Adventure begins: Restoring a wooden single.
Walter Martindale
Sculling Boats & Oars, Wooden Boat Books, Maine, 2008, I've been
snooping about to find a wood single to restore... Found one.
Now - it's a mess. Stored in the rafters of Avon RC (Christchurch NZ)
for 10 years, it was made available to me in exchange for some Montana
Pinot Noir.
So far, have obtained a chunk of Kauri lumber from which I have cut a
bunch of wood with which to make all the diagonals, deck spacers, deck
"nailing beads" and other struts.
Next - dismantle the thing, sand the white primer off the thwarts,
swab lemon oil on all the old wood, and let it soak for a while, while
away at a training camp.
One thing that's going to be trying is getting the thick layer of
fibreglass off the hull around the seating area - the last person to
repair this thing was pretty rough with the glass, and didn't quite
get the edges of some of the hull cracks to join up.
Will also have to make new riggers, scavenge or build a seat, and
laminate some veneers to make a bit of plywood to replace some bits
that didn't survive dismantling very well. Woodwork skills are a bit
rusty - it's been at least 15 years since I repaired a wooden boat.
If I had very deep pockets I'd see if Carl wanted a vacation trip to
NZ to provide some advice...
Whee.
W
Carl Douglas
Happy New Year, to Walter & all!
A great project. Just say the word & I'll be packed and stuck in a
whole-body scanner in an airport somewhere. With the Pound Sterling
currently worth about tuppence in old money, I think you'll find my
rates are most reasonable :)
Joking apart, if you want to discuss specific aspects of your project at
any time, don't hesitate to ask. Do eliminate all that ghastly glass,
if poss. Wooden boats need never die, but unfeeling & ignorant rowers
are notorious for driving any slightly impaired wooden boat rapidly down
hill - through almost calculated abuse & neglect - & thereby destroying
a valuable club asset.
[On that score, it's time for a rant - why not?:
The bane of our lives here is the plonker who tells his club, "I can
sort that boat out & save you money". He bangs some filler, or wholly
inappropriate gunk, into dings & other damage, then gets a can of some
inappropriate varnish from the local DIY shop, & crummy old brush.
Then, horror of horrors, he slaps this goop all over every part of what
was hitherto a perfectly sound, slightly beat-up but wholly restorable,
boat. All that with zero surface preparation or, worse still, a rough
going-over with a disc sander - someone find me an appropriate emoticon
to express my distress at such nonsense, please!! And there you have a
perfectly good boat, until that point still worth maybe 1/2 of its
original purchase price, now just about permanently b*ggered - not to
mention the inept attempts at so-called repair. Which raises a question
in any boat-builder's mind: "How many car owners are so ready to deal
with local damage on a decent car by 'just slapping a bit of paint over
the ding', compared with the proportion of rowers ready to do likewise
to boats worth maybe as much?"]
Kauri Pine is nice stuff - a strictly Antipodean timber, clean,
straight, smooth and slightly pinkish. We came by a quantity of Kauri,
salvaged from the huge timber vats during the demolition of nearby
producer of the infamous so-called "British Wines". A pleasure to use,
and great to be able to recycle it so usefully, but with it being
impregnated with an alcoholic liquor there may have been a slight risk
of intoxication for the guy milling it. Happy days, or daze!
Cheers -
Carl
--
Carl Douglas Racing Shells -
Fine Small-Boats/AeRoWing Low-drag Riggers/Advanced Accessories
Write: Harris Boatyard, Laleham Reach, Chertsey KT16 8RP, UK
Find: http://tinyurl.com/2tqujf
Email: ca...@carldouglas.co.uk Tel: +44(0)1932-570946 Fax: -563682
URLs: www.carldouglas.co.uk (boats) & www.aerowing.co.uk (riggers)
Walter Martindale
> URLs: www.carldouglas.co.uk(boats) &www.aerowing.co.uk(riggers)
Thanks Carl.
