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

 Over the couple of weeks we have been able to get a replacement Baby Blake sea toilet for the fore cabin of Chance. The only set back with the toilet is that it need stripping down and servicing and any worn parts replacing. The difference between a new Baby Blake and getting an old serviceable toilet is about £5000.00 which makes restoring an old toilet a good deal.  Also we have been able to pick up a complete set of stanchions for Chance as they came off an James Silver which was changing them for a set of bronze stanchions and they were surplus to their needs and wish them to go to a fellow James Silver owner.  So we keep our eyes and ears open for period parts for Chance as we are trying to put as much as possible the original parts back on Chance as we restore her back to the way she was originally build in 1948. So if any of the readers of this blog know of any James Silver's replacing the old fitting or any James Silver's are being broken up as they are beyond re...

  Now I have one project where I need it to be work on the Chance restoration can get underway again. Now we have after three long days, we now have Mai Star II in the shed she should have been in for a long time. Because we have not been hard enough on customers making decisions about work being done on their boats. We finally had enough of waiting and got the boats removed from the yard so that owners wishing to have work could have worked done on their boats who had been waiting for the other boats to leave. With this extra room in the yard, boats that have been held up by other boats not been worked on because their owners not making up their minds what they were going to do to their boats. We gave them a time to get their boats out of the yard or get the work done. Now that Mai Star II is now in the temporary semi permanent grey shed there is now room in the yard for the Morgan Giles 30 to go once it comes out of the Workshop into the yard before it goes to the local marina to...

  Just got home after spending a couple of long days in Woodplumpton working on My James Silver Western Isles 'Chance" clearing out rubbish left behind by a previous owner. Once the rubbish was cleared away out of the cabins it made it easier to start to remove some of the smaller items such as locker and cupboard doors as well as other items to make it easier to view the hull from the inside and be able to make repairs to the hull and bulkheads as necessary along the way. One of the larger jobs to do is going to be removing the engines, sterner and tanager over the coming months. A lot as changed these photos were taken, Chance as moved from Woodplumpton to Walton n the Naze. The interior of Chance as been stripped out back to the bare hull. The worse of the removal of the rotten and broken parts are removed ready for the reconstruction of the hull and superstructure can begin this summer. We are fund raising to get the materials to start the next stage of the restoration pro...

Show less Over the past three or so years, We as a family have tried to document the restoration of Chance. The restoration project as taken a long time as it as been done during the Covid 19 pandemic and the fact Chance was in a different part of the country to where we live, in Woodplumpton in Lancashire and we live in North East Essex, so the trips to Chance for the first two years of her restoration have been a long distance affair to say the least. However, we were up to it and we did a lot of work removing much of the old furniture and the other items from inside Chance which were beyond saving, such as rusted fuel and water tanks, worn out stern gear, Seized engines which could not be restored without a lot of money being spend on them. The inside of Chance was photographed a lot so to keep a record of how much of the interior was intact and what had been changed over the years and not always for the better and in some case caused major problem to the hull structure. this was fo...

 At the moment we are in this position with Chance, We have a large poly sheet over Chance which keeps getting blown off as we can not fix it down very well and is a thankless task having to keep pulling over the boat until the next major gale of strong wind decides to remove the cover again.  That's the position at the moment, what we are looking for is a shed/workshop like the one over Helen Wycherley Heritage Restoration project in Whitby North Yorkshire. This type of shed/ workshop would do our restoration project a world of good and make possible for us to get on with our restoration of Chance.    So if anyone out there can put us in contact with anyone who wishes to move on their poly tunnel shed/ workshop, please get in contact with us through our social media channels. This would help our restoration project get underway again. Te cost of building a new shed is way out of our price range and without some help it is looking in a grave way as to how to move for...

 This past week, a great grand daugther of the third owner of Chance/Token contacted Us to ask if the boat that our family is restorating in the same Chance/Token that her family owned between 1970 and 1991. To which I replied it was one and the same boat, Kristy said that she remember spending happy times on Token as Chance was called at the time during this time when Great Grand father owned Token and when her Grand Father then became Token's owner and sailed around the Solent area during her time in that area of the UK. It was good to hear from a former owner's family that they enjoyed the boat in better times before Chance/Token started her slow and painful decline to the condition we found her in after a number of failed restoration project be owners in-between Boxall family owning her and now when we as starting to restoration Chance/Token back to a sailing/motoring condition and back on the high seas once more and hope to sail her back to her builder's yard in Scotl...

  Hopefully  this Easter weekend (Sunday & Monday) The Chance Restoration team should be working on Chance down at Titchmarsh marina  is Walton on the Naze. My wife Tricia does craft fairs to help raise funds for the Chance restoration project. As well organising the behind the scenes work to keep the project going. While Simon gets on with the physical part of the restoration with the help of friends when they are able to help out. This weekend the team are going to try and put the cover back over Chance and try and make it stay in place and keep the rain and weather off Chance as best as it can until we can raise enough funds to get a permanent shelter build over Chance that will stay over her for the rest of the restoration project.  Over the winter Simon has been busy trying to source wood and other materials to get on with the major structural jobs such as the starboard side of the aft cabin area and the transom. His main job at the moment is to strip off th...

A low down front on photo of Chance now that Chance is covered over for the winter to keep as much of the inside dry. Now having got a small drone I am able to take ariel photos of Chance to give a different dimension to the work being done on the outside of Chance over the coming months as we get into the spring and will be able to get on with the work on the outside of te hull.  

  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...