James Silver Western Isles Chance Restoration

 Now having removed a number of planks on either side of the hog as found that the inner hog is in need of replacing. This means that we will have to remove the rudder tube. This means having to remove all the frame work from the transom to expose the rudder tube. The rudder tube in this photo is sitting on two shaped wedges on top of the hog.  Also all this aft deck planking is going to have to be removed as well. no easy job as it was laid down with galvanized screws which have been in place for almost 80 years and will very likely not come out without a lot of damage to the teak decking, so it is likely we will cut off the screws between the deck and the deck beams. This is not a problem as the deck beams have to be replaced anyway because at one end they are not fixed and at sometime in the past were cut short. So now the fun will start dismantling the aft end of the boat more to get the hog repaired and the whole of this area rebuild as strong as when it was first build. 

The breasthook of Chance is a shaped steel flat bar with a series of holes in it to fit bolts through to connect the stem to the forward ends of the upper beam shelf. It appears that the bolt through the stem has been cut off on the outside and hammer through into the chain locker and not replaced when the new upper section of the stem was replaced in the past. Having looked at the top of the stem that was replaced it is not the correct shape or size so this will be replace in good time before a new bolt is fitted through the stem and int the breasthook. One good job that was done over the years was that the inside of all the lockers was painted with white paint so that it give us an idea of how the interior was originally fitted and so gives us a good idea of the shape and size of all the cabinetry  This is highlighted on all the bulkheads where cabinetry fitted throughout Chance's interior from the forecabin in the bows to the aft cabin  at thew stern of the boat. This is the fir

The grey shed/Workshop at the J-Star Marine Services boatyard is now the home base for the any work  that can be done off Chance and items that be worked on undercover. A work bench is now set up to use as a sanding bench so that all the floorboards can be laid out and inspected and sanded down. A lot of the floorboards have been left to weather and need a good sanding down to get though to the clean surface and so can varnished again as they once were and give the cockpit a bright airy feeling once more. The floorboards starting to get a better colour after being sanded back to show off the rich teak colour these floorboards once had and will again  Getting through the pile of floorboards, these are just the cockpit floorboards, there are the rest of the floorboards from the other areas of the boat to do as yet. The tops being sanded back and then turn them over and sand the backs before gery bilge painting the under sides of the floorboards throughout the boat. In time the whole of t