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

Having had the lower part of the forward frame made up some time over the past year and not having the time to get it fitted in part it is now time to do it and a few of the other jobs that have been put on the back burner for some time. The main job is to made up the through bolts into the vertical parts of the frame which are still in situ and then fix the floor bearer to the lower part of the frame once it is in situ. Once this is done the the floor bearer can be fixed at the correct height to be in position with the rest of the floor boards through the rest of the cabin sole.  The two uprights into the cabin are now have the packing pieces in place to give the correct position of the uprights so that the base socket can be made up and fitted in position and then the upright can have the bolts drilled and fixed through the cockpit floor bearer. This will then give me a position to work out the length of the aft cabin deck beams and ten be able to fit the carlins in position a=t ...

I apprentice before he had to leave my employment had finished fitting all the foredeck beams and refitting the cabin front back in its position on the aft one of the mast deck beams. The next job is to joint the forward end into the deck beam with a half dovetail step joint and do the same on the aft end of the carlin and make up a new short cross deck beam to be jointed into the companionway upstands which have to be fixed in position at the cockpit floor beam level and on to the frame at the bnase of the upstand. Once this is done then the short cross deck beam can be jointed into the upstand.  In this photo you can see the upstand in position, I have just got to cut some studding to bolt the upstrands into position through the cockpit floor beam and make tenon block at the base to position the upstand bases in their final position. Once the upstands and tenon block are fixed in position then I can carry on with the cross deck beam and continue to fit the carlins. The get on wit...

Having painted the metal ring frame knees sometime ago and having made new oak spacers to go between the deck beam and the knee it was time to clamp them into position.   This is the exactly the method used before and I can see no good reason to change a method that as worked for 80 + years. The lower part will be having a thinner spacer made up out of oak to go into the space between the knee and the hull frame in the same method that was used originally. Now it is clamped in position it will be time to use my angle drill to drill the holes through the deck beam and the spacer to bolt the upper part together before taking it apart and painting the spacer. Just a bit of planning to get the surfaces to fit perfectly together and once the holes are drilled and the spacers are painted then this can be bolted together to make up the ring frame construction.   In this photo it can be seen how the ring frame method works as it bring together the deck beam where the main sh...

I had a smaller than complete cover, just waiting to get a new full cover, this will do for the moment it is a start. The boat as held up well having been left to the element for a long while, until I was able to face working on her again. Getting onboard was the hardest part to see what was facing me to put right after the last many months away from her. Much of the work done before I stopped working on her as held up well and I can start more or less where I left off. This is gong to be my first job on the boat refitting the new portside carlin  

Standing on the container next to the boat it gives you a better idea of what to do next. One job I will have to do next is get a new cover to go over the framework to keep off the sun from the hull. Having made the carlins some time in the past few months I have to make up the two aft end of the cabin short beams which in turn will be jointed into the uprights that make up the companionway and this will tie together the whole area.  These short beams are made to fit both the cabin side carlins and the cockpit coaming carlins as well so there are a number of joints to make when fitting these beams into position. This job is going to take some thinking through and making the correct shaped forefoot and make up new bolts to bolt the new piece of forefoot in place.  

One of the jobs I have been able to sort out this last week was to clean up and repaint the two hanging knees from Mai Star II. These two hanging knees were under the deck ahead of the cabin front and formed part of the framework which connected the deck beams to the hull frames in the position of the cap shrouds so that the stress on the hull was taken around the whole of the framework and not on a single position. Once I have made up the spacers for the knees they will be put back in position and bolted together through the deck beams and the hull frames to make put a ring frame.  I am getting on with this dinghy's restoration and are now waiting for a piece of mahogany to make up the centre thwart, in the meantime time I will be working on the outside of the hull sanding it down ready to apply its first coat of hi-build epoxy primer hull before filling and fairing the hull.  The woodwork as now got its few coats of varnish to protect the woodwork and now it is time to turn ...