Lapstrake 16.5' Cedar Rowing Skiff

Welcome to the rebuild records of the 1925 Cedar Skiff own by Mr. & Mrs. Kenemy of Thornhill Ontario. The boat is good enough that without trying to replace the few cracked planks it should be quite possible to do a proper repair and refinish.

Like every wooden boat project you never see the full scope of the task at the begining. When I look back to the There ended up being over 300 hours spent on the craft probably half of the time spent hand sanding the hull with long blocks. I chose to try to make all repairs with backing blocks the same size as the plank minimizing their appearance. Sisters or new frames were constructed with approximately 7 layers of oak bent and laminated in place. The repairs took roughly 1/3 of the overall time with close to 200 hours of sanding. All the sanding there is a very narrow window as the planks are only 3/8" thick a fact that encouraged me to use epoxy/fiberglass tape in two areas of the bottom on particularly worrisome cracks.

Coatings:

The entire boat is Pre-Coated with East System Epoxy with thin coats first and a minimum of 3 coats most getting 4 or 5 coats of epoxy. REpairs to any structural area\s are standard wood epoxy procedures.

Clear Top Coat is made by Endura Manufacturing of Edmonton and is available in Toronto from Smithcraft Fiberglass Supply on Islington and the Queensway, or Fiberglass Supply on Timberlake in the Industrial area west of Dixie Road. IF you ever have to repair the Endura remember NOT TO try to use high speed sanding tools as the coating will become plasticy if there is too much friction. Hand sand the area with a long block down to at least 220 grit and re-coat.

The cream is Interlux Brightside Polyurethane Hatteras Off-White 4208

Please remember the most recent entries will be at the top of the page. As you go down the page you go back in time. There are large images if you click the thumbnail, as you can not see the detail of the wood condition in the thumbnail images that well. The newest entries are at the top of the page and they get older as you go down. For a itemized plank by plank repair chart [go here].

And it rows absolutely marvelously!

First a look at the finished job:

Friday, August 24

This is Cedar Skiff delivery day! Things went as planned and Wilf picked up the lovley craft early afternoon.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Monday, August 13, 2007

Two or three days of good weather. I will go back at a couple of pesky places that did not pass inspection and assemble the floorboards.

The day went well and I got a productive 8 hours in. I believe that I have all the touch up done and the floor is almost finished. I had to make a support frame for towing as the tie downs wanted to crush the boat at the gunwales, so a custom towing frame was required. I also made a footrest that will fit the floorboards. Both the frame and footrest now have two layers of epoxy pre-coat. I will have to wait until tomorrow for little machining session with the brass rub rail.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Sunday was also a day of figuring out how to make the floorboards removable in two sections of four planks, one side per section. After considerable sourcing I finally found a dock molding that I think will work at Quinte Docks. Other than cutting the section in half there was not much to do to prepare it for its role as a flex frame. It is a game, but once you get the floorboards in position it will be possible to remove them by sliding the floorboard section aft and up. The soft dome section will act as a cushion between the floor boards and the hull, lying against the force side of the frame to provide holding fore and aft. The only question that remains is fastening them. At the moment I am using rivets with washers but am considering going to bolts and Nylock.

The excitement of the launch subsided and Sunday was time for that last critical walk around as this is my last chance to touch up any coatings. So it for a short time Sunday PM I pulled her out and did the judging pass. I will spend hours that are not "on the clock" like this before any hand over. If I have missed something I consider it my duty to find it before someone else does.

I wish the supplied oar lock backing blocks would have been a bit deeper as the outside edge of the block comes a little too close to the outside edge for my liking. On the other hand there is quite a bit of beef there and the only direction of force that would matter would be if you forced the top of the oar into the boat. However if there is any stress that concerned me in the tow and launch it was cinching down the tie downs as you have to watch very carefully not to pull the gunwales of the craft together. I have not a doubt in the world that a person could easily exert enough force with a Canadian Tire ratchet tie down to break the boat. One of my first tasks today will be to fashion a spreader bar for towing. the bar must span the exact distance between the gunwales keeping everything in position when secured for towing.

A history of Robin and Endura Coatings.

