One of the nice things about a wooden boat built in a traditional manner is that, “what’s done, can be undone”. The fact that the boat is held together with fasteners is a plus when doing major work such as replacing the deck beams.   Even though it can be undone, I’m cursing the fact that the deck was allowed to leak and this all occurred. I suppose that is how every old boat, house or any other creation of humanity meets it’s end: human neglect. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”.  Yes, it’s times like these when many an old proverb comes to mind.  DSCN0683

The task of removing a multitude of screws is best done with a hand brace fitted with the appropriate screwdriver bit.  I also came armed with a hand impact driver to loosen up any recalcitrant fastenings.  The hand brace exerts an amazing amount of torque and allows you to put downward pressure on the screw.  This is especially important when removing screws that have been in place for over 60 years and are unwilling to yield.

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The bronzed track is held down with stainless steel screws and came off without incident.  I did find splitting in the toe rail at the scarf which was caused by the linear nature of the track and the natural grain of wood.  “Easy, Igor. You impetuous young boy!”

The toe rail is fastened to the covering board with 4" silicon bronze screws. The phillips heads want to strip out if you even look at them the wrong way.

The toe rail is fastened to the covering board with 4″ silicon bronze screws under wooden bungs. The phillips heads want to strip out if you even look at them the wrong way.

The covering board appears to be fastened with steel flat head screws which have very shallow slots that will require careful cleaning and concentration to remove.  I left that task until I set up a better scaffolding as it will require a lot of downward pressure on the brace and bit.  I’m going to have to make a concerted effort to extract these puppies.

I made it four hours before calling it a day. The wind really took it out of me.  The day was a success in that, I was able to ascertain how easy or difficult this stage would be.  I’m expecting the rest of the port-side toe rail and covering board removal is going to take another 8 to 10 hours.  And that’s if everything goes well!

11:00 a.m.

11:00 a.m.

3:00 p.m.

3:00 p.m.

Think Spring, my friends!

~Roger


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Galley Drawers

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Dimensions for the galley drawers.

 

Happy Pi Day to all!  As the month of March approaches mid-point, we are seeing some real signs of Spring here in Michigan   We’ve had agreeable, sunny days with temperatures in the balmy 40° Fahrenheit range all week. The snow hasn’t quite melted and we are in the muddy limbo that happens every year.  This morning, we saw a number of Sandhill Cranes croaking overhead.  Their voices have a primal tone much like that of the Loon.  It stirs some kind of gut feeling that has no true explanation.

Last Sunday, we drove over to Holland to get the Winter’s snow off Reverie before it became an impossible mess of ice and condensation.  The last time we were there, it was 15° F and I was barely able to get under the heavy mass of snow piled atop Reverie’s tarp.   At the time, I knew we would have to get there at just the right time when things were softening up a bit but before temps were steadily above freezing.

 It took over an hour to get all the snow and ice off the tarp. The snow on deck was knee deep and weighed a considerable amount.  Massive blocks of ice had already formed along the toe rail pinning the tarp taut against the cabin and hatches.  This setup is  temporary and soon, we’ll have a better framework for the tarp so as to be able to work without having to untie the tarp every time; with a 20′ x 30′ tarp, that’s a lot of work.  I pulled the tarp back and we let the deck air out for the rest of the afternoon.  Had Reverie sat without a tarp for another Winter, I’m sure she would have been much worse off.  I know we got to her just in time; before she became nothing more than an assemblage of rotted wood.

The Galley, as we found it. Looks pretty innocent,eh?

The galley, as we found it. Looks pretty innocent, eh?

The main problem with Reverie is her leaking deck, which started the insidious process that rotted her deck beams and other parts of her interior.  Her cabin-side seams are where a lot of the water entry was occurring; it was there that water leaked down into her galley space and wreaked havoc on the cabinetry.  Water was seeping into the sink/stove area which is the top of the galley space.  In December,  I removed the sink and found the opening completely soaked. In fact, the entire formica covered 3/4″ inch plywood top was completely saturated.

The drawers below had also gotten soaked making them impossible to open.  Luckily, there are two latched doors below them through which I was able to squeeze my arm in and force the damaged  drawers out.  We took them home with us with the intention of yet another off-site project.

