Meet Callisto

[graemefindlay]

Hi there,

I’ve recently acquired a wooden Folkboat called Callisto that is ashore at Shamrock Quay.




These pics are from 2018 when she was prepared for sale by a previous owner.

Callisto is my first yacht and I’m new to wooden boat ownership, but not to sailing.

I will be on here asking many stupid questions, the first of which is this:

Would it be an error to patch paint?

I’ve seen a variety of opinions on whether to strip back or paint over existing top coats.

There are a couple of areas where the paint has bubbled, can I strip these areas back and focus on building the coats back up there?

I want to sail her asap

Cheers

Graeme

 

[Wansworth]

paint manufacturas produce phamflets covering all circumstances of their products use.from personal experience a good rub down with wet w
and dry and a top coat.there are fillers to patch up areas needing rebuilding.

 

[graemefindlay]

paint manufacturas produce phamflets covering all circumstances of their products use.from personal experience a good rub down with wet w
and dry and a top coat.there are fillers to patch up areas needing rebuilding.

Thanks for the heads up @Wansworth, I’ll look them up for some likely brands

 

[Tranona]

Welcome to the forum

No problem with patching, although you may well find with a boat that has been out of the water for that length of time more areas will reveal themselves. However if the paint appears sound and there is no cracking at the seams then rubbing back until you get a sound surface and refinishing is quite normal. If that sound surface is bare wood then primer, undercoat and top coat.

The 2 main suppliers of paints are International and Hempel and you will find both in any chandlers. If you use a single pot such as International Toplac they are usually compatible with other brands of existing paint, although the whites may not always match.

Wise to get sailing as soon as you can to find out about the boat and what needs doing longer term, but I guess your surveyor has already identified important issues to deal with before going into the water.

although this section of the forum is for boats like yours and you will see that threads are often about problems specific to wood, for general boat maintenance you might find it more fruitful to post on the Practical Boat Owner section as that has a wider membership of active contributors

 

[Motor Boat Man]

"There are a couple of areas where the paint has bubbled"

That would indicate there could be damp wood/trapped moisture behind the paint work or even worst wood going rotten, certainly would advise to sand back to bare wood to check and then repaint.

 

[graemefindlay]

"There are a couple of areas where the paint has bubbled"

That would indicate there could be damp wood/trapped moisture behind the paint work or even worst wood going rotten, certainly would advise to sand back to bare wood to check and then repaint.

ah, ok. I wasn’t sure what it meant but guessed it wasn’t good. The surveyor has sounded the whole hull and is happy that, although some of it is a bit damp, there’s no sign of rot, phew!

 

[Wansworth]

ah, ok. I wasn’t sure what it meant but guessed it wasn’t good. The surveyor has sounded the whole hull and is happy that, although some of it is a bit damp, there’s no sign of rot, phew!

Looks like a Fethambuilt boat?

 

[graemefindlay]

Looks like a Fethambuilt boat?

Medina Yacht Co apparently, though the only paperwork is from ‘97 onwards

 

[Black Diamond]

Welcome Graeme. Congratulations on your custodianship of a beautiful boat. You might want to connect with Jamie N, who is the forum fount of all things Folkboat

 

[graemefindlay]

Welcome Graeme. Congratulations on your custodianship of a beautiful boat. You might want to connect with Jamie N, who is the forum fount of all things Folkboat

I read on a recent thread that he is turning to the dark side, but I will still be tapping him up for knowledge!

 

[srm]

I read on a recent thread that he is turning to the dark side, but I will still be tapping him up for knowledge!

From something I just read he is also taking his FB home for an extended refit.

Congratulations on your first boat, I wish you many happy days with her.

 

[jlavery]

Lovely boat!

Im 95% certain she's the Callisto which was owned by one of my close friends in Emsworth for a few years. If so, looks like you've bought from the person he sold to. She was kept in Emsworth for a few years after he sold.

If this is the case, Nick Gates at Emsworth (wooden boat expert) would have worked on her, and may be able to give advice on upkeep and care.

 

[jamie N]

She really does look great, and as a 1st yacht it's great to start at the top. Where it was built is often able to be decided by the style of portholes/windows, as the yards had their own interpretation of what was right.
Would it be an error to patch paint?
I’ve seen a variety of opinions on whether to strip back or paint over existing top coats.
There are a couple of areas where the paint has bubbled, can I strip these areas back and focus on building the coats back up there?
For me, as long as there's nothing too critical that's visible, then she's probably not going to be adversely affected, so I'd sail her ASAP for a few reasons. Firstly to get to know her and line up what you want to do with her. For me I'd sail the summer, then during the winter strip her under a tarp, and address any wood issues that become obvious. I'm very biased towards having the hull varnished as that is how wood should be, not painted to look like something from the "dark side", but hey.....!
I don't know how long she's been out of the water, but it's quite likely that she'll pretend to want to sink for sometime as she takes up, assuming she's on land now, of course.
Do you have any other pics of her, and what engine does she have?

