The major restoration of Chance (Token) James Silver Western Isles Motor sailer

The boat herself and also the interior cabinetry and the challenges this will bring along the way. In This video it is about repairing the parts that make up the Portside galley unit and also making up the pieces that are missing.We also take a look at the Lay out of Chance as she was originally commissioned and how we are going to restore Chance back to much the same way as Chance was originally laid out. The only major differences will be modern systems running throughout the boat, such as four bilge pumps and not just one with four different pipes connected to one pump. Modern electric lighting, although the lights will be original design to the period. Modern cooker and galley and a 240 volt system to run systems when along side in marinas. Most of the modern equipment will be running inside lockers or otherwise hidden away so much of the modern systems will not be seen.

 
The two pieces which make up the corner part of the galley unit now screwed back together. The new pieces glued on to the edges which were rotten are a good match to the original as the new pieces are the similar mahogany to the original.



The inside face shows the piece let in is not seen from the outside, however, it is a just what was needed to make it possible to screw the two pieces back together.



The worktop is now temporarily screwed to the corner pieces in order to see how much of the rest of the unit is missing and how much will have to be re-made to make the completed unit.



The original door for the galley unit which is in need of a bit of TLC to repair the split in the centre panel in the door. This is possible cursed by the fact the door panel as dried out and the wood as split.



The pieces which are missing are the top and bottom rails from the door opening and the side where the hinges are fixed too.

 
The way the galley top was originally fixed to the vertical panels was by screwing the top down into the panels with long screws into the end grain of the tops of the panels. This may well of been okay if you never were going to remove the galley unit at any time. However, the screws which held the top down to the panels were galvanized steel screws which rusted away over time. This made the top come away from the vertical panels. So in order for this not to happen again. We are going to glue and screw blocks to the underside of the top and screw and glue these blocks to the vertical panels so that the whole of the unit is one unit and not lots of smaller pieces which can fall apart.



The pieces of trim around the worktop appear to now be original as they are misshaped and not to the same standard you expect on a James A Silver build boat. So new trim pieces are going to be made and fitted when the unit is refitted in the boat as part of the galley area rebuild.



In this photo it shows that there is a lack of blocks which should be there to hold the several different parts of the galley unit together.



This part of the galley unit is a bit odd as with other parts of the interior cabinetry this does not have any mortise and tenon joints to hold the different parts of the unit together. We will biscuit joint this piece in order to keep it together and not move out of position in future.



The same with this part on the underside of the worktop .

 
These updates are of the restoration of Chance our James Silver Western Isles Motorsailer, now that we have Chance at Titchmarsh Marina in Walton on the Naze Essex. In this video we show what work we have been doing on the doors and hatches which were removed from Chance earlier in her restoration. Now we have room in Simon's workshop to lay them out and varnish them. We are taking the opportunity to do this work while it is not possible to work on Chance down at Titchmarsh Marina. The doors and hatches are getting their first coats of thinned varnish s we build up the layers of Varnish until they are at a stage where they will be ready for fitting and getting their final finishing coats once the rest of the cabinetry is finish and put back in the boat when the hull repairs are finished and the inside of the hull is painted or varnished depending on where in the boat the pieces are fitted.

 
These updates are of the restoration of Chance our James Silver Western Isles Motorsailer, now that we have Chance at Titchmarsh Marina in Walton on the Naze Essex. Now that it has stopped raining for most of the last few days and the wind has died down as well, It seemed a good time to go round to Titchmarsh marina and check on Chance and see if the cover was still in place and Chance had weathered the last few days okay. Chance appeared to be none the worse for weather and the cover was still in place. I had a good check on the props under the boat to ensure she had not moved in the wind. It would be unlikely that Chance would move as Chance weights even empty as she is the best part of 9 tons and seeing as Chance is behind a high bank and surrounded on most sides by boats and other things seh is well protected from most strong winds. Now that the days are getting longer again and hopefully the temperature will start to raise we may well be able to get back on working on Chance again shortly, in the meantime more elbow grease and sandpaper and varnish as we get the doors and hatches varnished.
 
Putting out all but a few of the doors and hatches off Chance.



Putting out a spare sheet of plywood which we turned into a varnishing table we were able to lay out as many of the hatches and doors off Chance in one place.



The first of the build up coats of varnish which will take a while to varnish all of them to a number of coats needed to make them ready for the final coats need the end of the restoration project.



The main cabin lifting panels with the two doors from the starboard side galley unit behind and above the sink on the starboard side.



The starboard side galley unit front which needs a bit of cleaning up to remove the glue and fill in the old sink tap holes.



The port side galley top which is going to be reused as there is nothing wrong with it apart from needing a new front and ends trims which need renewing as they are not the correct profile.



The two doors which were fitted under the settee in the main cabin. The locker front will have to be rebuild as it was in a poor condition when it was removed.



The two doors from the starboard main cabin cupboard, again the framework was in a poor condition when it came out of Chance, we were able to saved the doors and part of the framework, however, we will have to make a new framework from part of the original and partly from new mahogany of a similar type to the original.



Doors from other parts of the inside of cabins were there are just one door and not a pair like there is in other parts of the interior.



One door that is in need of the centre panel which needs gluing of a split from the top of the centre panel to the bottom.

 
Here are just a few parts that have been varnished over the past few weeks with still a lot more to come in the coming weeks and months ahead

This first photo is of the port side galley doors which have to have a new framework making for them to sit in and the put back in place on the boat once the bulkheads are repaired and re-varnished.



The port side door for the portside lower galley unit.



The top strips for thew butterfly hatches for the rails to go in to stop people from putting their foot through the butterfly hatch glass and the top cover panels for the aft hatch and the wedges to keep the aft hatch open for ventilation.





