Back to work after a short break and back in the thick of it.

Before the works break, we were working on renewing the iroko rubbing strakes on the Hardy Pilot 20. 

The old rubbing strakes behind the front part were completely rotten and so we were able to get old of the covering pieces which we are now taking a profile of so that we can make a new front piece to the same profile as the piece.

Using a profile gauge we are able to get the profile of the old piece and so make a pattern of this and use the pattern to make the new profile

Here is one of the back pieces getting planed to shape along its length as there is a curve along its length to mirror the sheerline of the boat where this attaches to the hull with bolts along its length.

Another job getting sorted is the repairs to the Westerly Centaur which came to us with the blade full of water and parts of the rudder in need of extra fibreglassing where it had become thin over the years when the boat dried out between high water on its mooring. 

 

Made a flying visit to harbour marine services to talk John Buckley the owner of the boatyard.

This is a 36ft. silverlette  currently at his boat yard.it ii 4 feet shortly than Chance. It,however, has many of same features on deck as Chance. A raised foredeck and a lower aft side and aft deck. 

Chance is in many ways similar to this James Silver. The largest difference being that Chance as a full size sailing rig not just steadying sails. The deck layout between the two boats is very similar in that they have both got the same number of deck hatches on both fore and aft decks in much the same position. 

The major other difference is that Chance has two sets of davits, one on the transom and the other set of davits on the port side along the aft cabin. From my research is was an option for the owner to have a tender for the crew and one for himself. The smaller tender to hang off the transom and the longer tender along the side. 

The other difference being that Chance has a bow davit for lifting the anchor onboard.

All these features will be refitted to Chance when the deck is relaid later in the restoration. In the meantime the work on the transom  will continue as we sort out the starboard side deck and the beam shelf and transon and rebuild these parts back they were build.

Port side wooden rail removed and the new wooden fender rails being marked out and cutting out the blanks

The port side is now cleared of the old wooden fender rail with all the old sealant removed 

Just have to compound the hull before getting the hull ready to fit the wooden fender rails 

Marking out the iroko plank ready to cut out the new wooden fender rails which will be planned and thickened to the correct thickness  

Cutting out the wood ready to get it shaped 

 

Getting back to hull and making a new wooden fender rail

The forward end of the wooden fender rail is a bit wet however, apart from that it appears to be in a sound condition and it need of some drying out before the new fender rail in then fitted back in place. 

Now all the old wooden fender rail is removed it is possible to gauge how to fit the new rail along the side of the hull.

Although it can not be seen very well there is a curve along the side of the hull which will have to be patterned out of plywood so that the new wooden fender rail fits along the underside of the blue stripe.

The curve can be seen better here and the next job is to make up a plywood pattern of th underside of the blue stripe and then cut out the new iroko rail.

 

Removing the old wooden fender rail off a Hardy Bosun

While doing other jobs as part of the refit on this Hardy Bosun the wooden fender rails were found to be rotten below the upper part of the wooden fender rail. So with careful use of wooden wedges it was able to remove the upper part of the wooden fender rail.

It came off in more or less one piece apart a few places along the lower edge where the glue was still holding the two parts together.

However, the lower part was rotten and full of water and just fell to pieces when removing it from the side of the hull.

The forward end of the wooden fender rail is wet however, apart from that it is still sound.