Work in town is working out well with my limited schedule. However the house is comming and The Pumpkin is less than a minutes walk away to the garage.

November 16, 2008

Sunday was a big day as I had help and with snow threatening we delivered the Dory before the road down to Ross Eaton became impassable. I would have like to have done a little more touch up but the threatening weather and steep hill made delivery more critical than a final touch up. There are unfortunately a few small drips that could use a second coat of orange,but simply no time to do it and guarantee that the boat could be delivered before the snow flies. We left almost a gallon of orange paint and half a liter of the green for future touch up or repair in the garage with the craft.

November 03, 2008

Friday, October 31, 2008 Halloween

Haloween, what a great day to finish painting the exterior of the Pumpkin. I hope to have pictured in a few days as I have relented and will use the film Nikons then scan them.

Yesterday I rented a huge space heater and put another three coats of orange on the exterior of the Pumpkin, finishing all inverted. I will let the paint dry until Sunday as it is going to be warm outside and the weather should make a perfect drying cycle after she got a lot of paint yesterday begining with a five hour cook at 85F.

Sunday I will flip the boat and start putting the interior back together.

1. The remaining steps are as follows.
2. yet to do flip boat
3. reinstall the frame's
4. prime interior
5. paint interior coat 1 (recoat time 4-6 hours)
6. paint interior coat 2 (recoat time 4-6 hours)
7. paint interior coat 3 (recoat time 4-6 hours)
8. paint trim coat 1 (recoat time 24 hours)
9. paint trim coat 2
10. Final dry to harden up before moving
11. delivery
12. reinstall hardware
13. new footrest

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Please excuse the sepia images this was a borrowed camera.

The Pumpkin, or Banker Dory depending on much you like the craft. Thursday was perfect weather for fiber glassing and working with John who has years of fabrication experience made it a pleasure. Fifty pumps of epoxy from the trusty West measuring pumps and four hours of labor and the bottom is one of the best lay-ups that I have seen. The special quality biaxial cloth is worth the extra money. There is a full coat of 6oz cloth over the entire bottom and the chine is reinforced again with a strip of 3" 6 oz. tape, with yet another layer for dragging protection on the bow and stern.

The big trick in doing a 19' long lay up is the first drop of the cloth as the only way to do it is to wet out the surface and drop the dry cloth on it. If you are wrong or crooked you may well have to throw away the entire piece of cloth if it gets twisted up as once wet it will stretch and move. One boo boo and you are in extreme start over trouble. This time John and I were in perfect sync and it went by the numbers. Having the two of us was perfect as he squeegeed and I rolled making the entire process take less than a hour and a half wet time. Working out all the bubbles and wrinkles the step the separates a professional from amature punter. Just perfect right down to a perfect drop accross the chine and up the first plank with nary an issue.

This morning the result is pretty as a picture. One quick sand and a reinforcing strip midships and re assembly can begin.

Monday September 15, 2008

We beat the cold weather and got two good coats of epoxy saturation on the hull in perfect conditions. It is now too cold for lay up. There is at least one more fill then a quick shape sand it is time for laying on the cloth.

If you look closely you can still discern where the shattered planks are, but it is getting hard to tell. Even the questionable sections of the center plank are begining to take on a healthier appearance with the voids filling in nicely.

September 7, 2008

August 24, 2008

At this stage we have pretty much glued the shattered part back together with the wood in a "happy place". Now it will be possible to move ahead with real reconstruction.

The good news is that we have pulled the various pieces back together and achieved very close to the original shape. Sure, we still have to build backing blocks and make a new frame or two but this was the crunch as the boat took a lot of stress. It may not look like much but “epoxy is forever” getting the clamp right takes many dry fittings and in today’s terms being a wood whisper.

I am concerned with the rest of the boat as you can see in the close up's of the glued 2nd plank up there are longitudinal cracks all through the planks. Not big cracks, and I doubt very much to do with the beating and more due to the nature of pine and its age. Please remember that even the Bluenose when built from Canadian softwoods only had a 15 year life.

I am confident that the bottom will go back together in the discussed terms. The bigger question is how to treat the rest of the boat as once finished it will represent quite an investment, perhaps a piece of our marine history in the County.

If you get a chance take a look at the fact that almost ever plank we open up shows a longitudinal crack. I have not posted all the diagnosis pictures yet. Please thank a look at the second plan up shows what I am talking about. There is no way of knowing how long it has been like this. Nor how quickly they could pose a problem in the future.

At this time, we are still debating the best long-term approach as the pine in itself creates a time frame. It will be a half dozen years before the wood actually rots out. However, the boat seems to want to crack her planks length wise along the grain. On the other hand wood epoxy theory constantly reminds us that either you completely saturate the wood or the side you allow to breathe must be open. As it is completely impractical to remove the interior frames and that would leave untreated (and I mean form the day the boat was built. There is not a lick of any sort of preservative under any frame confirming that they built it then painted it.

