Between 1957 and 1970 Cheoy Lee produced approximatley 133 folkboats originaly sold as the the Offshore 25, better known as the Frisco Flyer.

There were three versions of this small blue-water boat. 91 in all wood and 42 in Fiberglass with wood. There were 55 Type I's and II's and 78 of the Type III's. The Type I (aka the Pacific Clipper) was an all wood boat, had a mast that was stepped through the deck, a traditional folkboat fractional rig and a smaller cabin. The Type II's had a larger teak trunk cabin and a masthead rig. The Type III's had a larger teak dog-house cabin, some "standing" headroom and a masthead rig stepped on deck. The earlier Type III's were solid teak built onto a fiberglass hull and the later Type III’s (1966-1970) were made entirely out of fiberglass with teak paneling.

This boat, Yard # 1507 is one of approximatley only 30 Type III's left. It was out of the water for the previous 16 years when I got it and then about another 5 more while I rebuilt it. It was an empty, cracked hull when given to me and needed a complete restoration/refit. It took about five years of long nights and weekends of working outside under a tarp, in the garage or in the boat during cold winter nights, wet rainy afternoons and everything in between. The occasionally eager assistant on the project was my four (now ten) year old daughter who can have this boat as soon as I convince her mother to get another one. This blog is the record of all the work that "we" have done to the boat as well as some other somewhat related events with friends and family. Eventually, this will be put together in a book which will stay with the boat.

She still has plenty more to go but for now, Jackaroe has been in the water for a couple years now and thats all that matters...

To see past projects, use the links below.



Questions and comments to Matthewearlgarthwait@gmail.com





Sunday, March 25, 2007

Chainplates started...

Finally made some progress with the chainplates. I was worried that I was going to have to replace them because they looked corroded (at least on the backing plates) and I couldn't tell if they were original to the boat or if they were replaced.


The bolts have wasted away and stained the paint with rust. I couldn't really tell if the chainplate was also corroded.

I tried to find out if they were original or not by emailing other owners to ask what theirs looked like. The other boats had chainplates bolted to small knees. I know that they are this way on the 26's and 27's as well. The ones on this boat lay against the inside of the hull and encapsulated in a beefy hollow fiberglass rib a couple inches deep and wide. They're bolted to this rib with a weep hole at the bottom to allow moisture to run out if/when water works its way into the channel. There is one bolt attaching the top of it to the wood supporting the deck. The bolt here is wasted away but the exposed part of the plate looks OK. It looks even better top sides where it comes through the deck.


Beneath the top bolt are three bolts attaching the plate to the inside of the fiberglass channel. Again the bolts are useless but it already looks better with out the backing plate and rust.



Most of the bolts broke apart when trying to remove them. The easiest way to deal with them was to just grind them flush and then drill them out. I was worried about what was going on behind the glass. I had been reading about crevice corrosion in chainplates recently (and the questionable quality of Asian metals in 60's boats) and needed to get a better look at them to be sure they were going to be safe. One thing I did know was that they seemed big for this size boat. I guess because the boat was designed to be an offshore boat, the chainplates were overbuilt like everything else

The best way to know what was going on was to just open them right up and take a look. I started by taking off the backing plates, then grinding the bolts down and boring out the "bolt remnants".


Then put on the storm trooper suit and cut off the front of the channel encasing the chainplate.

Once this was done it was simple to just pull the chainplate through the deck. After seeing it, it was clear that they were original to the boat. Like all the hardware on the boat, it had "1507" chiseled into it, along with some Chinese characters. Wiping off any stains and dust and the plate itself looked great. No fissures, or crevice corrosion. No cracks or deterioration. They look good for being 42 years old.


So I'm thinking of just drilling out the bolts in the other five plates, retapping the threads, setting new bronze screws in place and putting the cleaned up backing plates back on.


OR, cut them all out, taking a good close look at all of them and finding a better way to mount them to the hull. Makes sense to get a close look at all of them and to do it now while the boat is empty.

OR better yet, cut them all out and throw them away. In the remaining glass channels, bed some hardwood in glass then get a 12 foot bar of silc bronze, cut it into 2 ft lengths and bolt them to the outside of the hull. Strong, less leaks and really easy to keep and eye on.
Got the pricing for the bronze today...

OR bolt the bronze outside the hull?

We'll see.
Posted by at
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)