Saturday August 09, 2008

This is a great location to work. We still need to punch the windows in and pour a floor, but very pleasent.

The Pumpkin is quite amazing when one gets the boat back to bare wood you can see she is a tough little craft. The bad news is that there is a lot of work to get the boat usable again. It is not just ice and beating damage, there is quite a bit of "bad wood". You can see the more concertning areas in the center plank near the bow where there are holes through to inside. This can be patched, but removing planks would be very tricky.

First stage of repair inspection: http://cruising.ca/services/docs/dory.html

The bottom is now stripped and the bottom runners removed. With most of the paint is gone and the damage can be seen I am amazed at the strength of the Pumpkin, and am very pleased that the footrest braces we I installed last year, otherwise there would have been nothing but kindeling as the side really took a beating.

Perhaps the larger issue is that the soft pine has begun to deteriorate quite badley in a couple of places and I doubt with the damage that replacing planks on a lapstrake hull that has tapered overlaps is cost effective as to remove and replace a plank is almost more trouble than building the boat. At this stage with everything open, the wood needs to dry further and an inspection discussion would be worthwhile as a restoration repair is not practical.

I believe the only salvation for the Pumpkin is to use epoxy and a single layer of fiberglass cloth to sheath the underwater area. That is assuming whatever they used to prime the boat years ago does not react badley to the epoxy, the first test did not cause any unexpected reactions making the plan a good one. We will not know if it is good or no good until we do a wrong test patch (always before fully committed) to see how things react. It is still a big job with 3 gallons of Epoxy and many hours to do the job & cloth .

Friday August 8, 2008

Thursday May 15, 2008

Thursday provided us a window to retrieve the "Pumpkin" from it's perilous perch along the shore of Aldophos Reach. The damage was signifigant with a long gap stretching for nearly half the length of the chine with gaping spaces in the plank. You never quite know what you are going to need in a salvage operation to seal things up. This time 12" wide duct tape was jsut the right solution.

For now the dory is drying as everything is waterlogged and there will need to be a lot of epoxy in its future.

May 10, 2008

Last winter brought serious damage to the wonderful Pumpkin. Storms lashed the poor thing on the rocks smashing 40% of the bottom plank and multipule crack in the second plank. At this writing we have been unable to conduct a sucessful retrival rescue due to northerly windds that pile the waves on the shore. However for the moment the Pumpkin is safe and tied to a secure point on the shore above the wave line.

This nice little Banker dory is back for a complete refinish with some additional modifications which will make it easier to row, and row it does. Norm is a traditional east coast Acadian who gave me a hand when we hauled the boat out and as I watched someone who was familiar with the craft handle it the versatility was obvious. IT is no wonder that the owner loves the tender craft.

May 16, 2007

On Friday we finally got the Banker Dory home to a another satisfied customer. The more I see the orange the better I like it.

I finally got the truck and trailer sorted out and we delivered the dory on Friday afternoon. The owner is very happy and the reach has another interesting example of small craft.

Hi Robin,

Many thanks for the great work on the dory. I wasted no time in getting out for some quiet time (and quiet fishing) in the evening. Sure was nice.

Great color too!! one of my neighbours along the shore stopped me when I was out for a row and asked if I had bought another one!! He loved the color as well.

Pine being what it is, I certainly hope you can continue with the occasional winter reno job to keep me afloat going forward. A nice side effect of the contact with yourself is that I am now an avid reader of your site and its' blogs......quite interesting.

The footrests drop in two positions.

Saturday, April 28

This is pretty much the end for the delightfull pumpkin as I have named the Banker Dory. It will probably be later this week before I can deliver it as I am still waiting on the new oarlocks and keep picking away at final details when I am around working on my own stuff. The foot rests should work well and require no securing hardware.

Tuesday, April 25

It is paint time for this wonderful little craft with 3 coats of paint now finished and drying being the primary component of the work schedulo. All being equal we still plan a first week of May delivery. Long term I wish they would have used something other than pine which has a fairly short lifespan as I truly like he craft.

Tuesday, April 20

Wednesday, April 18

Everything went well yesterday with the exception that things are tasking forever to dry. I contacted the orange paint manufacturer and was told it could take weeks to dry if the weather stays this cold so I will run heat for at least the first 8 hours after painting. I am waiting for the clients approval on the grand pumpkin which I call the Chinese Orange and in fact hope he likes it, and it suits a working craft.

To the left are the primed hull and the first coat of green. to right is the outside of the plank I added a epoxy patch to inside and one of the knots that you can see the epoxy sealing dripping through, which is good.

Today I got a coat of primer on the entire exterior and the first coat of green on the parts for the foot rest. With a little luck the heat will have the primer dry enough for me to continue tomorrow.