I begin to wonder the further we go if it might not be an idea to continue to remove the paint from the remainder of the exterior. Then give the entire thing a two coat of just epoxy. The thinking is the once you can get contact the epoxy is stronger than the wood. The process (if implemented) is first using a thinned coat, then a thicker coat of epoxy without any cloth as the girl is already no lightweight and end weight is a concern. The epoxy will stabilize the outside skin but has the negative of creating an expansion issue.

Saturday August 24, 2008

This is a great location to work. We still need to punch the windows in and pour a floor, but very pleasant.

The Pumpkin is quite amazing when one gets the boat back to bare wood you can see she is a tough little craft. The bad news is that there is a lot of work to get the boat usable again. It is not just ice and beating damage, there is quite a bit of "bad wood". You can see the more concerning areas in the center plank near the bow where there are holes through to inside. This can be patched, but removing planks would be very tricky.

First stage of repair inspection: http://cruising.ca/services/docs/dory.html

The bottom is now stripped and the bottom runners removed. With most of the paint is gone and the damage can be seen I am amazed at the strength of the Pumpkin, and am very pleased that the footrest braces we I installed last year, otherwise there would have been nothing but kindling as the side really took a beating.

Perhaps the larger issue is that the soft pine has begun to deteriorate quite badly in a couple of places and I doubt with the damage that replacing planks on a lapstrake hull that has tapered overlaps is cost effective as to remove and replace a plank is almost more trouble than building the boat. At this stage with everything open, the wood needs to dry further and an inspection discussion would be worthwhile as a restoration repair is not practical.

After much deliberation I believe the only salvation for the Pumpkin is to use epoxy and a single layer of fiberglass cloth to sheath the underwater area. There is a huge difference between Polyester Resin (what is commonly though of as fiberglass) and Epoxy's. Epoxy laminations are more flexible and much lighter while creating a structure that is over twice as strong. Epoxy also has the benefit of having a far reduced chance of separation. Eg. if you are going to try to break a laminated piece it will be the wood next to it that will break long before the laminated part ever will. The test patches showed no adverse reactions to any of the old material meaning a worst case adhesion coefficient would be the adhesion of any original coatings trapped by the epoxy. It is still a big job and that would use the better part of three gallons of Epoxy to do the job & cloth on top of time.

It has been a little over 48 hours since we first got the Dory stripped and begun investigations. Once again the lock of the footrest supports was key to the Pumpkins survival. The long split on port side is long enough the the bottom has begun to detach from the sides. At this time the gap is roughly 1/2" separation midships (creating the longitudinally gaps between the planks you see in the pictures of the affected area. It is only the footrest blocks that keep the bottom from springing completely loose (disaster).

The first issue of the repair will be to create a clamping jig and pull the bottom back to the sides so that we have the shape back. Then to make a temporary support jig to keep the shape fixed. Once the pieces are are epoxied back together and in the right shape with the jig secured we will turn the boat back over and begin interior repairs. Virtually every frame has been ripped loose from the floor with two frames having broken ends where they extend towards the center of the boat. These broken frames must be sistered and the cross planks secured.

Friday August 8, 2008

Once the structural frame is restored and the bottom re-attached, it is back over again. At this time I think to concept is to go with a full size single piece of 1.5 oz cloth that wraps from the garboard (bottom plank) fto the first or second plank. Once cured give the new bottom a once over with the grinder and add 6" 1.5oz tape to the edges for strength. Ideally the object is to squeegee out the lay up cleanly enough that it may be textured, but not nasty. To a finish that is non objectionable once a paint goes on to.

With the bottom glassed it is time to flip again and finish any structural medications to the inside and epoxy / 1.5oz fiberglass patch the inside of repaired areas. There is an interesting area on the opposite side of the primary damage where what look to be a plank cracked. Yet Lo... the plank is heavily faired, with the exact extent of the crack yet uninvestigated, however it will have to have a F/G patch on the inside as well.

From here it is pulling the entire project back together and painting which is no small task. I can only suggest the one might consider a better way to protect the Pumpkin from the ravages of the reach as one more big crunch like this and she might go beyond saving.

Friday August 8, 2008

Thursday May 15, 2008

Thursday provided us a window to retrieve the "Pumpkin" from it's perilous perch along the shore of Aldophos Reach. The damage was significant with a long gap stretching for nearly half the length of the chine with gaping spaces in the plank. You never quite know what you are going to need in a salvage operation to seal things up. This time 12" wide duct tape was jsut the right solution.

For now the dory is drying as everything is waterlogged and there will need to be a lot of epoxy in its future.

May 10, 2008

Last winter brought serious damage to the wonderful Pumpkin. Storms lashed the poor thing on the rocks smashing 40% of the bottom plank and multiple crack in the second plank. At this writing we have been unable to conduct a successful re-trial rescue due to northerly winds that pile the waves on the shore. However, for the moment the Pumpkin is safe and tied to a secure point on the shore above the wave line.

This nice little Banker dory is back for a complete refinish with some additional modifications which will make it easier to row, and row it does. Norm is a traditional east coast Acadian who gave me a hand when we hauled the boat out and as I watched someone who was familiar with the craft handle it the versatility was obvious. IT is no wonder that the owner loves the tender craft.

For 2006 and 2007 work [click here]