Success!

Success!

Ouch

Ouch

The bottoms of the drawers were made of old school plywood, circa 1953, that didn’t take kindly to having water dripping on them.  The plywood was completely shot.  After taking the drawers apart, I decided to ditch the oak drawer sides in favor of 3/8″ marine plywood that will get sealed with epoxy.  The oak sides looked worse for the wear and were glued up from odd, narrow pieces that would have to be cleaned and  re-glued.  That’s more work than using fresh pieces of modern marine plywood.  The original wooden drawer faces are still serviceable but have splits that will get epoxied when they’re put back together.

Willy Nilly oak sides. Probably a way of using scrap economically in the production of the boat.

Willy-nilly oak sides. Probably a way of using scrap economically in the production of the boat.

Crap!

Crap

So, I have the materials list all made up and construction method determined.  The entire galley cabinetry is going to have to come out to facilitate a frame repair so, I’m going to cut out the pieces and leave them that way until it all goes back together. If I assembled the drawers, they would be bulky and vulnerable to damage in storage.  For now, they’ll sit in a nice stack, ready to go back together in a moment’s notice.

So, the moral of this story, dear reader is: Never allow your deck leaks get to this point!  The whole mess with Reverie was caused by her leaking decks and would surely have been her undoing.

Stay dry, my friends!

~Roger

 


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Wooden Blocks

March has arrived and the time change to Daylight Savings takes place in the early hours of Sunday morning.  Losing an hour of sleep shouldn’t be much of a problem seeing as I get up well before dawn anyway.  We have passed meteorologic Spring already and the  month brings with it the sense that I need to finish up with this Winter’s off-site projects.

The blocks on Reverie were in desperate need of TLC. The varnish on all of them was chipped and worn with the sheet blocks showing the worst of it.  They had been left on the boat for who knows how long, and had deep splits in the wooden cheeks with black water stains that looked permanent.

 

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Blocks, their sheaves, bronze roller bearings and cheek plates.

 

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Some of the blocks as we found them. The lorn sheet blocks are on right.

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Smart Strip does the job.

The first course of action was to disassemble everything and strip the cheeks down to bare wood so they could go into a hot bath of linseed oil, beeswax and turpentine.  I discovered SmartStrip when I was working on Persistence and needed to strip paint from fiberglass.  It is expensive, costing close to $60.00 a gallon but it is environmentally friendly and does the job.  It’s biodegradeable and has very little odor. We have had good results covering whatever needs to be stripped with plastic bags or plastic food wrap and leaving it on overnight.  It will be the stripper of choice for the rest of Reverie’s projects along with a heat gun for the hull and other easily accessible areas.

 

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A couple of block cheeks stripped and ready to go into the hot linseed oil mixture.

I applied the SmartStrip to  the wooden cheeks and let them sit overnight in plastic grocery bags. The next morning, I scraped off the varnish with a plastic putty knife and an old toothbrush.  I brushed household bleach on the black spots repeating this procedure until the spots were all but gone.  I then scrubbed them under running water so as to remove all traces of paint stripper and bleach.  Before they went into the oil mixture, I let them air dry for several days.

Getting the mixture of linseed oil, beeswax and turpentine at the right temperature takes careful monitoring of the hot plate.  I like to have it as hot as possible without smoking and potentially catching on fire.

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Well used hot plate and coffee can full of linseed oil, beeswax and turpentine.

I cooked each block for about 4 hours until I could see no more air bubbles coming out of the wood.  I then let them sit for a while on a piece of cardboard and really didn’t have to wipe any excess off except where they touched the cardboard.  I use boiled linseed oil, a bit of beeswax and  turpentine to help the mixture penetrate deep into the wood.  Boiled linseed oil dries faster than raw linseed oil but still, these cheeks are going to hang for a few months before I lightly sand them and finish them with spar varnish. The splits in the sheet block cheeks completely closed up after their soaking and one has to look hard to see them.  They’ll be fine.

So, that’s one more project off the list and a million more to go.  Regardless, it feels good to know it’s done and I don’t have to think about it any more.  That calls for a wee dram of Scotch!

Cheers,

Roger