 

[Wansworth]

Avoid taking her out the water unless a repair needed.On drying piles inmanyharbours there is time between tides to get anti fouling on and even a quick topside rub down and paint.PersonallyIwould avoid two packs etc just regular enamel

 

[jlavery]

She is the boat I thought she was. First of all, congratulations and thank you for taking her on! Her 2018 owner (whose photos you posted above) had heard that she was destined to be scrapped.

She was very sound in his and the previous ownership, so hopefully still the case.

I believe there could be quite a thickness of hull paint, as they never took the paint back to planks in their custodianship.

 

[graemefindlay]

Lovely boat!

Im 95% certain she's the Callisto which was owned by one of my close friends in Emsworth for a few years. If so, looks like you've bought from the person he sold to. She was kept in Emsworth for a few years after he sold.

If this is the case, Nick Gates at Emsworth (wooden boat expert) would have worked on her, and may be able to give advice on upkeep and care.

Yep, the very same, I’ve got lots of evidence of her being well maintain at the Gates Yard.

It’s great to have such a history and I’ll be keeping her fairly local, but hopefully a little closer to Southsea.

The surveyor has given her an impressive valuation which I think is credit to the love and attention she had in the past

Do you know of the keelbolts were being regularly inspected? The only paperwork I have on it dates back to 1997 when she was called “trainset”

 

[graemefindlay]

She really does look great, and as a 1st yacht it's great to start at the top. Where it was built is often able to be decided by the style of portholes/windows, as the yards had their own interpretation of what was right.
Would it be an error to patch paint?
I’ve seen a variety of opinions on whether to strip back or paint over existing top coats.
There are a couple of areas where the paint has bubbled, can I strip these areas back and focus on building the coats back up there?
For me, as long as there's nothing too critical that's visible, then she's probably not going to be adversely affected, so I'd sail her ASAP for a few reasons. Firstly to get to know her and line up what you want to do with her. For me I'd sail the summer, then during the winter strip her under a tarp, and address any wood issues that become obvious. I'm very biased towards having the hull varnished as that is how wood should be, not painted to look like something from the "dark side", but hey.....!
I don't know how long she's been out of the water, but it's quite likely that she'll pretend to want to sink for sometime as she takes up, assuming she's on land now, of course.
Do you have any other pics of her, and what engine does she have?

Thanks, Jamie! Yes, she’s on land and I can see there’s quite a build up of hull paint on her at the moment, but I definitely want to get her back in the water asap, currently planned for 30 April which was the earliest date available from the Marina.

She’s only been out of the water since September so I’m hoping she’ll only pretend to sink a little bit…

I read in another thread that you had an active radar reflector on your fb, where/how did you have it mounted?

 

[graemefindlay]

Avoid taking her out the water unless a repair needed.On drying piles inmanyharbours there is time between tides to get anti fouling on and even a quick topside rub down and paint.PersonallyIwould avoid two packs etc just regular enamel

That will be the plan for future winters, unless large scale maintenance is planned

 

[jamie N]

I read in another thread that you had an active radar reflector on your fb, where/how did you have it mounted?

I've mounted mine vertically on the backstay. I thought that it would look too ugly at the top of the mast, even though that's the most efficient place for it in terms of visibility. This mounting position keeps it well clear of any obstructions, and avoids 'another' cable up the mast.
Being mounted here will give a 'ping' back to pretty much anything from about 7 miles, more of course for a larger vessel with a higher radar.
Once, sailing to Fair Isle in thick fog, the reflector indicated that 'something' was pinging me, and it didn't show up on my GX2200 AIS indicator as being within 10NM. Several minutes later the vessel appeared on my screen at 10NM, it was a fishing boat, a standard sized one, not a mega boat with a much higher radar.
The picture shows mine mounted at the backstay; the horizontal piece at the top of it is made from Polymorph to maintain it as vertical as possible as well as keeping it away from the backstay. The thing it 'stands' on is a piece of broom handle tyrapped to the 'V' of the backstay adjuster. Crude but trouble free. The cable was run down the adjuster, through a deck fitting and into the cabin, visible through a viewport.

 

[jlavery]

Yep, the very same, I’ve got lots of evidence of her being well maintain at the Gates Yard.

It’s great to have such a history and I’ll be keeping her fairly local, but hopefully a little closer to Southsea.

The surveyor has given her an impressive valuation which I think is credit to the love and attention she had in the past

Do you know of the keelbolts were being regularly inspected? The only paperwork I have on it dates back to 1997 when she was called “trainset”

I asked Simon and Guy, two consecutive previous owners, and it's a "No" on keelbolt inspection as far as they can remember. Simon did have "all the broken ribs replaced" by Nick!

Worth calling Nick to ask him, he's got a very good memory. Prepare for a long chat!