Tuesday, April 17

This was very much crunch day as I have to be summarily finished by the weekend, although I could have to wait to the next weekend for the paint to dry. After next monday I have taken a construction gig rather than get too involved in boat repair as Rick has a bee in his bonnet and I have no wish to make him mad if I am not going to go full out in the repair business. Like it or not I am going to have to settle down to a couple more years of regular income before I can leave, unless...

• Install the new port side gunwale
• Epoxy composite mat/roving patch to questionable plank at bow
• Hand sand and prep interior #2
• Devise and fabricate adjustable footrest for rower
• Begin primer coat of the pumpkin

Attempting to mask the old orange proved tricky due to bleed through so an orange was called for. THis is a ICI Chinese Orange. The green I have chosen is somewhat lighter than the current trim as I try to brighten the boat up. Sitting in the shop it seems bright but on the water it will show up extremely well and hopefully keep the high speed boys from running you over.

Seen from left to right are the epoxy roving repair to starboard bow plank, the adjusting blocks for the footrest, the adjusting blocks with sa coat of primer, and the new gunwale.

Monday, April 16, 2007

In spite of the snow and rain Monday was a good day at the shop and I have the entire dory rough sanded and have most of the new construction roughed in. To begin with it is important to understand that the Banker Dory is true Nufie, the boat is built from ordinary pine and fastened with ordinary screws then painted with what appears to be house paint. The old orange tries extremely hard to bleed through new colors leaving me no choice but to return its colour to the great pumpkin, or Chinese orange as ICI calls it.

As I worked my way through the task I found the bottom plank on the starboard side, where it joins the stem has a huge knot that is begining to seperate which is an unexpected repair, yet must be done as once the knots start to pop out life could get exciting in a hurry. I got the footrest fitted for me and am pondering how to attach it to allow a bit of adjustment.

Late in the day I made a Belleville run to try to find a paint that would not bleed but gave up and had to go with another orange, this one a bit brighter as I think that if one is going to be a pumpkin you might as well be a pretty pumpkin.

For 2008 work [click here]

April 09

I had decided to wait to spring to start the job and have settled into the small shop which is quite a pleasant workshop with large double doors that open to almost a picture window so there is plenty of light. The low ceiling makes it easy to heat and to clean up the piles of dust I am creating.

It is time for maintenance as another year of having the wood unprotected would lead to long term problems. For readers at home this sanding and investigation process will go on for close to a week, then I begin to deal with all that appears after I get rid of old paint and calking. There are dozens and dozens of places the paint has been scraped off or dinged, knot holes are begining to dray out and will need epoxy and the original fairing all seems to be comming out.

Currently I have taken the outside of the port side down to where I can see all the small repairs that were hidden by the paint and am onto the bottom. There are so many places that the wood was unprotected I will be doing a bunch of priming before any colour. Whatever paint they used in Newfoundland it is extremely soft and takes lots of sandpaper which will frame the decision as to both what paint and what colour I paint it.

2005

When first looked at the dory was overhanging the water and no attempt was made to bring the boat further on shore due to the rough quote nature of the assignment at that stage. The transom had a clearly visible crack and and was separating. This report has been made with the authorization to replace the transom.

On Canada Day we returned and moved the dory fully up on shore and inspected the wood and problem in detail with awl and knife. The good news is the transom does not need replacing. One vertical transom panel has split somewhat, but the wood is solid and the planking is only 3/8" or 1/2" white pine. The entire transom is trying to pull apart worse at the bottom than the top. As the planking and transom wood is solid other than the crack at the top end the correct repair is defiantly option #2 repair.

To try to remove the transom would undoubted cause more damage than fixing it in place, the hull planks are quite thin and already have a longitudinal split or two. These splits are well above the waterline and would only cause a problem if you tried to remove them. The transom can be properly repaired in place.

The process is as described. First the join and interior wood of the transom must be stripped of all paint and old calking to bare clean wood. The hull will not pull together very much from where it has spread to now, so over clamping is not going to do a lot of good as this is pretty much the shape the boat will hold for the rest of its life.

The key to a lasting repair is to clean up the center join and crack and epoxy glue them (which pretty much lasts forever) both sides. Then to build a second cover transom out of "marine Okume or Brunzeel plywood@" which is multi directional, and will keep the transom from separating. It is important to note that proper marine grade plywood is an excellent boat building material and it will not come apart after a few years, 15+ is more like its minimal life.

There is some deterioration in one of the bottom planks where it joins with the stern but I believe that saturating it with epoxy, then a bit of epoxy filler should hold it for many years to come and stop any further deterioration.

As a final note we discovered a broken plank just below the oar lock which we will glue back in place.

Post Script: July 16, 2005

There is still paint to be applied but it was time for more extensive sea trials this weekend. The new inner transom sister is in place, epoxy glued and glued again, then caked. A quick trial found the transom repair was fine but there are other small leaks from the bottom planks forward which will be addressed in an other repair.