James Silver Western Isles TSMY Chance Restoration Project

 Chance is presently in a crane hire yard in Woodplumpton near Preston in Lancashire.

First day at the Chance was to take a good look around the boat and see how much work was going to be needed to make her sound to move her back to Walton on the Naze where my yard is situated.

The second visit to Chance was with my family and Brother John who helps removes the rubbish from the inside of the cabins. Loose Items, such as the Masts and Booms, which were placed under the boat on blocks to keep them off the ground and keep them straight and out of the weather.  

Other items such as cupboard / locker doors and drawers were removed and put in my works van to be transported back to my workshop to be put into storage until they are repaired or new doors and drawer are made where necessary.

Other rubbish which included old vacuum clearer and a number of other items which were removed so the floorboards could be accessed to take a look in the bilge areas of the hull to see what was in them and how much work was going to be needed to clear and sort out this area of the boat.

Then my brother and I put a partial cover over the back of the boat to keep the weather off the hole in the transom and over the aft cabin which is in a bit of a poor condition at present and a partial cover over the cockpit windows to keep the weather out of the cockpit area as well.

The next time I go up to Chance, I will start to make a set of temporary floor boards and remove the original floor boards, so that they can be cleaned up and remove all the dirt and oil which is covering them and the bilge at the present time. At the same time start to remove the panels in the sides of the forecabin and see what they are hiding behind them. Then turn our attention to the aft cabin and remove the aft cabin berth which is not the original berth when Chance was build

 

If we have time we will hope to remove the internal ballast which is the bilge area in the main and forecabin. Once the ballast weights are out of the way then the job of cleaning the forward end of the bilge can begin and see the extent of it condition.

The following time it will be the turn of the removing all the fore and aft lockers and cupboards so that we can access to the hull from the inside in all the cabins. Carefully taking measurements of all the parts we remove so that as much as is possible to refit can be refitted at a later date once the hull repairs are done and the hull is repainted on the inside with bilge paint in the bilge areas and white gloss in the areas which were painted that way when she was first built.