Note some of the original wood from the deck boxes that was replaced! One deck box was literally a stack of lumber when we started!
Rot was found in the Bull Nose of the boat and as such, had to be addressed. The original bull nose was removed and rebuilt as shown in the photos of this section. Once the rot was removed new structural members were fabricated that match the original members. Remember, this boat is already 50 years old, so matching the original construction will take the life of this boat beyond mine!
Next, shown in the photos directly below new wood had to be fabricated with a rabbet for the planks to "land" on when fastened in to place. This rabbet was especially challenging to form with the planks in place on the boat. A combination of a router, a Lancelot 4" disc with chain saw teeth, a rabbeting plane and a sanding disc were used to create and smooth the rabbet. The fist of 2 of these is shown in place in the right hand photo. Each of these two pieces took approximately a day to fabricate.
Next, shown in this photo below, new wood had to be fabricated to form the Bull Nose. These pieces, once formed, were removed one last time and then slathered in waterproof glue and glued and screwed in to place. The the Bull Nose was faired and the grain filled. By the way, this copies not only the appearance of the Chris Craft Bull nose but also the construction techniques as the original Bull Nose was also constructed from several pieces of wood laminated together. The actual structural member "STEM" is a approx 6X6 post behind this bull nose
So this is what it looks like all put together.
Note the heat pump discharge near the bow in the right hand picture, because of the questions of why is that old wooden boat pumping so much, I labeled the bilge and heat pump discharges and trained the 24 hour security that discharges on the ports side of the boat were no problem.... however if any of the discharges on the starboard side were to pump like this call me! Funny since marking the discharges - I've never had a disturbing call! I'd recommend this action to any and all Wooden cruiser owners!
The next project is to replace rot in a section of the transom post on the Starboard side of the transom. The water line is below the horizontal hose at the bottom of the picture. This is the horizontal exhaust hose for the Starboard engine. The orange screw driver is stuck in the soft part of the wood. This is the lowest point on this transom post where rot can be found above the waterline!
All structural and planks below this point were replaced during the last haulout in 2004. We were a bit premature in making this replacement, however, by being premature - or pro active we were able to make the replacement before any of the rot detectable in the transom bow could migrate to the bottom, or the chines!
A person might wonder ???? How do they do it??? How do they have all the stuff they need to do these projects and where do they keep it?
Well, we have to have tools and supplies at the ready! So nestled into what look like steps are tool boxes. We have everything required to maintain this boat right within a few steps of the boat. Some of the contents shown are fasteners... we have more stainless fasteners than the local Hardware Store! Not shown are two more containers for fasteners so in all we have a container for Flats, Ovals, Pans, Bolts and machine screws!
Tools - we have all the hand tools you can imagine for cutting, drilling, fastening, sanding and painting. We even have a Ryobi 10" table saw, 12" planer and a Grizzly Band saw. Of course these are just smaller versions of what we have in our boat shop and sometimes we have to make a trip to the shop, but that is the exception to the rule!
New Toll Free Phone Number 866-921-2628
This boat came to Lake Cumberland from Fort Lauderdale, Florida - 2,250 miles under it's own power!