The upper part of the starboard galley unit which needs to be varnished and a little bit of repair work done to the ends.



The starboard main cabin wine locker door at the forward end of the starboard sideboard front which is being repaired over the next few weeks.



The port side lower galley unit front and one of the many drawers we have repaired and have varnished the front panel



The main cabin door, this will be refitted once the cockpit bulkheads are stripped and revarnished.



The starboard side galley unit front panel now varnished very likely to cover the two holes with a wooden vent cover to keep the locker airy and dry.



The bottom panel for the starboard side sideboard in the main cabin



The upper panel for the port side galley locker which is in need of a bit of TLC and then varnishing like the rest of the interior woodwork



The starboard side main cabin doors and the starboard side galley unit doors.



The two parts of the Baby Blake toilet which we are restoring. A new Baby Blake toilet is now costing £5500.00 so we are going to restore the one we have.



Another set of galley doors

 
The two doors for the port side settee and the worktop for the port side galley unit



The two navigation light holders have been varnished on the other side and now are ready to be painted green and red before the navigation lights are refitted on these holder and then the holders mounted on the wheelhouse roof.



The butterfly hatches now ready have the new glass fitted in and then the quadrants made up and then finish off the varnishing of them later.





The main top hatch into the main cabin from the cockpit



The other two drawers we repaired and now been varnished.

 

After what feels like an eternity we are back at Chance once again and starting to make plans on what to tackle first and how best to make it happen. As you will see in the video the starboard side of the transom is well out of shape to the intact port side of the transom. So the best job to do first will be to tackle making patterns of the correct shaped port side and make up a set of frames to mirror the port side frames and then move the starboard side of the hull to the same correct shape as the port side as we know that the port side as never been messed about with in the same way the starboard side was over the years and a number of poorly done repairs have left the starboard side in once hell of a state to say the least which we are going to put right over the course of the summer and get the starboard side and the transom rebuild
 

Day 2 of finally working on Chance, as seen Simon start to remove a couple of rotten planks on the starboard bow. These had come to light when removing the paint on the inside of the hull in the forecabin. Simon also found that three of the ribs in the forecabin are also rotten and will have to be removed and renewed before any planks can go back in place. In order to do these ribs Simon is going to have to remove the foredeck covering board on the starboard bow section of Chance's foredeck. While Simon was looking at the the ribs he found that the beam shelf is rotten in that part of the boat and so the covering board is going to have to be removed as far back as the cockpit . So that will be Simon's next job, to remove the covering board and expose the beam shelf and also the tops of the ribs so that the new ribs can be put in from the top. So the fun is just starting and Simon is going to have his hands full for a few weeks to come.
 
justanothersailboat said:
Wow, that's a monster job. Good luck and fingers crossed for no more rot discoveries.
Click to expand...
There are no more that I do not know about. The ones there are should make interesting replacements as they have a lot of twist in the length, because they are on the flared part of the bows at the deck to hull area. so a lot of steaming to come when putting these planks in.
 
The aft cabin hatch now repaired and getting its first coats of varnish in over 20 plus years that I know of. This will be the way the exterior of the boat will look from now on, Varnished very part above the deck level and the hull be painted white

Before the hatches restoration
20230117_160119.jpg


After and now it is varnished once more and the way it will stay from now on.
20250420_093906.jpg


The two photos now are of the cockpit hatch which as been completely rebuild by one of the restoration team members and carefully rebuilding the hatch in the same method that was used almost eighty years ago when it was made at James A Silver boatyard at Rosneath.
20250420_093758.jpg



20250420_093817.jpg
 
The Chance Restoration mascot out on his travels and getting married while he was in the North Yorkshire and visiting RNLI stations in the area.
Long John Silver out on his travels with his friends Albert(RNLB Helen Wycherley's owners) coffee mug.



While his was at the Zetland Lifeboat museum, Long John Silver met his new wife to be Fran. Tricia acting as a chaperone



Then Simon the father of the groom had his photo taken to make it a family photo.



The happy couple having their first photo together as newly married couple


The best man and the bridesmaid



The group photo of the wedding party at Scarborough Lifeboat station.

 
The first two photos are of the condition of the starboard side locker fronts were before they were removed from Chance's main cabin at the beginning of the restoration when we were removing as much as possible to lighten Chance for her delivery home to Essex.



You can see that the interior was in a tried condition and the varnish work had lost a lot of its shine.



Fast forward three years and with a lot of pain-taking work and remaking broken or missing or rotten parts we have been able to rebuild much of what was lost over time.

This bit was the hanging locker front at the aft end of the main cabin to hang your foul weather clothes.



Here is complete starboard side locker front now rebuild and ready for the restoration team to do their magic with the varnish brushes and give the complete frontage its many coat of varnish, so it will be ready to refi when the rest of the major hull repairs are done.



This photo shows the hanging locker door sitting in the opening to show how much as been done so far. The Other doos which make up the fronts are currently in the varnish area getting their further coats to bring them up to the same level as the rest of the varnished parts we have already done and put away in storage for the time being.



The aft cabin hatch now repaired and getting its first coats of varnish in over 20 plus years that I know of. This will be the way the exterior of the boat will look from now on, Varnished very part above the deck level and the hull be painted white
 
Long John Silver out on his travels with his friends Albert(RNLB Helen Wycherley's owners) coffee mug.



While his was at the Zetland Lifeboat museum, Long John Silver met his new wife to be Fran. Tricia acting as a chaperone



Then Simon the father of the groom had his photo taken to make it a family photo.

 
That is the plan now much of the interior cabinets and licker fronts are repaired and now the work can start o. The hull and deck. It had been a long road so far as we have been self funding and working round our jobs and family commitments
 
Always a joy to drop in here and see the progress you are making.

Excellent work, looking forward to seeing work on the hull and deck.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top