I know what show judges look for in a paint job, and sprayed and rubbed lacquer is pretty the call. But this is Endura Clear not multiple coat varnish or a lacquer. The stuff is not like any paint most of you will have used. In 1981 I restored a wooden Dickerson 32 ketch using Endura coatings. Belle Argo gave way to Prisim One and the Belle went through 7 years of what I would call neglectful owners. One day seven years later I had a chance to look at the boat and the only places where the clear coatings on the rub rails was damaged was where lines had rubbed through and the wood not re coated. So I give people the choice and most will go for the long life, not varnish smooth coatings instead of spending hours every year with a varnish can.

And it rows absolutely marvelously!

Friday, August 10, 2007

14:45 EDT, Wednesday, August 8, 2007

We have been waiting days for the weather to cooperate with lower humidity and now we have 62% humidity and still dropping with 29C temperature. The farmer is cutting the clover field and the air is sweet with its sent. The time is here for the “KEY FINAL COATS” of both the Endura two part Clear on the hull, and the Brightside Polyurethane Hatteras Off-White 4208 on the inside. It will all be quite a dance as we will flip the boat after doing the interior and go straight to the Endura. The whole event will be done in 3 or 4 hours culminating over 260 hours of work leading to this moment.

It is a little after 18:00 now and we just finished painting the inside. Now we will flip her and have a go at the the hulls final Endura clear coat. Once we finish I will drop Chris at the train before returning to open the shop up for a couple of hours as it appears that doing so is one of the tricks of this shop as it keeps the humidity from rising when the temperature drops at dark. It is a good day. I found the brass ˝ round molding for the bow and stern.

One of the job’s criteria is mounting the floorboards in order that they be removable as a unit. This made answer two of the jig saw puzzle today. With a little luck I can pick up the garage door weather-strip tonight which will let me get on with that tomorrow. I have decided to use to mount the floorboards on this rubber extrusion which is is absolutely perfect, all nicely designed with a mounting flange and a compression bumper. Once mounted upside down it will grip the frames and keep the floorboards from moving while remaining easy to clean.

Monday, August 7

Now we enter the final dance phase of the Cedar Skiff project and as any custom car builder will tell you it will be all about the details that make or break the job.

The seat for the skiff is now got a first coat of epoxy pre-coat.

I have stopped worrying about how the boat will work as I have seen enough to guarantee she will be a sweet row. Our plan is to pick away over the weekend doing the various final painting's dependant on the weather. Its all fussy now, you would be amazed how hard it is to try to match the wood colour's on the new knee. Look at it one way and it is too dark, look at it the other way and it is too light. sounds impossible, it's true. An optical illusion, but true. So the new oak knee will in fact be two tone, dark as seen from the stern, light as seen from the bow. Not that it will be noticable as that is the reason for the chase of the match.

Small craft wind warning in effect.. Wind southwest 15 to 20 knots veering to west 15 this morning then increasing to northwest 20 this evening. Scattered showers or thunderstorms with risk of a severe thunderstorm ending this morning.

Progress: There is rain forecast and the humidity is high this morning and everything depends on having the surfaces ready to go when the conditions are right. That is the key to this 2 part paint, wait for weather to do clear coat and the second Brightside white.

The new outside runners and keel on the bottom are dry fit and I have decided to forgo launching until the coatings are all complete. I have decided not to clear coat the keel and runners, but to put another coat of epoxy (3 in total) on as the epoxy is tougher and far easier to patch where it to be scraped loading.

Launch: We have been in and out of the boat dozens and dozens of times now and there is no sign of anything stressing or moving and there is absolutely no question that it will float. I do not want to take a chance of any trapped moisture now we are into the final strokes.

To the right is the questioned hardware that I am talking about. What to do with them is still unresolved as I am certain that one can get nice bronze oarlocks, but the bow fair lead is unique. I am going to ask around as to who is a antique "plater" and see if they have any ideas.

Hardware Issues: I have the oar locks and hardware stripped, but it is not brass or bronze, but a fairly rough casting. At this moment I can't decide on what the finish will be as there is nothing to polish. It might be possible to send them to a plating shop, but even that depends on the exact type of metal. Half round brass: What was left of the half round strip of brass that wrapped along the leading edge of the bow and trailing edge of the stern is nothing more than a guide as to what the material looked like. The trick is getting another 6’ of it or something similar to act as this strip. To date I have not found any and making it a bit pricey.

