Back from my Travels to the North West of England

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.

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Work done today on Mai Star II

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Having removed the lower section of the first frame to have a lower section across the keel/hog. It is time to make a pattern of the piece and go through the oak pile to find some suitable pieces of oak to make up a new lower section which connects together  the two frames in the hull at the forward end of the keel bolts.  Another jobwe did was to remove as much of the rotten section of lower forefoot which the samson post mortised into when it was in position. The new forefoot will be made out of some of the seasoned oak  we have in the yard and will likely be made up of two pieces glued together to make up the correct thickness. and then new bolts will be made up and the fore foot will then be bedded on a bed of red lead putty and thick paint.  The three bolts were able to be moved in their holes which is a good sign and will make it easier to put new bolts in to the holes. possibly go up a size and bore new holes through the outer part of the hog/keel. Just placin...
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Making patterns of the two foredeck lodging knees and inspecting the deck bems to see which of them can be salvaged and which need remaking.

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Making plywood patterns of the to foredeck lodging knees which are on either side of the deck beam which holds the samson post deck plate Having sorted out the deck beams from the other deck bits it was time to inspect which can be salvaged and which will need to be remade using laminated oak to make up the new deck beams. Many of the deck beams are in reasonable condition. while others are a mess with bits missing off the ends and others rotten in place. The deck beam in the middle is completely shot and the only thing that can be used for is a pattern. The other deck parts such as carlins and coamings are under bench until we get round to making new bits later. All the varnished parts are under a cover until we are ready to work on them.  
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The frame and inner hog repairs now done and now its time to make up and steam the ribs in place.

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The inner hog pieces now replaced and ready to be screwed and bedded down on a mixture of  red lead powder and linseed putty in the same method the original inner hog pieces were fitted almost 80 years ago. The frames are all dry fitted and the same method to be used on the frames as are the inner hog pieces. The same method will be used on these port side frames  The grown floor which as come out of here will be replaced with a laminated oak as it is difficult to source a piece of oak with the grain pattern to make a new floor.   
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