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

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....