James Silver Western Isles Chance Restoration

Now that the cover is over the superstructure the inside can start to dry out and make it possible to  work on the inside. So we can do areas one at a time. The largest job is going to be sorting out the aft cabin and get the deck removed to get the beams and beam shelf removed and replaced on the starboard and remove the aft deck to make ne aft deck beams to tie the aft end of the boat back together again. Once the aft deck is removed we will be able to make new quarter knees for the transom and connect the transom to the beam shelf back together again and that way the back of the back of the boat will be able to keep its shape once more. At last now we have a cover over the superstructure the boat will stay dry. We just have to get small covers for the ends to completely cover it in and keep any weather or rain out of the boats superstructure.  

The size of the task ahead is large if you take as a whole job to do in one hit. That is why we are doing a bit at a time.  The first job is to get the starboard side back into position by shoring up the starboard side. That will be done by taking a pattern of the port side that is in the correct shape.  So the first job is to take all the bits that are holding the starboard side in the wrong position and parts that are heavy such as the steering turning block and its backing pad. Also the lower part of the rotten frame which needs removing to let the whole of the starboard side be loose to be able to move to whatever position need to move it to to that it back where it should be. So we are going to use jacks and blocks and shores to get the shape back and also block and tackles to pull the starboard back to to the position it should be.As can be seen in the photos the starboard side as moved out by an inch and half from its original position.  The port side although in a poor conditio