Skiffs flying along!

This week saw the completion of another Boats 4 Folks skiff ready for our annual fundraising raffle on Fathers Day - stay tuned for tickets! This boat came out beautifully - one of our best paint jobs yet thanks to Anton's perseverence to detail and the other volunteers pitching in as well. This boat has been moved into our booth in the store at Beaumont Mill Antiques & Collectibles.

Varnished bits go in...

MB, Chris, Jim and George all smiles!

Next step is preparing the kits for this springs 3 skiff builds - two in Toronto and the cancer camp in May and one here at the K&C Boatshop during the Big Daddy Festival on Father's Day Weekend. George and Jim have been on this project for some weeks but the last batch of marine plywood just arrived and George was right at it last night! It is ready for the fine touch of Anton and his Belt Sander to finish before scarphing into the long panels needed to make boat parts!

George up to his knees in shavings - pure heaven...

Meanwhile Quail will need a protective frame in order to go out for a light blasting inside before we get into a full rib replacement - which none of us have ever done before...

And John is going to experiment with refastening the original inner planks on the Shepherd Outboard to see if they will flatten sufficiently to be re-used - stay tuned on this one too.

all dry fitted in original places...

the trickey end.

The original inner and outer planks have various degrees of "cupping" in some areas so we will be experimenting with removing some of this with steam or hot water to try and avoid having to make new planks when these are mostly in good condition.

This is a good time for you to become a Gatsby Member before our boating season begins. Your financial support will be thanked by invitations to join us when we go boating. Ask Malcolm for more details on this programme or pass this link on to someone who might like to help kids and go antique boating!

Kids Boatcamp Days this summer

New events and activities are shaping up for Kids & Classics Boatshops this summer!

The details are being worked out for us to partner with several charities who work with cancer kids and other kids-at-risk communities - mostly in Toronto. Our 1957 27' Shepehrd "Despina" and possibly some of our smaller boats will be based in Toronto Harbour where we are creating a number of Kids Boating Camp Days. These days will include rides in the big Shepherd with an opportuinity to "drive", a sailing experience, rides and training in our smaller boats, rowing and fun ways of learning some basic boating skills.

We will pass on the names of these org's as soon as we have permission to do so!

Meanwhile back at the boatshop in the Glen we are getting ready for our participation in the Big Daddy Festival on Fathers Day Weekend - which will include a Boats For Folks skiff building event this year as well as the Paint-A-Boat Mural on the Wavecrest, Design-A-Cupcake and of course an antique boat show.

seats ready to go back in

rails freshly varnished and ready

The raffle skiff is done except for final assembly, skiff kit parts are coming off the George and Jim assembly line and things are looking good in the Boats 4 Folks department!

outer planks off to John's!

and ready for planking!

John managed to strip the outer planks for the Shepherd Outboard at great risk! The inner planks are ready to go back on the boat this week. Peter has the Mercury Marathon stripped down and the parts list done - it is clear that this is the first time this engine has been appart since built in 1960!

George checking out Peter's discoveries

Quail our 10' cedarstrip tender is turned over and will need rib replacement taking us into new ground - steaming!

pretty little boat, lots of work first!

Exciting times at the boatshop! Come on out and have a look any Saturday morning!

George's Shop Updates!

The shop is buzzing with activity!  The rails seats for the latest skiff have been varnished (Ray Jim Scott) , the seats for older skiff ( In showroom) have been bleached(Jim) .

The hull of the Lightning has been sanded ( Peter) . The four "stepped" scarf sheets from stock have been glued successfully and are mounted on light tables for Anton to belt sand (two 16 foots sheets) .

The shorter cross planks for the Shepperd  outboard have been plugged , filled and completed sanding . When we have Johns outer planks we can proceed with assembly . The three sets of fittings for the skiff builds are cut and planed . The three decks have been glued with splines . Jim and I modified the skiff parts SLIDES to suit Antons big 10" saw . They work well and Anton's saw is #1 .

Canvas The Lightning!

Was this day ever going to arrive! Somehow it seems appropriate that we gave the Lightning new life today just as the smoke clears from Scott's ceremonial Viking Ship burning! Perhaps for all of us in the shop the "laying on" of the deck canvas has represented the great turning point in this restoration. No sweat from here on. Here's the morning in pictures...

A final sanding, cleaning and tacking..

Paper and taping all around...

Dry fit the canvas and rough cut...

Rolling out the first area for epoxy...

