x-class restoration project

Framing continued

2013-09-14T21:54:00.000-07:00

I haven't been able to do much recently, Winter is always a bit flat out with work, but towards the summer I should have a bit more time. I have made a little more progress with the deck framing though.

I have also started planning on the fittings and things.As i have almost nothing, i will probably get most things made up. I am designing a triangulated frame to take the stress of the mast step and chainplates a bit and hopefully spare the garboards around the mast step from any unnecessary stress.

Deck framing

2013-04-03T12:44:00.000-07:00

Finally I've made a start on the deck frames.
The first part done was the sides of the cockpit. I had some kahikatea, the same that I used for the gunwales, left over, so the first job what to bend it around to find the right curve. I took measurements off the plan of Rona for the width of the side decks and just made a fair curve that was as close as possible to those measurements.

Once I had the line where I wanted it, I marked out the areas to cut out on the transom, aft beam and forward beam. The Spanish windlass held the curve while the glue dried, but once everything had hardened, the compression between the ends held the curve without any springback.

The next stage it to make the supports for the side decks. I got some old kauri form a house recycling place called Musgroves in Christchurch. They've got lots of old wood and I found a nice wide board I could use. It was covered with paint and wallpaper, but after i got that off I found it was a very nice piece of wood.
So scribing around the planks, I made a cardboard template and then cut it out of the board. The first frame is on and only 5 to go. I glued and screwed it through the original holes with brass screws. I scraped the paint off where I would glue first of course

Inside paint done

2013-04-03T12:30:00.003-07:00

I got the final coat on the inside, a gloss enamel. I've still to do the inside face of the transom, but I'll do that after all the framing for holding the traveller and things is in properly. I'll also put another colour on the forward supports around the mast step later too.

Painting the inside

2013-03-11T15:27:00.000-07:00

progress this year....
I turned the boat over to make a start of finishing the inside. I have painted the inside in preparation for doing the deck framing. I'll put one more coat on, then start on the framing. I am thinking that if the framing is in place it is going to be pretty hard to reach in to get at the area around the centrecase. I'll turn it over again before i have finished, so i'll add a few more coats of varnish and tidy up the edges of the paint on the centrecase then. It is much easier to get to upside down....

wooden blocks part 2

2012-07-13T22:25:00.001-07:00

I finished one block today, I can't wait to try it.
After last time, I let the block soak in linseed oil overnight, and this morning I fitted the sheave and peened over the sheave pin which snugged up the coin washers nice and tight.

I'm thinking of a few different types of rope for the strop. I got a small piece if sisal because it looks very traditional more than anything else, and it looked like an easier rope to splice than anything else that was half decent at the shop.

For my first go at splicing it wasn't as terrible as I feared. I made a loop to what I felt would be right, sliced it together, whipped the ends of the splice and stretched it a bit. I did the seizing for around the thimble first, then put the thimble in, and bound it all tightly.

I'll try it out a bit first
before i use it on the

boat. It seems really firm and solid, but I guess the sisal will stretch to some extent. I'm wondering if soaking it in water or varnish will swell the fibres and make it a bit tighter and stronger.

If the sisal doesn't work out, it is only a matter of making another strop, so that is not a big worry.

The whole thing cost a total of around $6.50

Wooden blocks

2012-07-11T21:30:00.001-07:00

This is the first post in a while as i haven't had time to do anything lately, but since I have a very short "holiday" I thought I could at least get started on some blocks. I was inspired by a few posts on the Wooden Boat forum and decided to have a go.

I found a particularly good looking and heavy piece of native Rimu, which is perhaps not ideal, but is quite a hard wood, so with some washers around the pin ends, I think it should hold up OK. My sheave is a shop bought delrin sheave and the pin is the shank off an old bronze bolt. I will use Japanese 5 yen coins for the washers at the pin ends because firstly I have a huge pile of them, and secondly in Japanese 5 yen, is said "go-en" which also means "valued relationship" or "valued connection". The coins are a copper and zinc alloy and they corrode to a nice copper green colour.

The first step was to cut the Rimu 4x2 down to the width of the block. I wasn't too fussy about the cut as it would be all rounded off later.