Thursday, August 2

This is it the dog days of summer. It is only 14:00 EDT and the temperature has already passed the forecast 34C. Today we will see how much epoxy the cedar drank up of coat 1. This wood is so dry it is like pouring water on a sponge to where at this stage the boat has used 2 full gallon mixes and we will just make it. Today we progress on with building new stuff as we approach the aft seat start to put the bottom together.

We set the trailer up for the skiff and paused for a few outdoor progress pictures without clutter in the background.

As the afternoon progressed we got the new chine stringers, keels, longitudinal, please excuse me if I lack the exact term.The main point is they are dry fitted and I just have to find another 24 #10 by 2.5" stainless bolts as I am not that much of a traditionalist. If there is going to be stress and the bolt is hidden I will go width stainless steel over brass any day.

The final indignity of the day is that after stripping the oar locks are NOT brass or bronze, but fairly nasty metal.

Wednesday, August 1

By the time was all said in done it too 18 hours to finish the shear, repair the seat and get a first epoxy Pre-Coat down on the top-most part of the skiff. The camera died Wednesday so the pictures are from Thursday AM. But look at what is happening now!!! The battery on the camera died and I have no Internet at the shop so it will be this PM before I can get pictures of the boat with the shear and seats in the first pre-coat. It takes the wood a nice darkish warm brown and looks fabulous against the Hatteras.

Tuesday, July 31

I keep thinking of the finishing touches to the lady as it all starts to come together. Now I am favoring a very light touch of Muskoka Art in the form of painting rather than carving. On the other hand we have not seen what the floorboards will look like when we fasten the frames to them.

Sometimes you can't win. I must admit that the sanding time I had spent under the shear strake was inadequate once we got serious about the final finish coating. Chris spent 9 full hours cleaning up under the bulwarks and in the underside space in the shear.

I did the cedar hunt for the aft seat and floorboard frames. I cannot believe how hard it is to find good boat wood. Then to have bought wood as clear cedar I would have been paying $30.00 per 1X6 by 8'. Almost 45 minutes later and virtually the entire pallet sorted through I managed to find planks that will work quite nicely once finished up for $9.00 per plank.

The craft is begining to really come together! Picture to the right is Monday July, 30.

Sunday, July 29

From here on it is all about finish!

Friday, July 27, 2007

Thursday, July 26, 2007

This is it! Third Epoxy Pre-Coat ready for Endura Clear coat #1

It may seem days and it is since the last update. This was the week of the final sanding and it went on forever. The final Epoxy Pre-Coat went down perfectly and lay gleaming for inspection on our arrival at the shop.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

I expect the same climate pattern to hold true so if we progresses according to plan by noon it will be back in the mid 60% range. There is still several hours of final 600 grit fine sanding before we Endura clear coat. The hull is looking amazingly true for being 70 odd years old proving the value of the tedious block sanding. You can watch the reflections of the trailer in the boat and it is like looking in a mirror.

Overnight the humidity has crept back up to 90% which is deep in no-no territory for final coatings so we waited to 60% and 13:00 EDT to lay the final coat and then hung around doing small jobs for a full two hours with the doors open. When we came back later in the evening all was set and looked 100%.

July 22, 2007

July 21, 2007

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Now she is starting to look like the proper lady. To date I have spent 108.5 hours on the project. I expect to keep Chris for another 4 days as I go through the finish hand sanding. Currently the Pre-Coat is ready for wet sanding as the preliminary step to the first coat of Endura clear. The floor is now ready for paint and tomorrow the boat will get flipped back right side up. By week end the boat will be starting to come together.

The next question that I need an answer for is the aft seat which will get built this week. We were kicking around the idea of using 2” Cedar slats, or perhaps a solid seat & back with a carving.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

The rain has let up but the wind is back and it is only in the low 20'sC

I went in at the crack of dawn to sand out any areas of the pre-coat that required further fairing and spent a couple of hours picking away at the final course areas that mainly existed around the old scarfs. In the end I managed to avoid using any filler at all in all but two scarfs leaving the bottom looking pure.

