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

 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 th...

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 w...

In England, we always blame the weather for not being able to work on our boat projects, especially if you us you are not able to afford to have the boat project undercover because of the cost of shed space or able to afford the cost of the materials to build a shed over the boat to keep the weather off the boat while you are working on her. During last winter and into the spring we tried to keep a cover over Chance, as soon as we got her a cover over her and tried it down then came a series of strong gales which were more powerful than normal and each case removed the cover again after each gale. so in the end we gave up trying to keep her covered up. Since as happened we have left the cover off her. Also the problem now it is too hot to work on her as the temperatures are in the high 20's degrees and it is impossible to work for more than a a hour or two in the intent heat without stops to drink lots of liquids and sunblock. So we have given working on Chance until the temperatur...

We have a bit of time spare we will get to grip with the aft cabin roof and how best to support it while we sort out the starboard carlin and beam shelf . As at the moment the weight of the aft cabin roof is pushing down on the hull distorting it shape on the starboard side  there is very little in the way of support keeping it in shape. Once the weight of the aft cabin roof is taken on the keel and not the sides of the hull, then we can start to push the hull back into shape with the aid of props and jacks. Just got to set up some props under the deck across the deck beams. 

 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...