Tag: restoration

Ann Davison’s 23ft Atlantic crossing yacht is being restored

Ann Davison’s little double-ended sailing yacht Felicity Ann is being restored at Port Hadlock, Washington.

It’s great news, and some of the webloggers have rightly picked up the story, including Bill Serjeant (he also wrote an earlier post), and this link (which doesn’t seem to be working right now).

Davison was quite a character: a woman who became a pilot in the 1930s at a time when few women flew, together with her husband she attempted to sail to the USA with a half-fitted out and overly-large boat, was shipwrecked off Portland Bill and lost her first husband to the sea, wrote a successful book about the affair (which I’ve read), and then made a second trip in the tiny four-tonner Felicity Ann. That trip, too, became a book that went on to sell well, (and which I mean to read some day).

You might say that by this point she had become a professional adventurer; she went on to write several books about further adventures, and one about her earlier life with her first husband.

The Wikipedia has some words about Davison here and The Smithsonian has a section from her 1952 boat about the Felicity Ann trip online. There’s also an interesting critique here about her voyaging, in which you can almost hear the writer’s brain separating in two parts as he struggles with the contradictions of Davison the gutsy optimist, indomitable spirit and highly trained aviator, and Davison the not-terribly competent sailor. (I’d argue that contradictions are normal for humans, but there it is.)

Anyway, let’s wish great good luck to the idealistic team restoring Ann Davison’s lovely little boat originally made by Mashford Brothers of Creymll in Cornwall, and now close to Washington. Here and here are two links describing their project.

Shipwright John Owles warns against laying timber decks on plywood

Rotten timber from a timber on plywood deck - John Owles shipwright

Rotten stuff from the timber and plywood deck of Antares. Scary, isn’t it?

Cornwall shipwright John Owles has issued a stern warning against timber-on-plywood decks: the commonly-used technique of laying timber decks onto a plywood substrate is doomed to failure.

‘Have one or the other type of deck construction but do not mix the two,’ he says to anyone considering a big repair and restoration job.

John makes his point on a web page reporting on restoration work he did on Antares, a 55ft schooner that was in his yard a little while ago. Her decks consisted of teak planking reclaimed from an old steamer laid onto a plywood substrate and payed with a polysulphide rubber – and the result was widespread rot.

The choice is clear, he argues: if you want a traditional-looking deck then lay a proper traditional deck using fully dried timber. Otherwise lay an epoxy-glass sealed plywood deck and paint it with a two-pack polyurethane sprinkled with glass beads for grip.

With timber on ply decks, it is almost impossible to achieve a good seal, even when the substrate is coated with epoxy.

This is particularly true where fastenings pass through the timber planking and plywood: ‘When a hole is cut in plywood it exposes 360 degrees of end grain, so every layer is at risk of absorbing water.

‘When moisture is trapped in these mid-layers where there is no air circulation, it is impossible for it to dry out… creating an ideal climate for any spores to become active and so the risk of rot is ever present.’

In building a deck, try to avoid anything that allows hidden water to hang around, he adds, and keep your vessel very well ventilated, especially when left unattended.

See John’s website here: www.rovcom.co.uk

Falmouth Quay punt Teal starts a new life in Ireland

Teal in Ireland 2

 Teal in Ireland 1

The well known Falmouth quay punt cruising yacht named Teal has been sold a couple of times in recent years, and after a brief period in Kent is now in the hands of Adrian Nowotynski  and his pal Ken. She’s currently at a yard at Oldcourt in West Cork, Ireland – in fact she’s at Hegarty’s, where the AK Ilen is currently being restored.

Teal was built in 1914 by the Cornwall shipwright W E Thomas for the writer and artist Percy Woodcock, and came to national prominence through a series of magazine articles. The sailing yacht appeared on the cover of Classic Boat magazine following a trip to the Baltic, and also featured here at intheboatshed.net back in 2007.

Adrian’s a carpenter by trade, which is going to be very useful, as there’s a lot to do – as the weblog Teal’s life in Ireland: the restoration of a 1914 gaff yawl named Teal makes very clear.

The photos above tell some of the story of how much repair work is going to be needed; the rather dreamier shots below come from a few years ago.

Thanks for letting me use your photos Adrian! I’m very much looking forward to hearing that she’s once again in good shape, and looking good.