Life's a Gamble, so lets take a Chance Restoration Project

  The story start back in the early part of the 2000's when Simon was asked to do some work on Token as Chance was called at that time.. This name had been hers for many years, since she was sold by her first owner who had her commissioned by the renowned boat builders James A Silver of Rosneath in Scotland. Chance as she was originally called at the time of her launching in 1948. My wife Tricia would visit me while I worked on Token (Chance) and would ask if we would be in a position to ever be able to have a vessel like Token. To which I answered not every likely as we were not in a position to own such a vessel of her size or perigee. I continued to work on Token until the owner moved her to another place. At which time I lost contact with her. Fast forward to 2021 and while looking on the YBW forum I cam across Token (Chance) once more and a person had taken her on as a project to restore her.  However,, this owner had not told his wife about the boat or how much work it w...

Sorting out the workshop shelves into different parts of the interior of Chance, this shelf as all the  doors and butterfly hatch lids and a few of the smaller galley locker doors on this shelf This shelf has the main part of the cabinetry parts and the cockpit lifting roof  hatch which needs dismantling and rebuilding there are also a number of small items which were taken out which need replacing with new bits such as work tops for the galley and the main cabin starboard side cabinet which was cut about by one of the previous owners to fit a diesel cooker in the main cabin which will now be fitted in the galley where it should have been all along.    The bottoms of the main cabin floorboards given their first coat of grey bilge paint to seal the undersides of these floorboards to stop any more bilge water and oily water and dirt soaking into them once they are put back in the boat. The drawers in a poor condition having been in the boat when the interior had water ...

This is a walk through Chance's interior to show what we are going to be doing over the next few months and for the rest of the year.

 A fter the Christmas break has come to an end it was time to go down to Chance and survey the damage the high winds and rain had done to Chance. Thankfully, Chance was in reasonable condition given that I had not been able to get down to her apart from securing the cover on the ground so that it did not get damaged anymore than it had already.  Chance had taken on a lot of water in her bilges because I was able to get the cover over her before today given the high winds and the rain made it dangerous to work on her decks. So today was the first day that it was safe to get on her decks and get her cover back over her again and start to empty out her bilges which were full of fresh water, a bad type of water to have in any bilge.  Now that I have the cover back over her topsides and tied down again, it was time to make a start on emptying out the water that had collected in her bilges. This was a job I had done before the Christmas break, but having the cover come off the ...

 This past year as been one of many turns and changes along the way. We had plans to get the restoration of Chance underway in a major way. however this was not to be the case. As the following paragraph will show you. Having moved Chance from Woodplumpton in the previous November to Walton on the Naze in Essex, we set about making plans to start doing the restoration in the spring of this year.  However, this was derailed by the passing of my wife's mother after a long illness, this event happened and so the project was put on hold for most of the year apart from doing the odd bit here and there either on Chance or in the workshop doing small jobs while we rebuild our lives once more,  So has the months when on during 2023 without the heart to move the project along the project ground to a slow halt and in the end it stop with a cover being put over the boat and all work stopped on the boat itself.  So we both when about our daily working lives while we came to term...

Sorting out a small area in my yard where I can sort the floorboards under cover and so they can dry out over the past few months. The many problem with the floorboards was that they have been in Chance for such a long time without any chance to dry out and so became water logged ad so they were taken off Chance and brought to my yard and under cover and so they could dry out. Now that Chance as a cover over her the floorboards in some parts of the boat can go back in position and help us be able to set up a small bench in the main cabin and a small galley area so we can keep ourselves warm with a brew during the time we are working on Chance inside as well as outside over the winter.  Picking up the floor bearers we have got left when Chance was dismantled and see which can be reused and which can be repaired and what will need replacing so that the floor can go back down in the fore cabin galley and main cabin and the compainway from the aft cabin to the cockpit. Starting to clea...

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...

This area was neglected for so many years, One of the major jobs in this area will be to a deep clean and dry the whole area out and get rid of all the old items that are not going to be used again.   So it is out with the cleaning gear and empty the bilge and wash down the bilges and get rid of all the rubbish that as find its way into bilges. We got to start some where and it might as well the cockpit and then work out from there. These old gear shifrs are coming out as they are no longer going to be used and take up room in the cockpit bigles. The seacocks will be comiong out and get serviced and put back in later in the restoration.