Brad Taylor (NC)
Well-known member
Some of you have probably seen the other thread I posted when I received the float, but figured the restoration and history info was worthy of it's own thread.
Back in November of last year, I had a chance to pick up a scull boat that had made its way from VT to CT via Mike Rowinsky. Mike delivered it on his way down to FL for his holiday vacation. She was in pretty rough shape cosmetically but overall sound condition.
I received the boat on the 21st of December where I began a game plan for restoration. The owner had actually got the boat for free from another gentleman off of eBay. The eBay ad described the boat as "circa 1890 and believed to be factory built".
Here's what she looked like when she arrived in my shop. The coaming was rotten as was some of the decking near the coaming on the starboard side. I could tell from initial examination, that some of the ribs and cockpit braces were cracked or deteriorated. All of the original bronze hardware was still with the boat including half rounds for the hard corners, bow and dagger board. The bung plug receptacle is copper (or at least I believe it to be as I haven't cleaned it up yet) and the original bung plug was still attached. She had seen some rehab over the years. At some point a motor board had been attached but was no longer there. It had been fiberglassed with poly resin, including a piece of fiberboard glassed over on the decking. The solid board that acts as the keel and bottom of the boat had been saturated with some type of resin or epoxy in order to halt the board from rotting completely away. I later learned what it was in my quest for her history but I'll get to that shortly.
My first step was to remove the rubrails, coaming and decking. This involved the removal of 100s of bronze flat head screws with many of the heads/slots being caked with bondo.
Rubrails off.
Next up was the decking & coaming, since I was going to replace the decking with new cypress I elected to hole saw around a lot of the screws, thus allowing me to lift the deck of and remove the plugs from the bracing.
I replaced 4 of the ribs, built several back up with thickened epoxy and started replacing the cockpit framing (all done with ash).
Here it is with partial fairing to the inside done.
After a crap ton of sanding out what I feel sure was lead paint and fairing, here is where I'm at on the inside. Completely faired, with just a little bit of touch up sanding to do.
I'm going to run the cockpit braces all the way across, even where the opening is for now. My plan is to make a template using the original opening, bracing pieces and remaining good piece of coaming to mark the braces. Once the new braces that run around the cockpit are installed I will cut everything so that is perfectly flush and square.
I'm waiting on my cypress to be kiln dried so I decided to flip it over and start on the hull.
Upon flipping, this is what I was dealing with.
While working on this I started researching the history. As I can't recall how many times I've just set and marveled at the craftsmanship and to think they did this without power tools. There was no glue in the original construction of this boat. Simply tons of brass screws, a few bolts, copper rivets and cotton caulk for the seams.
I contacted the eBayer that had originally listed the boat. He was kind enough to give me a call back and give me a touch more insight into the boat. He found the boat in New Hampshire from a guy who had a yard full of stuff for sale. She was laid up outside with several other junk fiberglass boats. Her beauty hidden under all the delaminating poly resin and glass and full of water. Fortunately, he recognized that she need to be saved. He said the boat was so waterlogged that it took four guys to load her into the bed of a truck (two people can carry her with ease now). Which by the way, I have yet to mention, the decking, hull and framing are all white cedar. While the center board, transom, coaming and a few other braces look to be white oak. Anyway, he brought it home with the intention of restoring it. He removed the old glass and put it up in his barn for well over a year, as once the glass was removed it continued to seep water. He was also the one to saturate the center board with West System epoxy. He said the board was brittle to the touch and you could have easily pushed through it. I'm very glad he did this as the board was as sound as new once I got it. So as it stood, I knew a little more about her history, but obviously was still on a quest for more.
Over the past couple of nights I have been working on fairing the bottom. As I mentioned the center board was solid but part of the starboard side had either rotted off, drug off or something of the like. Using cabosil thickened epoxy I spent several evenings building the starboard side back up and shaping it to match the port side. Of course, after quite a few more hours of sanding, she is pretty much ready for glass.
So as if this wasn't all cool enough, here's where it gets even cooler. I decided that I would do a little research with the maritime museums, particularly those of the NE. I was somewhat familiar with Mystic Seaport and had visited their site before so I started there. I navigated my way to their partial catalog and typed in the search string "scull" of which I got 147 hits. Most were simply text links but there was an option of sorting by pictures. Low and behold the first duck boat to come up was this one.
Along with the following information:
Title: Duck boat
Accession Number: 1979.28
Category: WATERCRAFT
Type: duck boat
Maker: Brooks Boat Co.
