James Silver Western Isles Chance Restoration

So with all the preplanning done over the Christmas break. It is now time to put the preplanning into operation. Starting with all the unfinished jobs from before the Christmas break. This means that with  all the cabins emptied of much of the loose items such and drawers and locker doors. It just  leaves the framework of the doors and drawers  to be removed before the hull can be made accessible to work on the planking which needs replacing in different areas of the hull.  So one of the first jobs will be to finish off taking the last of the framework out of the interior so that we can see the hull from both sides and do any repairs to the frames of the boat as is necessary before removing any planks.  The other job that was not done before the Christmas break was the removal of the fuel and water tanks, as we ran out of time before Christmas to get them out. We will have to engage the services of the Crane yard owner to help get the tanks out of the engine bay of the boat as they are

The reason for doing the restoration on Chance, to safeguard a piece of maritime history My mission is to restoration my James Silver Western Isles Motor Sailer Chance. She built in 1948 at James Silver’s Yard at Rosneath in Scotland to a John Bain design. Chance was a change to the normal boats that James Silver was renowned for as Chance was a 50/50 Motor Sailer and not a motorboat which the boatyard was building before Chance was built and after her launching. In that way she is unique in that she only had one other boat built to her design, the whereabouts of which is unknown at the present time. So over the next few years, my family, which is my wife Tricia, and son Michael and I, my brother John and friends have taken on the restoration Chance to bring her back once more to sail the high seas. The last 6 months have been challenging with the Covid pandemic making it difficult to go to Chance which at present is in Woodplumpton in Lancashire and I live in North Essex 300 miles awa

  One of the trips to Chance we were able to bring back with us a few of the loose items of the boats interior which we can work on while not being able to get to Chance for whatever reason and we can continue to work on parts of the boat. This is one of the drawers from the interior which is a be worse for wear and is in need of replacing as parts of it are rotten. The fronts are okay however, much of the rest is beyond saving and will have to be rebuild. The general condition of many of the drawers which were in low areas of the boat are in much the same condition as they have been sitting in damp condition and rot as set in  Some of the drawers have faired better and just need a good cleaning and sanding down and repainting and varnish before putting back in the boat later on in the restoration  Some of the varnished panels are in reasonable condition however, some will need a bit of TLC and repairs doing before they go back in the boat Starting to strip and sand some of the many do

Then came the largest job to date the engines removal from the boat. The old engine have been in the boat for 70 years now and spares and keeping these engine running is going to cost to much so it was decided to remove them and go for modern clearer engines  A very old fuel filters which we can not get any spare parts for, I would love to keep them, however, there are more modern filters that do a better job today and more modern engines in better filters than these. My brother starting the long process of removing all the parts holding down the engines so that we can lift them out  The last photo of the engine in the boat before we lifted them out with the help of the yard owner with his crane One engine out Then the 2 engines out and off to be disposed of, it is hoped that there may be a person out there who as the time and money to sort them out  

Making temporary floorboards so that the old floorboards can be removed and cleaned and repainted before putting them back later  The first of the temporary floorboards in place more to come as the months go on   Some of the equipment getting removed so that we can access to the hull to make repairs to the hull planking  Then to removing the ballast out of the bilges for the first time in over 70 years and they were in a hell of a state, covered in dirt and oil and god knows what else About a 1/3 of the ballast out and more to come as we were able to remove floorboard that covered them There has been a fair few of these large buckets full of rubbish and other shit coming out of the boats interior and there are going to be more to come as the months move on   

 It has been a roller coaster ride this year from taking ownership of Chance back in May this year until now. My first sight of Chance in over 9 years and time had been not good to her has I was about to find out when I got up close to her and inspected her.  As you can see the inside of the boat was a mess with shit every where and the floorboards covered in oily water and so the forward end of the boat was like an ice staking rink to walk on. The back cabin was was just a pile of old covers and the doors off the cabin bulkheads just laid on the covers in no order or regard to keeping them in good condition, just laid as if them were rubbish. Then came the big strip out of the interior and getting to grips with all the mess and shit the boat had collected over the past few years  Then came the large skip to put all the rubbish and other shit the boat had collected and get rid of the rubbish so we could get a better picture of what we had ahead of ourselves, The pile of rubbish and the

After 73 years in our boat it is time to retire these old engines, they done this boat proud over the years. However it is time these came out and a pair of modern environmentally friendly engines were put in their place. This is the first of the engines now out of the boat and just needs to be put on a trailer and shipped back to my workshop to have a once over and then put up for sale.   Then there were two, the second engine sitting beside its sister engine, these are a matched pair for a twin screw installation.  This is aft end photo of the engines. The next job on the section of the restoration is to draw out the propeller shafts and remove the propellers and the stern gear as well. Has it is all matched up as a compete package.   

The restoration of the cooker is well underway, I am now in the process of ordering some new parts for the cooker. After the years of neglect it is not surprising that there are a few parts that have since better days and need replacing. The major items that need replacing are the super heater element in the burner, The super heater element which as seen better days   The draft fan and its controller and a piece of firebrick that needs renewing which is broken. Apart from these items the cooker has stood up well over the years.  The other parts such as the burner bowl, which needed its vent holes cleaning and the soot removing from the bowl itself,  The before photo with the bottom of the bowl with dirt and water and other rubbish that has collected in there over the years  The burner bowl well on the way to being cleaned just a bit more elbow grease and wire wool The fuel valve which needed cleaning out of dirt and water and the unit needed stripping down to clean and make sure it was

When doing any restoration projects who can get bogged down with list making and then more list making. So in order to make life for yourself easier. What I do is departmentalize the project in to different areas and work through each of the lists for that area until it is finished.  This for the most time works until the different areas overlap each other. However, by the time this happens first area is well underway and it needs to include the next area to complete the first area you are working on.   This is the case with the chain locker bullhead which needed to get removed because  it is rotten around the edges and in places making the places it is touching the hull got rotten as well. The bulkhead now removed and the condition of the hull investigated for areas of rotten hull planking, it appears to be just one area on the starboard  side just below the stringer at the lower part of the photo where the chain locker boards had gone rotten and spread to the hull in this area.  The

Having got the cooker off Chance and back to the workshop, Now on the work bench and in able to work on it at a reasonable height, it is possible to make out what the problems are and how much it is going to cost to put it right and use it once more  The top has come up reasonably well seeing has it as been neglected on Chance for such a long time.  The bottom of the burner well is full of god know what, this is going to have to come out and see what te condition of the burner well is. The super burner bit is going to have to be replaced as it is broken and the part is still available from the manufacturers  Got most of the dirt out of the bottom of the bowl, now it going to need a good cleaning out and get rid of the dirt in the chamber and the fuel line cleaning out in the bottom. The fuel flow is going to be stripped down and serviced and then rebuild The hot plate as come up well and just needs coating with oven blacking  The oven just needs a good cleaning out and should be ready