Life's a Gamble, so lets take a Chance Restoration Project

While looking on the workshop shelf I was able to find the main cabin door that had been varnished in the past before being put away until now. It will a dusting down and a light sanding and it can be put with the rest of the doors and cabinetry to be varnished before being refitted to the boat as we rebuild the inside of the boat.  These two panels are the lifting parts from the main entrance to the main cabin from the cockpit.  The starboard side galley front being given a sealing coat of varnish while we sort out how to fill in the two holes on the top right hand side part of the galley front. The port side galley corner panels now getting a sealing coat of varnish, before we start to refit the port side galley unit back together in te boat. These two door are from the main cabin starboard side sideboard, the framework was in a bit of a poor condition so we are having to rebuild the framework to fit these door back on to when we refit the starboard sideboard in the main cab...

Just temporarily fitting the doors to make sure the frame is correct and as not twisted out of shape since it was taken out and dismantled and glued back together.  Looking at the drawers on the shelves was able to find the drawer that fitted the hole in the top of the galley front. The only problem is that it is in need of rebuilding before it can go back in place and be used again. The port or forward side of the drawer as been wet at sometime in the past and as got rotten and parts of it have disappeared over time. The starboard or aft side is okay and will be able to be used again.  However, the forward side and the back will be have to be remade and the bottom panel will have to be renewed as well A good little job to use a bit of brain power to remake the dovetail joints that were used when these drawers were first made back in 1948 at James A Silver's boatyard.  

Putting out all but a few of the doors and hatches off Chance.  Putting out a spare sheet of plywood which we turned into a varnishing table we were able to lay out as many of the hatches and doors off Chance in one place.  The first of the build up coats of varnish which will take a while to varnish all of them to a number of coats needed to make them ready for the final coats need the end of the restoration project. The main cabin lifting panels with the two doors from the starboard side galley unit behind and above the sink on the starboard side. The starboard side galley unit front which needs a bit of cleaning up to remove the glue and fill in the old sink tap holes. The port side galley top which is going to be reused as there is nothing wrong with it apart from needing a new front and ends trims which need renewing as they are not the correct profile. The two doors which were fitted under the settee in the main cabin. The locker front will have to be rebuild as it was i...

  These updates are of the restoration of Chance our James Silver Western Isles Motorsailer, now that we have Chance at Titchmarsh Marina in Walton on the Naze Essex. Now that it has stopped raining for most of the last few days and the wind has died down as well, It seemed a good time to go round to Titchmarsh marina and check on Chance and see if the cover was still in place and Chance had weathered the last few days okay. Chance appeared to be none the worse for weather and the cover was still in place. I had a good check on the props under the boat to ensure she had not moved in the wind. It would be unlikely that Chance would move as Chance weights even empty as she is the best part of 9 tons and seeing as Chance is behind a high bank and surrounded on most sides by boats and other things she is well protected from most strong winds. Now that the days are getting longer again and hopefully the temperature will start to raise we may well be able to get back on working on Chanc...

These updates are of the restoration of Chance our James Silver Western Isles Motorsailer, now that we have Chance at Titchmarsh Marina in Walton on the Naze Essex. In this video we show what work we have been doing on the doors and hatches which were removed from Chance earlier in her restoration. Now we have room in Simon's workshop to lay them out and varnish them. We are taking the opportunity to do this work while it is not possible to work on Chance down at Titchmarsh Marina. The doors and hatches are getting their first coats of thinned varnish s we build up the layers of Varnish until they are at a stage where they will be ready for fitting and getting their final finishing coats once the rest of the cabinetry is finish and put back in the boat when the hull repairs are finished and the inside of the hull is painted or varnished depending on where in the boat the pieces are fitted.  

The way the galley top was originally fixed to the vertical panels was by screwing the top down into the panels with long screws into the end grain of the tops of the panels. This may well of been okay if you never were going to remove the galley unit at any time. However, the screws which held the top down to the panels were galvanized steel screws which rusted away over time. This made the top come away from the vertical panels. So in order for this not to happen again. We are going to glue and screw blocks to the underside of the top and screw and glue these blocks to the vertical panels so that the whole  of the unit is one unit and not lots of smaller pieces which can fall apart.   The pieces of trim around the worktop appear to now be original as they are misshaped and not to the same standard you expect on a James A Silver build boat. So new trim pieces are going to be made and fitted when the unit is refitted in the boat as part of the galley area rebuild. In this...

Inspecting the wheelhouse hatch, it is in need of a fair bit of work. The front panel needs repairing or replacing depending on how easily is going to be to make a good repair to the panel.  The top as a bit of rot in this corner. As with other parts of the wheelhouse roof, it will need to be replaced as the rest of the wheelhouse which is going to be redesigned as it needs to by removable to refit the engines when it is time to put them back in place. Also it will be helpful toi put the fuel and water tank in while the roof is off. The hatch has a handle on it, however, there was not a handle on the opposite  side of the wheelhouse roof which appears to be a bit of an oversight. However, the covering over the wheelhouse roof at present appears not to be the original and when the plywood is removed it may give us the answers we need to know about what as changed over the years.  The inside of the hatch is different to the rest of the wheelhouse roof in that there is no si...