Restoring a small wooden yacht

Good luck to them,why not if you've got the time ,motivation and deep enough pockets!? For me tho,that ones a hard no!
 
Kind of a sad tale. Such a beautiful little boat obviously near the end of it's life. Of course it can be repaired and can sail again but what an effort and cost.
Now I don't know how determined and how skilled these ladies are but I suspect not many males would have the skills and incentive to do the job even less so females. Of course the answer lies with the 2 ladies and of course time will tell. I suspect the boat will end up taken to a place for repair and time will go by. I am thinking it will be a failure ultimately. But of course they may have a lot of fun in the mean time as well as heart break.

I think a GRP hull no matter how old the boat will be essentially a good hull and easily repaired. The systems and rigging still take a lot of effort and know how to keep up to scratch. GRP can stand a lot more neglect than wood but do not have the beauty of wood.

I have a fiend who bought a wooden long keel 22fter built in NZ and quite old. Beautifully restored with a new diesel engine. He is a ED doctor and has little mechanical skills let alone boat maintenance. I guess he is learning.
The years have gone by. He discovered that it needs antifoul every year and frequent scrubbing. Consequently it is a very bad sailor and with an offset propeller and long keel it is hard to maneuver. A boat bought with his heart and now just takes money with little sailing as reward. I have sailed it a bit and tried to help but really after my own very agile 21 fter I can not cope with poor sailing no matter how pretty.
Good luck to the ladies but Oh dear.... ol'will
 
Oh I like this. There will be so many different opinions and views on the subject.
Really it all comes down to what they and no one else wants to do. The refurb can be done in many ways too. It could be stripped and rebuilt or just remedial work. Depends what floats your boat!!
My Twister was a perfect example. She was perfect in my eyes. Her coachroof was solid. She was dry, smart and very very small areas of concern. The new owner felt different and has well taken her to pieces. Bulkheads out, roof off, there is nothing left.

It’s personal choice. There is no right way and the object is to make a boat safe to use. I hope they have fun which is what it’s all about.
Steveeasy
 
It wont end well, Lots of people will tell them to slather it in epoxy & the epoxy retailers will be rubbing their hands in glee.
The reality is that in double diagonal boats the rot travels between the skins from sheer to keel. If you want to uncover one plank on the inside you have to take half the outside ones off. Before long you have to rebuild the entire side. Every plank intersection has 5 rivets, one each corner & one in the middle. Thats a lot of rivets.
And if you think i am a naysayer talking cobblers, I have rebuilt a similar construction boat, a 28ft Saunders launch from 1905, She was triple skinned consuta sewn plywood. I did it because she was a stunning looking boat of considerable historic value. She was not suffering from dry rot but had considerable ice damage & was oil rotten below the waterline, in the end i replaced 80% of her planking & most other structural components including keel & stem. A 21ft yacht like that is a fools errand. Still they might make some money off you tube!
 
Keith 66 said:
……….If you want to uncover one plank on the inside you have to take half the outside ones off. Before long you have to rebuild the entire side. Every plank intersection has 5 rivets, one each corner & one in the middle. Thats a lot of rivets.
………
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Not sure that is entirely correct. You can grind out the roves associated with the offending plank (either inner or outer skin), knock out the nails and remove the plank. The nice thing about double diagonal is that the plank lengths are easy and light to handle (compared to either carvel or clinker on a biggish boat). Triple planking is a nightmare if the central set are rotten, then you have to remove a lot.
 
Hacker said:
Not sure that is entirely correct. You can grind out the roves associated with the offending plank (either inner or outer skin), knock out the nails and remove the plank. The nice thing about double diagonal is that the plank lengths are easy and light to handle (compared to either carvel or clinker on a biggish boat). Triple planking is a nightmare if the central set are rotten, then you have to remove a lot.
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If you want to remove an inside plank first you have to get at it. That means gutting everything out of the boat including any stringers & frames, bulkheads. If centreline structure is suspect you have to replace that too. Working from the inside piecemeal is always going to be a bodge. First one i was involved with was a 36ft harbour launch, Double diag, she went on the sea wall & knocked a hole in her side about 3ft round, by the time we had stripped the outer layer off & cut back the inner layer for repair the opened up section was over a third of the boats length.
You might say "Use short bits & use epoxy, Just as good". Unfortunately most old boats bilge timber is soaked in old oily bilge water & spilt sump oil & diesel. It is never possible to degrease it enough for epoxy to stick.
 
The comment I made was about the need to remove loads of inner planks to repair the outer skin. Thats a different issue with regard to removing internal structures to repair/get at inner planks. Thats a problem but also an issue with other construction types. I would always advocate using the longest planks possible. Whether to use epoxy in a double diagonal construction is an area of debate!
 
Usually you would work from the outside inwards. Ok the planks are light but the sheer number of fastenings & difficulty of getting at the inner layer always makes it a hard job. The worst diagonal boat i worked on was a 40ft Morgan giles motor yacht, It came up the slip leaking badly, we took the lining out of a shower heads compartment & it was riddled with dry rot. The previous owner had filled the bottom with Git rot epoxy which had done nothing to stop the spread, we cut loads out until the hole was 20ft long then replaced it. We needed to cut out far more as there was nothing sound to fasten to. The owner had run out of money & we needed it off the slip.
It sailed to Ramsgate in a winter gale & disapeared. The Southend lifeboat & helicopter from Manston were launched to search for it. The boat turned up anchored at Harty ferry but I will never forget the feeling of dread around the yard as we waited. The point is that in diagonal boats the rot has multiple pathways to spread along & will do so with speed.
 
William_H said:
Kind of a sad tale. Such a beautiful little boat obviously near the end of it's life. Of course it can be repaired and can sail again but what an effort and cost.
Now I don't know how determined and how skilled these ladies are but I suspect not many males would have the skills and incentive to do the job even less so females. Of course the answer lies with the 2 ladies and of course time will tell. I suspect the boat will end up taken to a place for repair and time will go by. I am thinking it will be a failure ultimately......ol'will
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There may be a man hidden somewhere, you never know. 😐 Still looks a tough ask.

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