The floorboards are 10 minutes sanding from the first coat of colour and by week end there are going to be major advancements. With a satisfactory Pre-Coat to the entire hull it is time Monday to flip the boat back over and complete the final repairs to the shear and seats.

The finish of the wooden hull is beginning to become quite something as even the fiberglass repairs on planks 3 & 4 have all but disappeared. Check out the large image of the fiberglass repair to the right.

• Fabricate new chine logs from supplied 1”X0.75” oak and dry bolt in place with 10x32 & Nylock SS.
• Finish prep on keel and Pre-Coat
• Dry fit keel with hardware 0.25 SS & Nylock
• Epoxy shear repairs in place
• Sand out and Pre-Coat oar lock oak inserts
• Sand out and pre-coat new seat knee then install
• Sand out and Pre-Coat mid and fo reward seats
• Build new aft seat and seat back (with 2” cedar slats), Pre-Coat –
• Floor boards final light sand and first Hatteras Off-White 4208 Brightside
• 180 blocks & sand out of exterior shear colour, second coat Hatteras Off-White 4208
• Full sand out of exterior and first coat of Endura Clear paint

The weather says it all. Mostly the AM has been Ok with severe thunderstorms developing in the afternoon. Thursday was a hard press with getting the sand out completed on the Pre-Coat of the hull. There is no substitute for hand sanding with a long body plane.

Cedar Skiff: Saturday, July 14, 2007

100% of exterior bottom sanded out & pre-coated, shear repairs made, more keel work, and a second coat of primer on the floor

Marine Forecast issued for Lake Ontario. Issued: 10.30 AM EDT Thursday 12 July 2007 for the period ending at 10.30 AM Friday with an outlook for the following 24 hours. Forecast: ..Small craft wind warning in effect.. Wind southwest 10 knots increasing to 20 this afternoon then diminishing to 15 this evening. Isolated showers and chance of a thunderstorm developing this afternoon and ending this evening. Waves less than 1 metre building to near 1 this afternoon. Outlook..Moderate southwesterlies veering to westerlies then backing to southwesterlies.

Thursday (12 hours) and Friday were big days with a lot of progress. The fiberglass tape repairs to three bottom planks midships were sanded out

Cedar Skiff: Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Things are in high gear now with two of us working on the skiff logging 10 or 12 hours a day. The floorboards have an epoxy pre-coat and 2 coats of Epoxy Primercoat now. We now have the port side repaired and pre-coated, with perhaps 40% of the starboard done before we ran out of chemicals at 18:30. Now with the shear in its final colour the boat is starting to look PRETTY.

There are 3 bottom planks that made me nervous enough that even with the backing blocks inside I relented and added a strip of 2" epoxy/fiberglass tape to the exterior. As it is planks 3 & 4 they will be right at the waterline if not below and the planks are very fragile and I would prefer the baby to be usable for years, remembering this is a "repair" not a "restoration". You can see the F/G tape marked by the arrows.

There are numerous ding, gouges, cracks and divot's in the hull that have to be dealt with. Someone has obviously tried to clean up the scarfs. But, not bad for a 70 year old boat.

Cedar Skiff: Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Now we begin to see changes in much more rapid succession. The first coat of primer is sanded out and the second coat will be dry this afternoon and we will flip the boat to begin to address the exterior issues. The floorboards have been pre-coated ready for Epoxy Primercoat.

Cedar Skiff: Saturday, July 7, 2007

There is nothing like sanding out green epoxy for a workout. However all done, prep washed with 202, and the first coat of Interlux Epoxy Primercoat applied.

Sanded out pre coat wiped off with 2 202 cleaner.

Cedar Skiff: Friday, July 6, 2007

The day arrived with much more promise than yesterday. I have the forward half of the interior pre-coated and the humidity is holding off nicely which makes me happy. It looks like there is going to be good weather on the weekend so I plan to put the first coat of Interlux Epoxy Primercoat down Saturday AM when conditions are forecast to be good.

