Frisco Flyer Sailboat Restoration Project: Gaps in cabin house boards

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

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Gaps in cabin house boards

There are some large gaps inside the cabin house boards where it looks like they have separated (the boat has been out of the water for 16 years). There are gaps in other boards that have been filled with long thin strips of wood, still in place and in great shape. There are other places where the separation is smaller that look like some kind of glue was used.

I'm looking for suggestions (from anyone) on how to best fill these gaps knowing that they will swell somewhat. I have plenty of teak dust to color the adhesive if that's the route to take.

A clear separation between the boards inside but no noticable gaps between the same two boards outside.

*Most suggestions so far are to just spline in thin pieces of wood. Maybe this weekend.

**Looking closer at the boards of the forward/smaller part of the dog house...the boards have a gap on both sides (inside and out) they're not separated and there is no day light between them. They meet in the middle and seem to be built that way because even if they did swell somewhat they couldn't get much closer together. On the outside it looked as if there was no gap because the spline was well matched and covered with old varnish. Here's what an art school education gets you.....

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