Sand Putty & Paint - some more...

John puttied the Shepherd screw holes, George and Jim carried out some final sanding of the frames and rails while Chris tacked the skiff and readied it for it's first coat of primer.

tacky, tacky, tacky...

sand, sand, sand...

George removed the last of the Sikaflex from where someone had sandwiched plywood on the transom.

scrape, scrape, scrape

fill, fill, fill...

then everybody got painting, Chris on the skiff and the rest on the Shepherd. Feels like a huge step ahead once finishes begin to go on. Although on the Shepherd we will be back into gooping and scraping to ready the original planks for re-installation. The plan is to re-set all the inner and outer planks to their original spacing of one popsicle stick width appart. We suspect this will mean that the last plank on will be a new one to make up for the 50 years of accumulated shrinkage - we'll see!

First coat done!

over and under

A really great day to leave the shop with finishes done and drying. Lots of participation all week and two projects really moved ahead. We reviewed the pros and cons of staining the cedar dinghy to mask the years of wear and tear on the outer hull. Cedar looks so lovely with clear varnish on the bare wood but this girl had been bumped around, original finish half scraped off then painted green and that half scraped off - it looked really dubious to bring it back. We decided to mask off a rectangel and apply 4 or 5 coats of varnish to see if the stains and scrapes mute out enough to live with....

first coat - marks do jump out!

Michealanglo and the Cisteen keel?

See you next week at the Kids & Classics Boatshop!

Anton, Tevor and George have at it!

Projects are really moving along this week - it's really great to see this happen.

Our "apprentice boatbuilder" Trevor has been out to every session this week and received detailed training from Anton our Master of Preping. It is so easy to sand through previous layers when trying to achive a 'flat' surface between coats of finish - especially at edges. Trevor has becaome quite good at this and we are looking forward to seeing the results as the skiff he was involved in building last springs Big Daddy Festival weekend begins to see paint this weekend.

Anton "If you can feel it you will see it"

"Dr." Anton mixes a batch of epoxy

 George went at the Shepherd dressing the holes we had filled earlier in the week - so all the underwater frames and longitudinals are ready for grey paint on Saturday. Next we will scrape and sand the underside of the decks and sides for a few coats of varnish. Most of this will be out of sight when the boat is finished but we just "had to do it" anyway.

Filling and sanding old screw holes

George and the 'final touch'

Finally Thursday night, the skiff was ready for primer and the Shepherd was ready for grey paint on its nether parts - so our attention turned to the transom...we've been stalling this off! We are not sure but we think this is not the original transom covering. It is 3 pieces of plywood and there are bad spots in them - it has to be redone.

If anyone out there knows for sure how Shepherd would have covered the transom on these boats - we'd love to hear. We would prefer to layer it with three solid mahogany planks. The catch is they would only be about 5/8" thick and that may be why plywood is there now. Whoever put the plywood on used something like Sikaflex - what a job getting that off - chisels, axes, masonry hammers, saws...

just getting started!

resorting to destruction...

and DONE!

Amazing what many hands can accomplish in short order!

We are always open to seeing new faces - especially on Saturdays. Visit the Beaumont Mill Antiques & Collectibles Market in Glen Williams and we are just across the parking lot.

Boatshow and Boatshop this week!

There was one good reason to venture past the ACBS booth into the TIBS this year and yours truly did so - to see the amazing new steamboat "AREZOO"! This is a work of art. Chris and I saw this boat apparently her first day in the water at his yacht club - Mimico. She was at the show and I had a chance to speak with the late owners daughter, Barb and learned that the steam equipment came from Peter Freebody on the Thames River in London, UK. The details of this boat are impeccable.

AREZOO at Mimico

Steam engine & controls

The ACBS booth was fun as usual, our own Harry Sutton was the Master of Ceremonies - sort of (really his wife Ruth). Displays included the requisite Dippy, several outboard hydros presented by Richard and Bill Shorney who we will hopefully see at our shop one of these days and a really lovely Ackroyd 9' rowboat much like the one in our store booth except it is beautifully restored by Kenny Lavalette of Woodwind Yachts (where Chris purchased Puffin).

Ruth & Harry Sutton at ACBS booth

Ackroyd Dinghy

Meanwhile back at the Kids & Classics Boatshop, the chips are flying and so was the 16' Shepherd! George and John went at the hole plugging like fiends and they are all done! Rails and frames are being sanded in preparation for paint this week.

plugs trimmed and being sanded

Shepherd flying on 2 cranes!

Meanwhile Chris and Jim went over the bottom of the skiff and decided that it need a bit more filling if we are to achieve a finish up to Anton's standards - question was "where is Anton?"

This week should see the grey part of the Shepherd repainted and the first coat of primer on the skiff. No word on the 96" wide canvas for the Lightning yet. We are going to look into applying a bit of stain to the bottom of the cedar dinghy which might soften the contrast with iron stains in the wood.

Drop in any Saturday morning to see what's up at the Kids & Classics Boatshop in Glen Williams!

of porcupines and paint...

Chris was in and sanded away on the skiff followed by Scott who did a bit more, tacked it off and with George laid a second coat of the Buff colour on the inside of the boat. One more sand and paint should finish the inside - perhaps later this week.

 

Chris cleaning up!

Scott & George - artistes!

 

 

 

George plugged more screw holes in the chines and keel of the Shepherd out board, John arrived later and drilled out the broken screws and plugged those too. All holes are now plugged with splints of mahogany and epoxy, they need to cure overnight so they can be sawn off flush tomorrow. Once that is done we will roll the boat over onto it's starboard side so we can remove the planking from the port side and do all the same to it.

 

George sticks it to the Shepherd

starboard fully porcupined

 

Meanwhile Roni reinvented the whole booth in the mill, dragging the shop team in to move around all the big bits! We added some shelves, pulled out boxes of freshly donated 'stuff' and began loading the shelves. Looks completely different now and she's just getting started! I believe Scott has 'volunteered' to impart a creative note into redesigning how we tell our story in the booth - watch for this development!

 

Roni and the New Look...

Let's see, where would this go best...

 

A great day in and around the boat shop!

I you like old boats, old motors and helping kids - come on out for a visit!

Saturdays from 9 to at least 1 pm

Tuesday & Thursday evenings from 7 to 9 pm

call 905 873-0141 for more information (Malcolm)