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

 This week we took down off the shelves the parts of the interior which we had earlier in the restoration, namely the reconstruction of the boat.When we removed a lot of the interior furniture and other items which needed to come out so that we could access the hull to make repairs to the hull planking and the ribs and in some cases the frames.  Having taken down the parts off the shelves it was possible to gauge which parts could be saved and which parts could not. It turned out that a far amount of the parts were only any good as patterns as much of the problems were with the ends being rotten or broken or both as in the case of the deck beams.  The bunk fronts and tops are in much the same condition, just any good as patterns and not much else.  The floor boards are okay and can be reused and possibility modify to fit the new bunk fronts when they are remade.  Although the bunk fronts and top will not be used again they will act as good patterns to put the in...

Now that I have finished my travels to the North West of England, I can now turn my attention to working on Mai Star II and get on with her restoration, The first jobs to do are to finish off clearing away any bits that are going to stop us from getting the frame and ribs back in the port side in the bow of Mai Star II which is where the worse of the damage she has had over the years. A lot of ribs were broken in this part of the boat along with the rotten and broken frames as well. So what we have to do now is sort this part of the boats hull first before moving on down the rest of the port side repairing and in some case renewing parts as we go along. While I am working on sorting out the port side my son Michael will be continuing to sort out the starboard sheer strake plank and remove all the old copper nails and any other fittings that are still to come off before we can make a start on other jobs on other parts of the boat.