James Silver Western Isles Chance Restoration

Tuesday morning walk around Chance and letting you know what we will be doing over the next few weeks and Chance. The first job today was to take the airplane steps round to Chance to make it easier to get on and off the boat and make working on the deck and other jobs on the top of the boat safer and easier to do. Hopefully now we can get some real work done on the decks and get jobs underway and done before the worse of the winter weather sets in. We will try to put the big white cover over Chance again and fix it in place with a number of battens screwed in place around the top of the hull. One job we wish to do soon is to get the hatches sorted out and also get the floorboards back down inside the boat so that we can walk around safely. So now it is a matter of loading up the box trailer with all the floorboards out of Chance and putting them back in place and the ones that need repairing get them done so that we can walk around the inside. We are going to put the wheelhouse

.In this video, you will see what we get up to when we are not work on Chance and the other work we do to fund the restoration of Chance and Mai Star II. It will give you an insight into the work we do behind the scenes at our workshop where we make the parts for Chance and also Mai Star II our other restoration project. Mai Star II is our 1939 east coast Gaff Cutter we are currently restoring at our home boatyard a mile away from the boatyard Chance is being restored at which is also in Walton on the Naze. In the video you will see the dinghies we have in the workshop at present and also the jig we have made up to make our new deck beams for both Chance and Mai Star II. The deck beam jig is made so that we can change the camber for which ever camber the deck beam is and so the deck beams can be made according to its position on the deck and so the deck camber is correct for its position along the deck. This especially true of Mai Star II deck beams which change as the deck beams are

This video shows the fun I had removing the rudder parts from the boat. Cutting the top part off above the rudder tube and then I was able to lower the top section down on to the inside of the boat and then I cut through the rudder shaft just below the rudder tube. When I cut through the shaft I was able to remove the rudder blade out of the rudder shoe and found the fitting wa well worn and will need to be machined up to have a new lower rudder bearing fitted. Once I have got all the parts back to the workshop I will have chance to make a different way of fitting the rudder together so it can be removed in fewer parts and without taking a grinder/cutter to the rudder to remove the rudder from the boat.  

Today I when down to Chance to see if I could remove the rudder without doing any cutting or digging to remove the rudder out of the boat. I first undid the bolt which I thought was holding the upper part of the rudder shaft in place. The only thing that happened was the rudder and shaft moved up and down inside the rudder shaft and did not come apart as I would have hoped. So I have left the pressure on the quadrant over night to see if it will come apart without using heat on the joint at the base of the quadrant. If this does not work then it will have to be cut out in section and a new rudder assembly made up at a later date. However, the new rudder assembly will be made up in a different way so that the whole assembly can be dismantled in sections and not have to be taken out in one piece. Also the rudder tube will have bearing made up to fit at the top and bottom sections and also a bearing in the rudder shoe so that the rudder can turn easily under pressure from sailing or un

This video is a follow up to the last video to detail the work we are going to have to do to replace the hog/keel on Chance. How much of the aft end of the boat we are going to have to dismantle to be able to remove the hog/keel. The job is going to involve shoring up the aft cabin with props off the hog/keel. Then we will remove the all the aft teak deck planking, all the aft deck beams, and then remove the steering gear and turning blocks on either side of the boat. then remove the rudder tube and shaft and rudder so that we can then remove the lower part of the rudder tube out of the hog/keel and replace the hog. While we are doing this the sternpost/knee and other frame work will be removed and new parts made up out of the oak stock we have back at J-Star Marine Services yard. WE will also pattern up and made new parts of frame which are missing on the starboard side and temporary fit new frames to the starboard side to get that side back to its correct shape.  

Just a quick update from the Chance Restoration project team. We have all had a quick break from Chance and have been up in the Whitby area of North Yorkshire. Now we are back with recharged minds and bodies it is time to crack on with work on Chance and our other restoration project the rebuilding of Mai Star II which is in J-Star Marine Services outside shed being work on during the week while we work on Chance at the weekends and any spare time in between. Before we had our break, we found that the hog was damaged and was in need of replacing. This is going to involve a lot of dismantling of more of the aft end of the boat and a major part of the aft end of the boat being removed in order to get to the parts that need replacing. The biggest job is going to be removing the aft teak deck and the three aft deck beams. While at the same time supporting the aft cabin and shoring up the hull in the correct position while we remove the rudder its rudder shaft and the rest of the steer

 Now having removed a number of planks on either side of the hog as found that the inner hog is in need of replacing. This means that we will have to remove the rudder tube. This means having to remove all the frame work from the transom to expose the rudder tube. The rudder tube in this photo is sitting on two shaped wedges on top of the hog.  Also all this aft deck planking is going to have to be removed as well. no easy job as it was laid down with galvanized screws which have been in place for almost 80 years and will very likely not come out without a lot of damage to the teak decking, so it is likely we will cut off the screws between the deck and the deck beams. This is not a problem as the deck beams have to be replaced anyway because at one end they are not fixed and at sometime in the past were cut short. So now the fun will start dismantling the aft end of the boat more to get the hog repaired and the whole of this area rebuild as strong as when it was first build. 

The breasthook of Chance is a shaped steel flat bar with a series of holes in it to fit bolts through to connect the stem to the forward ends of the upper beam shelf. It appears that the bolt through the stem has been cut off on the outside and hammer through into the chain locker and not replaced when the new upper section of the stem was replaced in the past. Having looked at the top of the stem that was replaced it is not the correct shape or size so this will be replace in good time before a new bolt is fitted through the stem and int the breasthook. One good job that was done over the years was that the inside of all the lockers was painted with white paint so that it give us an idea of how the interior was originally fitted and so gives us a good idea of the shape and size of all the cabinetry  This is highlighted on all the bulkheads where cabinetry fitted throughout Chance's interior from the forecabin in the bows to the aft cabin  at thew stern of the boat. This is the fir

The grey shed/Workshop at the J-Star Marine Services boatyard is now the home base for the any work  that can be done off Chance and items that be worked on undercover. A work bench is now set up to use as a sanding bench so that all the floorboards can be laid out and inspected and sanded down. A lot of the floorboards have been left to weather and need a good sanding down to get though to the clean surface and so can varnished again as they once were and give the cockpit a bright airy feeling once more. The floorboards starting to get a better colour after being sanded back to show off the rich teak colour these floorboards once had and will again  Getting through the pile of floorboards, these are just the cockpit floorboards, there are the rest of the floorboards from the other areas of the boat to do as yet. The tops being sanded back and then turn them over and sand the backs before gery bilge painting the under sides of the floorboards throughout the boat. In time the whole of t