After cutting a rectangular block out, I drilled out the gap for the sheave, leaving enough space at either end for the rope to pass through. It was looking pretty ugly at this time, but after a bit of sanding and rounding off it looked quite good.

The next stage was to carve the bedding holes for the coin washers and file up the pin to fit the holes already in the coins. Another good thing about the 5 yen coin is that it already has holes in it so you don;t have to feel guilty about drilling holes in money. The rope strop will cover the pin and most of the coin anyway, but even so...

This is as far as I got today. I still need to cut the rope grooves longer and make up the rope strop for the block. I'll also soak the whole block in linseed oil before putting it together. I'll lightly peen the pin over at the ends just in case as well.

transom done

2012-04-14T15:45:00.000-07:00

Here is the transom after 2 coats of varnish so far.
It has been glued on and the end grain sealed with epoxy.
I still need to tidy up the white paint and I'll continue the waterline around the aft end of the keel which will delineate the transom and the keel a bit. There will also be a capping around the top of the transom when the deck goes on and this will continue the line of the gunwales.

Transom

2012-04-04T12:09:00.001-07:00

After sanding the transom and finding a few more bits of rot, I decided to just fill the holes and laminate a nice Kauri veneer over it. I got a piece of 250mm Malaysian Kauri ripped and finished to 5mm thick. After cutting the basic outline I spread epoxy onto both sides and clamped it to the transom There is a join towards the bottom as the transom is about 450mm deep, but there is only a very small gap in the join and it will be mainly covered by the name there, it will match all the other glued up cracks and things as well.... :)

The wood of the transom and the veneer both looked very similar wet out with the glue, so even though I'm still not 100% sure on that, I'm wondering if the transom is one piece of Kauri as well. It is definitely original, so it should be Kauri in any case... but the growth rings grain pattern is quite different. That could be just how it is sawn though, and it does have the same speckly grain that Kauri has...

I used the rope to pull the top of the boards clamped over the veneer down and also to pull the edges around the slight curve of the transom. There is nothing between those boards and the veneer to stop them sticking, but I made sure to break the glue joint before the epoxy set too hard and so it was easy to take them off when it had all hardened.

Trailer

2012-04-04T11:55:00.000-07:00

I found a trailer for the boat the other day on Trade-me.
Actually a guy was selling a Phoenix dinghy and he mentioned in the ad that he had an old trailer as well "if you want it" So I sent him an e-mail, and got a reply a few months later.

When I went to have a look I thought it looked pretty good, there was just what looked like a broken spring mounting bracket. He only wanted $150 for it, so I accepted his offer.

When i got it home, on closer inspection it was only the bolt which had broken and not the bracket. After drilling out the bolt (it had rusted itself in tight) and fitting a new one, the trailer is as good as new.

I'm thinking I'll put a deck on the trailer and make it to fit the boat's beach trolley rather than sit the boat on cradles directly on the trailer. That way it will be easier to rig and you wont have to climb in the boat to do things, and I can also use the trailer for other things too.

almost finished painting the hull

2012-02-18T20:43:00.000-08:00

I've applied 3 coats of varnish and the first top coat of white gloss for the bottom now.
I'll apply 1 more coat of white and then let it sit for while to harden.
While it is hardening i will lift it up a bit and work on the inside from underneath before turning it over. Because the boat is so beamy, it is much easier to work on the areas close to the keel when it is upside down, otherwise it is quite a balancing act.

1st coat of varnish on

2012-02-11T20:55:00.000-08:00

Today I have finally applied the first coat of varnish on the topsides.
I have intentionally kept the odd mark, glued up crack, nail, etc visible as I think it adds to the character and I'm quite proud of owning such an old boat, so I don't want to make it look like a new one. I think the varnished kauri is just so beautiful, I could sit in the garage and watch it until the varnish dries. (who thought watching paint dry could be so interesting)
I plan to put on 3 coats of varnish and I'll have to sand properly between each coat because I did have a few runs in it.... Even though the various battle scars are left for all to see, I want the finished coat of varnish to be as perfect as possible. After all the varnishing is done I will mask off the waterline and paint the bottom gloss white.