I think a disk sander may be required to get the glass off. Yuk. The
wood in this think is really old and I'm not sure I want to cope with
the "check" repair of a single ply, un-reinforced boat. I'm hoping to
find some (I think it's half ounce) fabric and a two-pack varnish to
laminate it on with, once it's down to bare wood... Long way from
that, though.
Um.. British Wines? but... the grape growing region must be so...
er... soggy....
Happy New Year.
Walter
Richard du P
>
> Um.. British Wines? but... the grape growing region must be so...
> er... soggy....
>
> Happy New Year.
> Walter
Walter - can't see from here, how firmly the Martindale tongue is into
cheek, but here goes .....
As I recall, "British Wine" - eg "British Sherry" - was truly
infamous; raw materials [eg cane sugar] imported, and subject to
British processing; seen on middle-class sideboards in my 1940s and
1950s childhood; probably took a knock when we joined the European
Union, I think maybe lingers on, alongside cider and methylated
spirit, on streets where I don't go at night.
Most of us never knew where the grape content came from - probably
somewhere hot with negligible wage costs.
Please skip the rest if you don't believe climate is changing
uncomfortably fast
English vineyards on the other hand, now flourish as they haven't
since our Little Ice Age struck in 1315. Dorking in Surrey, about 15
miles South-East of where Carl builds, is in a sunny chalky hollow of
the North Downs, and claims to have soil, weather, terroir, whole
shooting-match, identical to Champagne. They do say that great
containers of Surrey grapes make the journey to Rheims ..... not for
me to say what the wily Frenchman does with them .....
Antipodean Semillon or Chardonnay still gets you a bigger bang for
your buck.
Richard du P
Walter Martindale
Hi Richard,
Thanks for the update about Pom Plonk ;-) So how do you "smiley" a
tongue in cheek?
In response to John in Minnesota:
http://singlerestoreblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/starting-off.html
Cheers,
Walter
sully
>
> - Show quoted text -
If you can find some epoxy stripper, it would be well worth a try
before discing or belting it. One of the few blessings of bad repair
jobs is that sometimes old glass work peels up easily. Great
project, good luck!
Walter Martindale
>
> - Show quoted text -
Thanks Sully,
See what I can find - also trying to do this on a pretty tight budget
and retail markup in NZ is FAR above the exchange rate compared to
retail in either Canada or the US so the glues, finishes, and chemical
strippers are all going to be used pretty sparingly. The replacement
bulkhead and bailer board are going to be laminates of something with
glass fibre between them for a little added toughness... Decision on
rigger design and home-made construction pending; unfortunately I
can't afford Carl's riggers.
Whine mode on:
Just an FYI - as some gentle readers know, I shoot. I've sold my .
30-06, but just for comparison, when I had it, I managed to look at
the same box of ammunition in retail outlets in Hamilton, NZ; Calgary
Alberta Canada and the Boise, ID, USA. The "same" (bullet weight,
brand name, box colour, labeling, etc.,) box of ammo had price tags of
$60, $20, and $10.95, in the three communities, respectively. That
ain't all shipping GST and exchange rate.
Whine mode off:
Walter
Edgar
"Walter Martindale" <wmar...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:4dd3aa3a-aab7-42eb...@j14g2000yqm.googlegroups.com...
> Thanks Sully,
See what I can find - also trying to do this on a pretty tight budget
and retail markup in NZ is FAR above the exchange rate compared to
retail in either Canada or the US so the glues, finishes, and chemical
strippers are all going to be used pretty sparingly. The replacement
bulkhead and bailer board are going to be laminates of something with
glass fibre between them for a little added toughness...
You mentioned something about this in your first post and it puzzled me
then.
Why are you in, effect, making your own plywood by laminating stuff together
instead of just getting an offcut of real marine plywood?
Walter Martindale
> "Walter Martindale" <wmart...@gmail.com> wrote in message
Hi Edgar,
No reason. Will look around Chch for a supplier and see what is
available.
Time's a bit precious at the moment though - I've laminated bits of
veneer together in the past to make patches for holed wooden boats, so
that's what came to mind.
Walter