Place: USA, CT, New Haven
Date: Circa 1880
Materials:
Description:
Of course at first glance, I was like, "No Way!" So I enlarged it and started to look closer. Upon further inspection, I am 99.9% sure that Brooks Boat Co. produced the boat I know own.
Here is my reasoning:
First, Brooks Boat Co. was based out of New Haven, CT during the 1880s. Making it quite fathomable for the boat to wind up in NH and matching what the previous owner had passed along, that the boat was "factory built circa 1890".
The cover is the exact same shape and built with the exact same locking mechanism. (I haven't taken a picture of the cover)
The boat in the picture was obviously canvas decked and it looks to have some type of rail holding the canvas around the edges. My boat, has no cotton caulking between any of the decking seams (while still having plenty between the hull seams) and there are screw holes in the decking consistent to what would have been a rail.
Next up, my coaming has these little blocks with notches for a board that served as what I assumed to be for a seat mount. The seat in the picture would fit into them perfectly.
Lastly and one of the big ones for me, you can see in the photo some kind of rope going around interior of the coaming. I assume it was for placing vegetation, although I'm not 100% of its purpose. However, my boat has several bronze eyelets with the remnants of some type of shockcord (obviously a later replacement to the rope) and there are also holes in the coaming that match up with where the missing eyelets would have been.
The only discrepancy is overall length. My boat is 14'1" and 48" wide while the one pictured is 15'1" and 48" wide. Of course this isn't really a big deal as I imagine many of these were custom built and may have been material dependent.
Regardless, I'd love to hear what you guys think.
As for the restoration, I'm keeping the boat as true as form to possible but still making her a functional, lasting float. I've looked into canvas decking but am probably going to go the faux route which involves using 8 oz glass, squeegeeing the epoxy after applying the layer of glass and not filling the weave.
I definitely want to pay homage to this boat but I will hunt her next fall. And unless my life falls on dire straits she will be passed down in my family for generations to come!
I'm not sure if Mystic Seaport actually has the boat in their possession or if they simply have that picture. I left a message with the ships plans person today and hope to hear back from her soon.
If you would like to follow the progress of the restoration, feel free to give Toller Boatworks Facebook page a visit or like.
Toller Boatworks Facebook
Thanks,
Brad
Back in November of last year, I had a chance to pick up a scull boat that had made its way from VT to CT via Mike Rowinsky. Mike delivered it on his way down to FL for his holiday vacation. She was in pretty rough shape cosmetically but overall sound condition.
I received the boat on the 21st of December where I began a game plan for restoration. The owner had actually got the boat for free from another gentleman off of eBay. The eBay ad described the boat as "circa 1890 and believed to be factory built".
Here's what she looked like when she arrived in my shop. The coaming was rotten as was some of the decking near the coaming on the starboard side. I could tell from initial examination, that some of the ribs and cockpit braces were cracked or deteriorated. All of the original bronze hardware was still with the boat including half rounds for the hard corners, bow and dagger board. The bung plug receptacle is copper (or at least I believe it to be as I haven't cleaned it up yet) and the original bung plug was still attached. She had seen some rehab over the years. At some point a motor board had been attached but was no longer there. It had been fiberglassed with poly resin, including a piece of fiberboard glassed over on the decking. The solid board that acts as the keel and bottom of the boat had been saturated with some type of resin or epoxy in order to halt the board from rotting completely away. I later learned what it was in my quest for her history but I'll get to that shortly.
My first step was to remove the rubrails, coaming and decking. This involved the removal of 100s of bronze flat head screws with many of the heads/slots being caked with bondo.
Rubrails off.
Next up was the decking & coaming, since I was going to replace the decking with new cypress I elected to hole saw around a lot of the screws, thus allowing me to lift the deck of and remove the plugs from the bracing.
I replaced 4 of the ribs, built several back up with thickened epoxy and started replacing the cockpit framing (all done with ash).
Here it is with partial fairing to the inside done.
After a crap ton of sanding out what I feel sure was lead paint and fairing, here is where I'm at on the inside. Completely faired, with just a little bit of touch up sanding to do.
I'm going to run the cockpit braces all the way across, even where the opening is for now. My plan is to make a template using the original opening, bracing pieces and remaining good piece of coaming to mark the braces. Once the new braces that run around the cockpit are installed I will cut everything so that is perfectly flush and square.
