Last Week on Chance in Woodplumpton

 Last Week in Woodplumpton working on Chance

Hi fellow boat restorers and watchers of my videos, my name is Simon Papendick, and I am the owner of J-Star Marine Services. My family and I and along help from my brother john are on a mission to restore Chance our1948 James Silver “Western Isle’s “motor sailor She is the only one of her type and is worth restoring back to her former glory and one more sailing the high seas.

Last Week on Chance in Woodplumpton

This last week in Woodplumpton was the fore cabin bilges cleaned out by my brother John so that they are clean of all the old bilge dirt, and mixture of dust, old oil and wood from pervious repairs and God knows what else. However, they are clean now and anything that is dropped in the bilge from now on can be seen and picked up without getting your hands covered in God knows what.

John did say that it could do with another cleaning as we move forward with the restoration as like any wood that as been pickled for as long as that it has it will likely leach out more oil from the planks. Time will tell on that front.

The main area that needed cleaning the most and that took the most time was the engine bay which was deep in dirt and oil and needed scrapping and brushing a lot to get rid of the hard to get at areas and where it had dried on like concrete and needed chipping off. He got there in the end and the result is a clean bilge area once more like it was 74 years ago when Chance was launched and commissioned.

In the aft cabin the broken ribs have been removed and the only thing holding that part of the hull in place are the grown ribs. The hull in now clear of any ribs that have distorted the hull shape. So now we can push the hull back into the correct shape before steaming in the new ribs back into the hull once the hull is propped back into the correct position once more.

Another job we did last week was to remove the covering boards on the starboard side decks and the starboard side of the aft deck. This uncovered a world of poorly done repairs done over the years. The biggest problem being the beam shelf replacement. The beam shelf was never it fixed to the frames with bolts and the lodging knee which held the beam shelf to the aft cabin deck beam has the bolts missing as well. The side deck short beams were not even fixed to the beam shelf with anything more than steel screws screwed into the end gran of what was left of the deck beams and the deck beams were sitting on a piece of 1” x 1” wood for support. Little wonder the deck was spreading apart there was nothing to hold it together. At the front of the side deck the deck beams were resting on the fuel tanks and when they were removed the deck collapsed.

So now the extra job is to refit the ribs in the starboard aft cabin after the hull is propped back into its correct position and then work our way forward to the wheelhouse and replace all the ribs until we get to the main cabin bulkhead. Once this is done then renew the beam shelf and the short deck beams and tie the whole of the starboard side of the hull together.

Once that is done then make a start on the hull planking along the hull to the wheelhouse before moving forward with the rest of the repairs to the ribs and planks on the starboard side.