Port side progress

2012-01-24T14:17:00.000-08:00

I have primed the port side bottom today, I love it!
It is really cool to start to see how it might look when it is finished.
The finish is not perfect, but I'm thinking that with all the proud nails and unevenness in the planks, added to the fact that it will definitely move when it takes up, it is unrealistic to think that a perfect finish will ever happen on this boat. So with that I'm at peace and happy with it. :)

Here's some photos.

Still fairing...

2012-01-21T20:10:00.000-08:00

I'm still fairing the hull.
I'm getting there on one side. I painted along the waterline and some of the planks so I could see clearly where I need to sand perfectly to and where I can fill if I need to. Also the paint shows up the rough bits that I might miss. I think it is looking good with the contrast of wood and paint, so it is kind of exciting to see what it might look like.
There will be imperfections in the varnished topsides, visible glue in the cracks, old nail holes, and things like that, but I think it all adds to the character.
The waterline is approximate at the moment and is an inch or so lower than it will ultimately be, especially around midships. I didn't want to paint right to the actual waterline just yet because I still need to do a little more sanding around there.

fairing the hull

2012-01-12T12:16:00.000-08:00

Lots and lots of sanding going on.
I have nearly filled all the holes and cracks with epoxy now.

The other day I marked my guess at the water line so I would know where I can and can't use filler. I want to varnish the topsides but paint under the waterline, this is good for me because there are a lot more cracks mid plank and uneven bits under the water line than above it.

The shape of the rocker line leads me to guess that it should sit with the bow a few inches in the water. There is very little rise towards the bow and it just looked right. So I raised both ends of the boat to be exactly the same height off the floor where I wanted the water line to be at the bow and stern, and then made up a "T" shaped bit of wood at that height. As I moved the T shaped wood down the hull, I marked it off at intervals, connected the marks and I had my waterline.

I'm giving the topsides lots of extra care and slowly sanding the old wood, paint and filler back to nice clean wood as much as possible. You can see the nice kauri colour coming through now. It is a little hard to see in the photo, but it does look nice.

Work on the underside

2012-01-06T16:09:00.000-08:00

I turned the boat over the other day and work has begun on the underside. At first i didn't think there would be so much to do, but it turned out there there is...
I started with cleaning out all the lands. Over the years there has been various attempts to seal the joints between the planks with all kinds of stuff. The worst of it looks like polyester bog. I've also found bits of fibreglass, hemp and wood putty. It looks like the whole hull was sheathed in fibreglass at one stage. The previous owner has taken it all off and the bits and pieces that remain flake off easily with a chisel.
I'm working epoxy glue (resin and West system glue powder) into all the cracks after cleaning them out as well. It looks like it will hold together much better and I will put a flexible sealant into the lands where I can.

You can appreciate the shape of the boat much more without all the cracks. :)

Gluing up the cracks

2012-01-01T13:54:00.000-08:00

As there were a lot of small cracks in the planks I decided to glue them up with epoxy glue rather than replace them. Since I don't have any spare kauri lying around, nor really the skill or inclination to replace whole planks, and they weren't really big enough to glue in bits of wood, I just covered the outside of the crack with masking tape and forced as much glue as possible, tightly into the cracks. I'll do the same from the outside and hopefully that should hold it.
I riveted some plywood patches over some cracks to pull them back flush before gluing them up. It seems to have gone really well, and there is definitely less movement all round. Someone had tried gluing up the cracks before with an aerolite type of glue, so hopefully epoxy will be a bit better.

One interesting thing I found while I was cleaning out cracks was that a lot of the various gaps in the boat have hemp cord in them. I wonder if that is traditional and original or whether it was an idea from some plumber mate later down the line....? Whichever, I thought it was pretty cool.

The ribs are finished!

2011-12-22T12:47:00.000-08:00

Now every rib has been riveted in and broken ones replaced. I could do them all by myself with the aid of a concrete block supporting an axe head or heavy hammer supported by blocks of wood when i needed the extra height.With the copper nail pushed through from underneath and then the axe aligned to be resting only on the head of the nail, pressure on the nail and axe can be maintained by leaning on the boat gently as you peen on the rove.

