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

  This past fortnight as be busy with other projects, mainly the big boat up in Woodplumpton which needed a fair bit of work doing to it. That is to say the engines in her needed to come out and be disposed of. this meant I had to go to the boat and organise the removal of the wheelhouse roof in order to  get the engines out of the engine bay and out next to the boat.  This job took a little bit longer than I had planned for, however, it is now done and the rest of the work on the boat in Woodplumpton can be put on the back burner for now and the work on Mai Star II (Gadfly II) can restart. The first job will be to remove the cabin structure off the boat to give access to all the areas of the hull that need work doing on it. Namely the frames and ribs that need replacing especially in the port side side forward. This area is the worse affected area with the most broken and rotten top of the frames.  So as soon as I have a few hours spare this will be my nex...

 I am hoping to get on with removing the last bits of rib in the bilge area on the portside in the forepeak. There are a number of bits of old rib that was not removed when the rest of the ribs were removed earlier in the year. They will be removed by way of an angle grinder and a grinding disc to remove the nails in the centre of the roves and then punched out through the plank and removed using a pair of pliers. This process will be repeated until the short bits of ribs are removed from the bilge and then the area will cleaned of any old paint and dirt and vac out and dried out and made ready to be primed before a new steamed rib is fitted and nailed back in position.  The same will be done on the starboard side in the forepeak as there a couple of sistered ribs which need removing and the original rib needs replacing with a rib which is in one piece and not like it is presently in two parts. Another job which will be got underway will be the making of two or possibly three ...

The seams on the port side above the waterline are now done  The starboard side seams are getting there just a few more feet to go before they are done as well  A big task ahead in the cabin, especially in the forward end and amidships  There are a number of repairs needed in the bilge area especially the ribs and the inner hog which needs sorting out   

The long job of raking out the plank seams as started. When all the seams are cleared of the old caulking cotton and putty the plank will be able to move around and be able to be re-fixed to bring the planks back into the original position,   Before any of the refixing of the planks can take place the hull will have to be cleared of any old paint and dirt that has find its way under the ribs and frames in the boat, which is keeping the planks from going back into position and laying flat against the ribs and frames.  So after all the seams are cleared of the old cotton and putty, then inside of the boat is going to need stripping of all the old paint and all the ribs and frames are going to need marking up to see which need to be cleaned out between the planking and ribs and frames to get the planks to sit against the frames and ribs. This will also highlight the frames and ribs that need refixing with new copper nails and in some cases refixing with bronze screws where it is ...

  Now that some of my day jobs are well underway, it gives me time to get the oak out of the timber pile and get it into a position where I can cut the lengths for steaming the new ribs into the boat once they are cut and planed and thickened to the correct shape and size.   However, before I can do that I will have to get the stems in the planks cleaned out so the gaps in the gaps can close up a bit when the new ribs are steamed in. However I have to clear up the yard round the boat to get to the area I have to work. 

Now it is time to get on and Make a start on Mai Star II restoration and get her back to a sailing yacht once again.  A far amount of the repairs needed to the hull are in the forward part of the yacht on the port side from the stem back to the midships area of the hull, this is where most of the damaged and rotten wood is situated.   A friend helping remove the rotten deck and top plank  The rotten top plank on the port side showing how badly split it was and rotten in places it was  Same side looking aft showing the rotten tops of the grown frames which will need replacing with new green oak  After 70+ years the top plank as given up the ghost  The same is true of the top of the transom. I will have to look and think hard about whether it is going to be better to just replace the top section or to take the whole transom out and replace the whole of the transom.  

Now that I have been unable to get to my other restoration. My James Silver "Western Isles" Named Chance. I am taking the time to work closer to home base and get on with my other restoration project Mai Star II. It has been standing in my Yard for the past few years with little being done to it apart from removing much of the rotten deck and broken deck beams.  The main job at the being of the project was to get rid of the worse of the rotten and broken parts, such as Broken foredeck deck beams. The two which had broken were the two just ahead of the cabin. These two beams were the original deck beams that were either side of the mast hole through the original deck.  Sometime in the past the lower part of the mast was removed and a steel support post was fitted under the deck to support a tabernacle. The base of which spanned the two deck beams. However, these deck beams broke with old age and now I have to make two more deck beams as well as a number of other deck beams and...