During the Week Stuff

Being a bit bored tonight, I will post some photos of what I am working on this winter. I restore pleasure boats, and these photos show the skiff that I am currently on. This project will take the entire winter! It has been a long time since I have done something this extensive.
The boat is a 28' Lyman (built in Port Clinton, Ohio in 1964) and is owned by a family that has an island in Georgian Bay near Point Au Baril north of Parry Sound. It is a total rebuild/restoration. Some changes will be made to customize the boat.

The first part is to tear it down to bare bones. You can then see what you have to work with and where the problem areas are.

Then you start the repairs and rebuilding!

The stringer area around the engines was in bad shape. Appropriate parts were cut out and replaced.
Floor timbers were replaced as well.

Some things need total rebuild with new wood, such as the two back seats. You have to work off the old pieces for patterns (or what is left of them!). All custom work! Almost three days work to make the two identical seats.

Last week I started tearing off bottom planks. Skiffs are not really meant to be taken apart, so it is a lot of work to remove old planks for patterns without destroying them.
The ribs were fairly good, but needed some dressing up and preserving to stabilize them.

I am currently putting in new bottom planks. They are cut to the shape of the boat (hence saving the old ones for patterns) out of half inch mahogany plywood. The planks overlap each other with bolts about every two inches, and are bedded with 3M 5200. There are thousands of fasteners in these boats!

There were many planks that needed to be replaced, so this part will take about a week.

Some of the materials nowadays are better than when the boat was built, and therefore improvements can be made in that regard.

And, time can be taken to do a thorough job.

Unfortunately, this kind of work cuts into birding!!!