I have also replaced all the ply centrecase supports with solid wood that actually fits the clinkers of the floor. The supports are biscuit jointed with marine ply and epoxy. I did this for 2 reasons, one the join half way up means the the grain of the wood is aligned better, and two it was the only way to make it fit with the size boards I had. :)

And finally I have got rid of all the steel screws and nails from the top side of the boat. I suspect there may be some steel screws to be replaced from the bottom because it looks like the screws holding the centrecase on may be steel...

The next job is the mast step and front of the centrecase, then after that I need to replace some rivets on the lands, between the ribs as some have lost their roves.

Mild steel screws and construction plywood.. $#@!!#*

2011-12-07T14:08:00.000-08:00

People who try to fix boats with mild steel screws and non-marine grade plywood need to be punished... ..after being made to take out all their rusty screws.
I have (almost) finished taking out the centrecase supports, and since all 17 screws were thoroughly rusted in, I had no choice but to cut and chisel the plywood from around the screws and then get the screws out with vice grips. It was a very effective way of getting the screws out and they wouldn't have come out any other way. Even with the vice grips, some of them took a lot of coaxing before they would move.

At least now i will be able to put some better fitting supports in and straighten up the centrecase. The previous supports were vaguely shaped like the floor, but only vaguely. The centrecase is aligned properly at the bottom but had been fixed with a twist to port at the top.

laminated ribs

2011-11-23T18:46:00.000-08:00

I've constructed 2 test ribs. they are of 3.5mm marine plywood, cut with the grain and across the grain of the outside veneers of the ply, and laminated with epoxy. I had 4 slats fail when I bent the ones cut with the grain, but none for the ones cut across. I made a jig to hold the slats in place on the right curve and clamped them together while the glue sets. I have clothes pegs on the ends which clamps the slats together without inducing any curve due to weight on the ends.

I have now got most of the ribs in on the starboard side and it is looking good. I can't do any more until I make up some new ribs, but I can do some half ribs of the floor as I have some suitable wood for them.

Gunwales on

2011-11-20T20:07:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend I got the gunwales on both sides screwed and glued on. They are Kahikatea and attached with stainless steel screws, a couple of bolts and epoxy glue. I also took the chance to glue up any cracked boards and wedge them in to bond together and to the gunwale as well. Fixing the gunwales on has stiffened up the sides of the boat greatly, as has the few ribs I have attached so far.

The ribs are going on well and I'm getting better at doing the rivets too. I made a jig to make up some new ribs out of a piece of MDF. I'll have to make about 6 or 7 new ribs as there are a couple that have cracked and so I'll replace them too.

I finally gave up trying to get out the 5 rusty screws holding the port corner brace of the transom on with a screw driver and just chiselled the wood away. After cutting the wood away I could clamp the exposed ends of the screws with vise-grips and work them free. The rust had stuck the screws fast into the surrounding wood, and once this rust was broken away from the threads, the screws were not too hard to get out.
In the end it was a good thing to take that corner brace off because the edge of the transom had a bit of rot that needed to come out. If I hadn't taken it off I probably wouldn't have noticed it.

Steaming and Riveting

2011-11-16T12:45:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had the day off so i tried out the steamer.
It worked really well, but i think I should have steamed the gunwales for a bit longer as they still had a bit of resistance to bending.
The new ribs were not great, I had some Kwila and some old wood from the boat (probably mahogany)and they didn't like to bend at all and broke. I was thinking about maybe getting a different wood, but in the end I decided to make up some laminated ribs which will be easier and stronger.
The PVC pipe of the steamer did bend a bit with the heat, but it wasn't too bad. It was mainly around the corner joint and some longitudinal bending, but it can definitely be used again.

