James Silver Western Isles Chance Restoration

Hi fellow blogger Members One of the major problems having your boat in one part of the country and living in another part of the country is working out how best to make the best use of the available time and your resources and not to make any wasted trips which end up with little or nothing being done to move the project along. Over the past six months there as been a lot of problems with Covid and friends passing during Covid pandemic, however, their deaths were not due to Covid, their death were not Covid related. However, this did however, put pay to some trips and trips that were planned had to be rearranged for other times. So that was a spanner in the work while we sorted out the fallout from that situation. That aside the long term problem with my works van being off the road for such along time. Still not resolved at present, however, should be resolved shortly fingers crossed and toes as well. So after almost 6 months without my works van and having to use my wife's MPV a

The good part about the old fuel filter system on Chance is that it is a non disposable system, so it just needs cleaning at regular intervals to keep it working  Although there are a number of parts to the filter system it is straightforward and easy to dismantle and rebuild when it needs cleaning to maintain the engines   Just need a couple of parts replacing as they are worn out, apart from that the system is ready to be reused again for another 70 years or more   

Over the past six months a lot has gone on with Chance. The first few trips to Woodplumpton were to make a start with clearing out the inside of the boat and taking stock of what we had on the boat and what is missing.  It appears that along the way all the deck fittings have gone missing, which is a great inconvicetion as I will have to get the deck fittings remade using patterns from other James Silver boats that are still around. The other James Silver's that are close to where I live are close in size to my James Silver and so I will be able to get the parts remade easily. Harbour Marine Services has restored a number of James Silver's over the years and the owner now  owns Davey & Co so parts are not going to be a problem to source when the time comes to start doing that part of the restoration. The part of the first six months as been the removal of the old furniture and other items in the inside of the boat so it is going to be easier to get to the planking and make

Now we are back at work and we have given ourselves a dead line for getting Chance down the country to my home part of the country. The deadline is going to be around the time of my birthday at the beginning of May. All being well and the country not being lock-downed again. The hull of Chance should be in a condition to be able to move her down to Essex from Woodplumpton and then continue the restoration down in Walton on the Naze in Essex where my yard is situated. I hope to go back up to Woodplumpton during January to continue to remove the last remaining bits of furniture and the fuel and water tanks out of the engine bay along with the engine drip trays which need to be removed as under the starboard drip tray there is a plank that as come off the frame which needs investigating to find out why the plank as come adrift and repair or renew the affected frame. Once the tanks are out and loaded into the trailer and the engines are put in the back of the van then they can come down to

 Now the Christmas break is fading into the background, it is time to make a fresh start and get on with some of the jobs that were not able to be started or finished before the Christmas break. My family got me a tool which I had wish I had many years ago. It was a mortise attachment for my pillar drill so that I could make mortise and tenon joint for doors and panelling which I have made in the past for boats I have worked on by hand. This new new tool will make the making of mortise and tenon joints a lot easier and make accurate and be able to make the same joint over and over again and make well fitting joints each time.  So now I have this new tool, it is going to be time to experiment a few times to get the tool set up and then be able to make the joints fit well every time that way taking the guess work out of the situation. So speeding up the making of the joints and be able to remake the cupboard, under settee locker doors and the full height cabin doors which need renewing b