I had already rebuilt the structure under the starboard side of her aft deck and was hoping to stabilize the port side without the same surgery but it was not to be. While tightening embedded carriage bolts on the steering crossmember I noticed they were not drawing up – the heads were simply pulling down through the port sheer clamp. Rot. That clear indication of problems plus a covering board that could be moved simply by pushing on it echoed what the little voice had been telling me all along: do both sides of the aft deck and do it right. I already knew there had been previous repairs: ugly work from underneath involving blocking and copious amounts of various marine snot prolonging the inevitable. Which is now.
So while Barry sanded and primed canoes I broke out the oscillating saw and had a shot to steady the hand. The port side wasn’t quite as bad as the starboard but once the covering board was off it was obvious why the screws weren’t holding: there wasn’t any solid wood for them to bite into. The lower half of the sheer clamp was still solid so it got saturated with penetrating epoxy to stabilize it before it got sistered on the side and blocking added to its top then faired down to the original lines.
And the after shot:
New mahogany decking milled and ready for fitting:
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Holy mahogany boat, Batman! No wonder you aren’t showing up
anywhere else! What a job! Its looking beautiful Ambrose!
Great to see you! If you are not careful Lou is going to recruit you and you will be back in Cincinnati restoring “real” boats.
SKM
Go Bama from the Buckeye land