Many hands flatten the canvas into epoxy

next the side decks...

pull out and flatten the canvas...

cut-outs done, front deck laid, more epoxy!

Trim excess all around after stapeling...

There! Nothin to it! One Lightning deck!

WOW what an accomplishment for a bunch of beginners! I think we really will get this boat in the water this summer - stay tuned...

new author

Hey, it's Scott writing as a new contributor. This is a test.

I went up to my buddy's place up near Dundalk two weekends ago, to clelbrate UYphellya, that great mid winter festival celebrated by the Scandinavian nations, which culminates with the burning of a Viking ship, to usher in the New Year and make propitious offerings to the gods. And then eat and drink alot.
So I built a boat and burned it.

 

Where there's Lightning there's dunder (-heads trying to install a deck)

We are proceeding carefully after MUCH RESEARCH, nudge nudge wink wink...

Today the first coat of sealing epoxy was paddled and rolled out on the Lightning's deck - two coats went on as the stuff was dissapearing into the bare plywood deck like you wouldn't believe!

This week it will be sanded out so next week (drum roll), the canvas goes on! MANY HANDS NEEDED

Chris tapes off to prevent drips.

Scott and Chris do the finishing touches

Once the canvas is on we'll have to sand and paint it. We were thinking it would look great in natural tan canvas but epoxy is not UV tolerant and has to be covered or it goes chalky fairly soon. Then we'll be on to lots of varnishing the trim and seats etc - most of which have several coats already.

On the little Shepherd Outboard the hull is ready for the original bottom boards to go back on so we are plugging all the screw holes with sticks and epoxy. As everything has shrunk over the years and as we are going to put the original boards back on - they will be in a slightly different location and the new holes will have to drilled as required. This will allow us to tighten up the plank clearances to new specs.

George has a system, plugs are flying into place!

Great news this week! We can confirm that a date has been set for our first Boats for Folks Skiff building event with kids fighting cancer. This will take place in Toronto as a joint venture with an organization that specializes in helping these kids. Intended date of the build is May 5/6.

Big Daddy Festival is on again this year in the Glen and Kids & Classics Boatshops will be part of it. Events at our boatshop will include a Boats for Folks skiff building, an antique boat show, Paint-A-Boat (the other side of Wavecrast) and likely some other features tba!

If you wish to become involved in our activities this year call about attending our pot-luck boatshop meeting this Thursday Feb 16, 6:30 to 9 pm. 905 873-0141

Of Tops and Bottoms...

Lots of activity this week, beginning Tuesday evening with Trevor and George under the Shepherd with sandpaper and scrapers. Trevor found a note written in pencil on the number one forward deckbeam which said "6 sets 16 foot" - suggesting these were the first set.

"6 sets 16 foot"...

"I love sanding!"

By Saturday all four projects were in some level of action. With the pitching in of new volunteer Rajmund, he and Jim sanded the first primer coat of the skiff out pretty flat, tacked it and laid the second coat on. This one came out really well.

Ray and Jim lay it on smoooth!

really looking good here...

Meanwhile the insides of the Shepherd outboard was ready for a varsol wash and a fresh coat of Epifanes Woodfinish Gloss. George, John and Anton crunch through to make this all happen today.

lots of corners and hidden areas...

Anton and John get at the bow while it is open

Eventually there are 4 of us under there brushing away but what a difference! Too bad this is mostly out of sight in the finished boat! We are already working on stripping and cleaning the inner and outer original planks for the bottom. This week (or two) might see them all done and ready to go back on the boat!

under the bow deck - pure gold!

closing the last section!

At the other side of the shop Chris has showed up with the 86" wide canvas for the deck of the Lightning. Today some last minute fairing and smoothing of edges where the canvas will be stretched over the deck. With luck we'll epoxy the deck Tuesday night, sand it Thursday night and be ready to apply the canvas next Saturday. Lots of hands required to pull the canvas - so come on out!

Chris studying

Chris studying...some more

Today we had Jim, Ray, George, John, Anton and MB out. Amazing what was accomplised with many hands and it is inspiring to have projects move along so quickly as well.

Roni and Wayne will be attending a meeting in the Glen Monday night regarding the planning of the Big Daddy Fetival on Father's Day weekend - June 16 / 17 this year. We'll have the full story for you next week's edition but we will have lots going on at the Boatshop Museum! For sure there will be a need to bring in some funding to make all of this happen - let us know how you would like to pitch in...