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