How cool is this?

Lights! No excuses now for not working at night?

Still happy with my Concordia!

Picture taken by Christian Rasmussen during our annual Swift Solo Regatta on Greers Ferry Lake.

Hanging lockers next in the sites . . .

Heads Up! Heads Out!

The bulkheads to the head are finally removed and she's starting to look like a 6M yacht. That is a thought?

Working on sheer plank

Sheer plank being removed. It was 23' long and nearly every fastener was corroded which made removing a pleasant surprise.

A Star is ReBorn

A little sanding brought out years of color schemes - sort of like a butterfly being reborn.

Deconstruction Continues . . .

I changed my plan a little to forestall finishing inside to remove toe rail, covering board and sheer plank to access conditions of ribs. The main cabin, head and forward cabin are close to being removed. Lockers are still present to starboard as well as bulkheads on port. Present plan is to have everything forward of galley striped inside and than have covering boards/toe rail and one or two planks removed. This should set me up for replacing ribs from galley on forward.

Notice the surgical cloth tape that was placed on the top edge of the sheer plank. It was tacked periodically as well.




How many tools does it take to perform surgery on this thing?

Dethroned!

Not much salvagable in here except the design. The wash basin was about as basic as I've seen. The sink was actually a metal pan with no drain. It had a slide in draw aft with the water forward next to the toilet.

Starting to Look Like a Boatshop

With enough room, is there ever enough?, and a plan, I can visualize this place getting organized! Just to the left of the nutshell pram is my shelving setup for the dismantling of the boat. Each shelf has a different section of the boat (e.g. bottom - port main cabin, second - starboard main cabin, third - bow section). Yes, that is where I am at with progress getting to the bare hull. Head and lockers next.

Under the pram - drying douglas fir, over - all the rigging. Heading back from the pram will be all the wood in the garage to get that cleaned out so wiring can be finished, insulated and than sheathed. Upstairs in the loft I plan to have a small office and than a finishing room for all the varnishing that no doubt will follow.

As you can see, there is a nice set of stairs up to the boat from the garage as well as down to the boatshop floor. After taking a dive Friday stepping off the deck unto a two foot step ladder and having the ladder kick out and hitting the ground, the steps moved up in priority.

I also have a few more tools like the cyclone dust collection and a bandsaw. The dust collector is a little high to get a straight run of the ducts above the ceiling rafters. Next step is ducting to the various tools and then there will be no excuse for a dusty shop. I also have ample counter shop space with a 4' x 8' outfeed table/bench for the table saw as well as along the wall. My plan is to have the storage under the cabinets on rollers to be able to move them about to where I'm working. They will also be catagorized by type: Epoxy stuff, chisels, planes, sharpening, ...

Ballast is Free!!!

Today marked a milestone, at least for me, with the freeing of the ballast. I resorted to grinding the three remaining bolt heads in the area of the head. After lowering the cradle a half inch and a couple of pounds on the bolts, she let go. Then a lot of slow cautious incremental steps yielded a free ballast.

Oliver Jones and Rob

Met with Oliver in March of '08 when I drove up to Connecticut to pick up boat stuff prior to having her shipped to Arkansas.

Main Cabin Inventory - Port

A little look at the pile of joinery, bunk and tank removed from the port side of the main cabin. Everything is marked, notes taken and pictures. It will be stored on it's own shelf and be ready to be used for patterns in the years ahead.

Douglas Fir Arrives

Lumber finally arrives from Fork, Washington for the future laminated frames. It took longer to get from Little Rock to Clinton (70 miles) than it did to get to Arkansas. It had arrived on Sunday night into Little Rock. I was heading out of town for the week on Monday so I called to make arrangements to have it delivered to a lumberyard in town. Or so I thought. A week and a half later - it arrived. Silly people.

ICE STORM - JANUARY 27, 2009

Click to Enlarge:

The beautiful sunrise after a nice ice storm in Arkansas.

The pups don't seem to mind the new ice and snow though they did spend the night in bed with us. They came in covered in ice. How does this relate to the restoration? I choose not to burn any of the boat and was out in the boat shop gathering wood scraps prior to the sunrise to get the woodstove burning. To grind the coffee I had to get the truck and use the inverter to power up the grinder.

Ballast Cradle

This is constructed of 5" pipe. Might be over the top in strength but it was scrap from the welding up of cattle guards at entrances to farms. Half the bolts have been cut off but I seem to need something longer than 12" to get to the middle section of the keel. More pictures when dropped. Oh, the lower most pipe is there for a roller.

Side Walls

Side walls are a polycarbonate product called "Sunsky" by Palmar.



















It was inspired by a trip to see the Coronett in Newport this past summer. Goes up like metal siding. They ran about $70 a sheet for a 3' x 12' section. The biggest issue I think will be the south wall in the summer. I did include 8 opening sky lights as well as vent ridge. The side walls have good space between the ground, increasing with slope. I am placing metal siding on the inside along this base to keep direct wind and weather out with the added advantage to keep air circulating. I anticipate it to function much like the ceiling in the boat or the way a tipi liner would work.

YEAR IN REVIEW - 2008

Boat purchased in December of 2007. Thank you Lynette!
Visited boat in March in Lyme, CT-returned with mizzen mast, booms (3) and a truck load of sails, rigging, etc.
Leigh Smith, friend from Portsmouth, N.H., helps Richard Fewtrell, boatwright in Lyme, get boat ready for shipping.
Worked on pad behind garage.
Boat arrived in May.
No boat stands and driver wouldn't attempt delivery to property.
Boat interims in old WalMart parking lot.
Built cradle.
Rebuilt cradle on borrowed trailer.
Boat gets delivered without incidence.

Built a 26' x 45' boat shed over boat-mostly by myself with some help from farm hand.

Mario built a cradle for ballast with 5" pipe.

Started dismantling the port main cabin the last few days of December.

Also started collecting some new bigger tools like a bandsaw, dust collection, drill press . . .

Looking forward to 2009.

Main Cabin Deconstruction - Port

And the disassembling begins...

The port side of the main cabin has been stripped of all joinery. The upper ceiling was in poor condition due to rain water entering opened port hole, on and off for 16 years+. Good for patterns though. Below the bilge stringer, mahogany ceiling in near perfect condition. Water no doubt was impeded by the bilge stringer and continued down inside of hull instead.

What is totally inspiring is the condition of the planking. No visible sign of any aging. In the daylight, only a few seams have a tad of visible light.

Doing my best with documenting. My present scheme is taking notes, drawing pictures where necessary, bundling up pieces by taping together, writing on back of pieces, collecting fasteners in ziploc bags with notes and eventually storing on its separate shelf to be reassembled when the structure is all restored. And pictures ... These were taken with my iPhone. Decent quality though I have better cameras.

View From the Deck