Restoration of the classic 1930's yacht Gadfly II/Mai Star II

https://youtu.be/qY1iOKTD2j8   Over the past week there as been a lot of of work done on a number of projects from refitting floor bearers in the hull to repairs to the cabin sides and finally repairs to the Samson post which needed a new heal piece making to fit on the lower section of the original Samson post. The majority of the Samson post was in good condition and rather than make a completely new Samson post it was decided that it was just as good to make up a new lower section out of same well seasoned oak we have in the yard and make up a new heal piece. The cabin sides need to have some more major repairs done, however, it was decided that grading pieces were the way to go so these were made up and glued in position. The reasoning behind doing this rather than cut whole section out and gluing new complete pieces in place was that the inside face of the cabin side was not damage and therefore it was not going to need a repair to be seen when it was not needed to be. The ne...

After cutting the 12" scarf joint on the upper section of the samson post it was time to level up the joint to it the new sectin of samson post to the new joint  Using a straight piece of wood removed the high spots and levelled it across the joint it was time to make up the new lower section of the samson post  The upper section now ready to fit the lower section  The new section made up and glued to the upper section with west epoxy resin and a lot of clamps to ensure the joint is glued together. The cross clamps to hold the lower section in place while the gue cures off over night, the nit will be ready to shape up next week.  

The original samson post for the most part is in good condition and just the lower end needed replacing so it is just as easy to cut a 12 inch long scraph joint on the lower end of the original samson post and glue and bolt a new section on to the post. Having cut the scraph joint on the original post it is now time to flatten off the scraph joint and make up a new section to be glued and bolted on to the existing part The original post is very hard and seasoned so the bandsaw found it hard going to cut through such hard wood even with a new bandsaw blade. Now time to get out the chisels and planes to get the joint flat.  

Having got the cabin side out of storage it was time to get them down and put on the bench and sand down both sides and inspect them for damage. The first bit of damage is on the forward end at the bottom where it was removed without care and as spilt the bottom. This is going to have to be repaired using a grading piece and fixing going up from the bottom edge into the rest of the cabin side to ensure this does not spilt again. Further pieces missing along the bottom edge which will need pieces letting in, They are behind the carlins so they will not be seen. These tow other areas not not so easily covered and will need grading pieces gluing in place and planing down and sanding before the cabin side is varnished again  These two areas will need grading pieces gluing in position as well Just starting off doing the same job to the port side cabin side to get into the same place as the starboard cabin side.  

The apprentice boat builder Ethan as been working hard on getting the foredeck beams finished off and making up two new carlins and side deck beams/ Mai Star II needed to have replacement carlins as the old carlins were broken and rotten at the ends as were the short side deck beams which were in a poor condition. The next job to do before we can fit the new carlins and side deck beams is to make up a temporary aft cabin deck beam to go across the aft end of the cabin to fit the carlins. This is while we make up the vertical posts to fix the inboard end of the aft cabin beams.  The new mast pad fitted into the aft two deck beams as the original mast pad was, the only difference this time is that this pad will not have a hole drilled in the middle as per the original pad. This is because this time the mast which was cut down at sometime in the past will be fitted to a taberance . There will be a mast support post fitted to the underside of the deck as it was before the restoration....

This is the latest update on the progress with the restoration of Mai Star II, there has been a long time since we last posted an update about the progress that has been made on Mai Star II's restoration. We are well on our way to get the fore deck beams back in position and fixed down in place. There as been a lot of work done on other parts of the forward end of Mai Star II as can be seen on this video. Currently my boat building apprentice is making a new breasthook to replace the rotten and broken breasthook. With the foredeck beams now in position. We now can move aft to fit and fix the two next deck beams which are the two deck beams on the fore and aft position for the mast to go through the deck when the mast was keel stepped. However, over the years the mast was shortened and the mast became deck stepped with a tabernacle made and fitted and a compression post fitted under the deck. We are still toying with the idea to put the mast back as a keel stepped mast. We do not ha...