My first effort at riveting the ribs was much better. It went really well. I put a coat of paint on the lower surface of the rib and on the hull under the ribs to protect the wood here. It is amazing how much stiffer the hull is already with just a few ribs in. I had a bit of trial and error in cutting the nail to the right length for peening over the rove, but got there in the end. I will paint the inside of the boat so I'm not too worried about making beautiful ribs, I think laminated ones will take the stresses better and hold everything in place a bit better.
It was quite hard to hold the hammer underneath, so I put a concrete block with various thicknesses of wood there to rest the hammer on its side. it worked really well and made it much easier to do on my own. Later on I used an axe head which was great because the wedge shape fitted in so well with the curvature of the hull.

Preparing to replace some ribs

2011-11-12T13:53:00.000-08:00

Some of the ribs are cracked and need replacing, some of them are missing and need to be done. I spent a fair amount of time looking for copper nails and roves to rivet the ribs on. Most places I went to didn't even know what a rove was... Finally I found some at the Boat Shop in Ferrymead. http://www.boatshop.co.nz/

I don't have a rove punch, so I made one out of a bit of oak and copper pipe around the end to give it strength. I think it should do the job.

I have 2 or 3 ribs which the old owner made up. He didn't steam bend them but instead ran a cut along the flat of one end, bent and glued it up, like a half laminated rib. I thought that was a pretty good idea and it doesn't look so bad on the ones that have been glued properly, but I want to do steam bent ribs, so I made myself a steamer.

The steamer.

At first I made a wooden box type steamer from some fencing pails, it was pretty cheap, but while I was looking for some metal plate to make a duct for the steam to go from the source to the box, I thought that a down pipe would probably be better and cheaper and more efficient, so that's what I did.

I have a camp stove to heat the water and have attached the corner of the down pipe to the lid with rivets and metal braces. I made a support that clamps to a saw stool, so that if the heat from the steam softens the PVC pipe too much then at least it will be supported.

I have shorter piece of PVC pipe for the ribs, the longer piece is for the gunwales. When I have a spare couple of hours next i'll see how it goes.

New deck frames

2011-11-06T20:27:00.000-08:00

I've completed the new deck frames. The old frames had been broken and repaired a few times, so I thought something stronger to support the bowsprit and mast at deck height would be necessary. I will put a strong frame down the centre and some lighter frames in between to support the foredeck. The old deck beams were full of steel screws and nails as well, so it was easier to replace the beams rather than trying to get them out.

The next job is to build a steam box to steam bend some new ribs and the new gunwales.

Transom repair

2011-10-28T22:14:00.000-07:00

Today's work was to cut out the rot in the transom and glue in a new piece of wood. Quite an easy job, and I was pleased that the rot was only on the top 2cm or so of the transom and not any more. The whole top of the transom is quite rough, so I will probably take 5mm or so off the whole top edge to clean it up.
I have clamped the starboard side top plank to the transom with a twitched rope and I'll screw that back on before removing the rope.

I also took the chance to glue and clamp some of the split planks and gaps here and there with the left over glue. I will also screw these on securely before removing the clamps. I used epoxy glue for all the repairs.

A bit of history

2011-10-27T17:44:00.000-07:00

The X-class, also known as the Jellicoe class or 14 footers were very popular in New Zealand in the early 1900's. The x-class was designed in 1918 by Gladwn Bailey (son of the famous Chas Bailey Jnr) They were a one-design class designed for a crew of between 3 and 4 people.

The basic dimensions are:
LOA 14' (not including bowsprit)
Beam 5'9"
Mast: 18'
Sail area Main - 130sq.ft
Jib - 20 sq.ft
Spinnaker, leading jib and storm jib were also used, a maximum of 4 sails to be set at a time

The "Iron Duke" at the Auckland Maritime museum (built 1920)
IRON DUKE, owned by Lord Jellicoe (Governor-General 1920-1924), was instrumental in establishing the X Class in New Zealand. Lord Jellicoe’s involvement lent the X Class, also known as the ‘Jellicoe’ Class, high status. With the establishment in 1921 of the Sanders Memorial Cup for inter-provincial yacht racing, the X Class became the premier New Zealand centreboard class, a status it retained until the 1950s. http://www.nzmuseums.co.nz/account/3358/object/2250/IRON_DUKE_X_Class_yacht