This lovely little piece of Danish craftsmanship is the Dawn Treader. She was built in 1936 in Copenhagen Sound under the watchful gaze of the Little Mermaid as a cruising version of a typical Danish Litenboot fishing boat or boot. The builder was a retired fisherman and obviously quite a bootbuilder to boot. sorry

She came over the the new world aboard a freighter and stayed in Toronto for a while, then lake Simcoe where the current owner Dr. Harley Smyth of Amherst Island rescued her. After a few years of keeping her together, he hired the late Willy Walker who gave her a thorough restoration which has lasted very well.

Kristen and I went over to Amherst Island last summer after Harley called to see if I could fix the mast. We had a great visit with Harley and Carolyn. Were regaled with the history of  the boat and the island, and had a tour of the Island. Its pretty cool to finally be on the place after looking at it from across the way from our island all these years. a different view of the lake.

The work order on the Dawn Treader consists of a new mast, re canvassing the cabin top, re finishing the brightwork, a few small repairs, fresh paint, deck cleaning and caulking, and sprucing up the cabin.

We just got started and I’ll update a little later. Cheers

I’ve taken the area under the engine apart, and taken the engine out. The keel in the area is punky which is different from the other areas in the original area. Looking at the structure, I realised that there is a pretty severe transition from a much stronger keel structure to the 1″ x 8″ construction in that area. the keel above the ballast is wider and boxed in, transforming into an I beam structure before and after the ballast for just under 3′. From the i beam, it turns into the 1′ thick plank. I think that when the boat had grounded, there was a kind of impact transfer from the rigid stucture to the smaller one causing it to flex, cracking the epoxy and cloth, allowing moisture to weep in to the laminates, and the keel itself.

The job is in a bit of a holding pattern until the insurance company’s surveyor can make the trip. I will be gone next week- Kristen (wife) and I are delivering a sailboat I had sold to a person who happens to live about 30 minutes away from where my in laws are in Florida. Handy eh?

The surveyors coming the next week. Till then.

The first part of Janet’s keel was made out of 3″ thick mahogany, 21″ at its widest. A pattern was made of the top of the keel from the floor timbers and the ends of the ribs. I used a power planer and a straight edge and what’s left of my shoulders to bevel the keel to match the angle of the ribs. The garboard with fit to the bottom of this keel, and will be capped by another 3″ thick chunk of mahogany.

Shawnadithit- (Shawn for short) is a 36′ cold molded sloop. Some darkening of the laminates was observed by the owner who had it checked out with a moisture meter. Turns out it had some bad areas at the fore and aft areas of the ballast. The boat has grounded here and there over time and must have cracked the epoxy and sheathing allowing water to seep in. We got the boat here, lifted the hull off the ballast after the keel bolts had been cut out with a customized hole saw. I cut out the area, cleaned it up, put a scarfing bevel around the edges and started relaminating. Murphy’s law showed up. At the after end of the big hole, there was a dark area on the inner most layer, which I was just going to cut out and patch- about A 10 minute task. Cutting it led to cutting a bit more out and now there is a second area cur out almost as big as the first. That little stained part was the forward end of a big mess. Apparantly the whole boat was checked with the meter, but this wet area was never found. I’m not too sure what caused this, but I’ll tell you what I think next time.

It may be the beginning of feb., but days are getting a little longer which gets me thinking about spring and all that comes with it- like projects being finished and ready for launching. A couple of clients have contacted me already to talk about some things for their boats- it seems a little early for that.

I’m really trying to do some consistent work on some of my own projects. My St Lawrence skiff is in perfect shape structurally. It was built in 1928 in Ivy Lea by the Cranker Bros. and in their family until about 3 years ago. It was barely used and sat in a boathouse and a garage for most of its life. The only thing wrong with it was that some of the bottom planks had splits in them caused by drying out over the years. I took them off, spiled for the garboards and made them, but it just hangs in the shop unfinished. After that, I have about 20 others to do

Funny what you can do when you read the owners manual. The camera has a bunch of settings that do different things and so now it works great. The “point and shoot’” label is a little misleading.

These pictures are of Gordon Roney and one of the boats he built. Rebola was built in the late 40’s for Buck Mullins. She was a fixture around the Island for decades and was used as a guide boat, water taxi, probably as an ambualnce, probably had babies born aboard. I don’t think she was used for water skiing. She’s still here- you can see her stored in the boathouse beside the ferry dock.

Buck’s son Darrel dropped by these pictures yesterday. He’s been wanting to get Rebola back in the water for a few years and got a good look at what we’ve been doing to Miss Marion. the same thing would have to be done to Rebola, but on a larger scale. I think he went to buy some lottery tickets.

Rebola

Gordon Roney

I got a new digital camera, but I can’t get the damned thing to focus or flash. I’ve read all the instructions and have been using digitals for a while, so I know how to use them. I’ll just take it back and see what’s what.

So no pictures today.

I’m going to introduce the guys who work here. They all love boats, all love working with their hands, are dedicated… all the good stuff.

John Goulet has been here for 4 years. I advertised for help the same week he conveniently moved to the Island. He came with a good background in electronics and some woodworking, but I could tell right away he wanted to learn and would become a great asset. It’s great that he lives on the Island- commuting from Kingston every day gets a little taxing. He loves his work and I think he spends more time here than he does at home. He has become very skilled in restorations and is a natural with electronics, so we’ve been able to expand into high tech installations.

Jonathan Morin has been here about a year and a half. He was the 4th fulltime employee I ever hired- all  named John- but he was the first non left handed John. He was pretty green and I had help from Community Futures Developement Corp. to hire and train him. It has worked out very well. He is very keen, has quickly aquired the patience and skills required for this work, and he loves to come to work each day.

Edward Coffey- the first non John- has been here since the fall. I’m getting the same help from CFDC and it’s working out great. He’s getting his hands dirty doing all the stuff that I don’t want to do, and he’s getting pretty adept at stripping and prepping wood work, and getting comfortable with power tools which is a good thing. His girlfriend is a singer and thus keeps opposite hours from what I’m used to- so Ed has a hard time getting here very early. He’s the originator of the afternoon shift at the shop.

That’s it - I’ll get the camera working right and update the projects. We also have to pretty exciting new (cool) jobs in the works that I’ll fill you in on.

Janet is the boat that was built in England in the 1890’s. As you can see, she’s got a bit of a leaking problem. The hull was fiberglassed at some point and consequently, the keel, stem, sternpost- basically the backbone of the boat and all the rib ends were done. Removing the ballast was pretty easy- it stayed on the wagon as the hull was lifted. Not much left for pattern making though.

We’re making the keel out of two layers of 3 inch mahogany. Its almost 20 inches wide on the top surface, so its quite a hunk of wood. We’re making the top layer right now, and I’ll let you know how it goes.

Cheers

Here are some shots of Miss Marion:The main problem with this boat is that it was fastened with regular steel fasteners. We ended up replacing all the timbers, frames etc rather than try to get the rusted screws out. We also replaced the bottom cedar planking with 5/8ths marine ply. Some judicious use of 5200 and silcon bronze screws gives a nice bottom.

Next step is flipping the boat- I’m not using that plywood contraption again, to scary- then we get to replace the decks, fit out the interior, installations and out the door.