Unfortunately, the finish cost is directly linked to the time spent sanding and fairing. If you analyze the time sheet you will probably find that putting in backing blocks & sisters, with required sisters averages out to something like 2.5 hours per frame section with an average of 2.5 blocks & .3 sisters per section. I consider that pretty decent going as that includes: prep., milling, cutting& shaping block, clamping & gluing in place (lots of fun), and then a sand out to 120 grit. If I to go back again and do another fairing with block sand out will probably add at least an hour per section which is what 8 10 hours?

Please don't ever get me wrong I am more than happy to do it as the more you prep the better the finished product will look.

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Project milestone: aft portion of repairs completed.

I finished the planned backing blocks and sisters on the aft half of the Cedar Skiff. This compleat 95% of the repairs to the inside aft section of the skiff. Interlux says pre coat with epoxy, so be it. The next step in preparation is two coats of Interlux Epoxy Primercoat with a recommended sand out to 120 - 180 grit.

Moving forward of the seat....

The forcast is for scattered showers and the humidity is creeping up today so I approach lay up with caution. This image shows todays backing blocks located below the middle seat and the two planned blocks ahead of the seat. Notice the tape marking the secondary cracks that I have become concerned about.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

The Fien detail sander seen here is a critical part of the project.

Now that I am half way done with the backing blocks and clamping the old girl I am far less optimistic regarding the time frame as I just logged another 50 hours in the past 2 weeks and still have the front half to do, let alone putting the boat together and painting it.

I have the stern half of the final backing blocks epoxied in place, and will move to the forward part of the skiff tomorrow. If I progress at the current rate of roughly 1 set of frames per day, and depending on what I do with the cracks mentioned below I should have the bottom repairs completed by early next week. At that time I will move up to the shear and seat areas.

Please look at the related photographs closely as I was far too optimistic as to the amount of repair required for the bottom of the craft. I have become far faster and more efficient in the placement of backing blocks, but it is a slow process that can only go so fast in order to manage the clamping and epoxy spider’s web.

I follow the Interlux recommendations and whether or not to epoxy coat the repaired wood. The reference can be found I the Interlux Boat Painting Guide and Color Card on page 8 & 9. They recommend completely sealing the wood with epoxy before using two-part finishes. While in theory you might get away with one coat of primer for the Brightside finish areas. Based on Interlux recommendations my plan is to epoxy coat repaired areas and prime them using the Interlux 2 part epoxy Primercoat before painting. I have tested the Primercoat and once dried the epoxy will not effect the Primercoat so there are no future surprises, if you ever had to go back and make another repair using epoxy.

Monday, July 02

Generally, I have worked forward from the stern repairing planks and frames as I go with lots of sanding in between. Unfortunately, I continue to find more “questionable” planks with cracks that now concern me. I started out to epoxy the blocks in place with 21 blocks, then it became 23, and have now decided that I do not dare take a chance on NOT backing the smaller cracks which will be another 6 blocks & 6 hours. Once we launch the boat any epoxy repairs will be far less effective than on this super dried wood so the time to do it is now.

After finishing what is admittedly the worst sections (large open cracks) starboard frame K to frame P , plank 4, just aft of the mid-ship seat, and port from frame K (under mid seat) aft to running from frame N plank 4, and the adjacent planks Over the past few days of clamping and blocking I have become nervous about the strength of the cracked planks. That I previously considered small longitudinal cracks that could be edge glued as a repair. I don't particularly like the additional work but have become extremely cautious regarding the strength of the old cedar bottom planks and would feel far safer with them backed. See images of cracks in question below.

The aft seat section has a single coat of sanded out Epoxy Primercoat. If I epoxy coat the bilge per Interlux wood prep recommendations, that will be another gallon epoxy kit, then I will need the Hatteras Off-White 4208, and another 2 liters of the two part primer & thinner today in expectation of beginning the prettier part of the project soon. I have also begun to create a number of test panels showing the different material finishes as I approach the coating phase.

Friday, June 29

The three blocks from yesterday went in nicely and I had a general sand out of what I have done to date. That is 11 new backing blocks and 2 sisters. Seen left is the sister of frame L.

This is Canada Day weekend so I will probably take a couple of day off.