I'm waiting on my cypress to be kiln dried so I decided to flip it over and start on the hull.
Upon flipping, this is what I was dealing with.
While working on this I started researching the history. As I can't recall how many times I've just set and marveled at the craftsmanship and to think they did this without power tools. There was no glue in the original construction of this boat. Simply tons of brass screws, a few bolts, copper rivets and cotton caulk for the seams.
I contacted the eBayer that had originally listed the boat. He was kind enough to give me a call back and give me a touch more insight into the boat. He found the boat in New Hampshire from a guy who had a yard full of stuff for sale. She was laid up outside with several other junk fiberglass boats. Her beauty hidden under all the delaminating poly resin and glass and full of water. Fortunately, he recognized that she need to be saved. He said the boat was so waterlogged that it took four guys to load her into the bed of a truck (two people can carry her with ease now). Which by the way, I have yet to mention, the decking, hull and framing are all white cedar. While the center board, transom, coaming and a few other braces look to be white oak. Anyway, he brought it home with the intention of restoring it. He removed the old glass and put it up in his barn for well over a year, as once the glass was removed it continued to seep water. He was also the one to saturate the center board with West System epoxy. He said the board was brittle to the touch and you could have easily pushed through it. I'm very glad he did this as the board was as sound as new once I got it. So as it stood, I knew a little more about her history, but obviously was still on a quest for more.
Over the past couple of nights I have been working on fairing the bottom. As I mentioned the center board was solid but part of the starboard side had either rotted off, drug off or something of the like. Using cabosil thickened epoxy I spent several evenings building the starboard side back up and shaping it to match the port side. Of course, after quite a few more hours of sanding, she is pretty much ready for glass.
So as if this wasn't all cool enough, here's where it gets even cooler. I decided that I would do a little research with the maritime museums, particularly those of the NE. I was somewhat familiar with Mystic Seaport and had visited their site before so I started there. I navigated my way to their partial catalog and typed in the search string "scull" of which I got 147 hits. Most were simply text links but there was an option of sorting by pictures. Low and behold the first duck boat to come up was this one.
Along with the following information:
Title: Duck boat
Accession Number: 1979.28
Category: WATERCRAFT
Type: duck boat
Maker: Brooks Boat Co.
Place: USA, CT, New Haven
Date: Circa 1880
Materials:
Description:
Of course at first glance, I was like, "No Way!" So I enlarged it and started to look closer. Upon further inspection, I am 99.9% sure that Brooks Boat Co. produced the boat I know own.
Here is my reasoning:
First, Brooks Boat Co. was based out of New Haven, CT during the 1880s. Making it quite fathomable for the boat to wind up in NH and matching what the previous owner had passed along, that the boat was "factory built circa 1890".
The cover is the exact same shape and built with the exact same locking mechanism. (I haven't taken a picture of the cover)
The boat in the picture was obviously canvas decked and it looks to have some type of rail holding the canvas around the edges. My boat, has no cotton caulking between any of the decking seams (while still having plenty between the hull seams) and there are screw holes in the decking consistent to what would have been a rail.
Next up, my coaming has these little blocks with notches for a board that served as what I assumed to be for a seat mount. The seat in the picture would fit into them perfectly.
Lastly and one of the big ones for me, you can see in the photo some kind of rope going around interior of the coaming. I assume it was for placing vegetation, although I'm not 100% of its purpose. However, my boat has several bronze eyelets with the remnants of some type of shockcord (obviously a later replacement to the rope) and there are also holes in the coaming that match up with where the missing eyelets would have been.
The only discrepancy is overall length. My boat is 14'1" and 48" wide while the one pictured is 15'1" and 48" wide. Of course this isn't really a big deal as I imagine many of these were custom built and may have been material dependent.
Regardless, I'd love to hear what you guys think.
As for the restoration, I'm keeping the boat as true as form to possible but still making her a functional, lasting float. I've looked into canvas decking but am probably going to go the faux route which involves using 8 oz glass, squeegeeing the epoxy after applying the layer of glass and not filling the weave.
I definitely want to pay homage to this boat but I will hunt her next fall. And unless my life falls on dire straits she will be passed down in my family for generations to come!
I'm not sure if Mystic Seaport actually has the boat in their possession or if they simply have that picture. I left a message with the ships plans person today and hope to hear back from her soon.
If you would like to follow the progress of the restoration, feel free to give Toller Boatworks Facebook page a visit or like.
Toller Boatworks Facebook
Thanks,
Brad
