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 4, 2007

Varnishing started!

My project for this last week has been to finish scraping and sanding (and some striping) the teak that came off the boat. Some 60+ pieces of trim, settee/drawer fronts, tiller handle, drop boards, shelves etc. The prep work is all done and I have finally started the varnishing.


An example of the condition of the teak strips that line the hull interior. Allot of failing varnish here.


This is what they look like now. Not bad.




On the left side are the companionway boards after using a teak cleaner. On the right side are the boards after a couple coats of a sealing 50/50 mixture of varnish and thinner. This is the side that faces out. The other side (inside) was already varnished and in OK condition. The inside just needed a light scraping and sanding.

On the right are the drop boards with a couple of the finished teak slats hanging from the ceiling. I was trying to find a a way to fit all this wood in this small shop and ended up just tacking nails up on the beams to hang the slats.





This is a shot of the tiller before doing anything to it. While cleaning this with a brightener (in the bath tub, which did'nt go over well), I could see the different finishes that have been on this thing and probably the whole boat over the years. There was still some residue of past finishes deep in the grain. It was finished bright, finished white and it was even finished with a yellow paint at one point. These same colors were on the insides of the cabinets. When I got the tiller it was left natural to weather/grey on purpose or all of the finish had failed from a lack of care. I decided to clean it up and varnish it.



Below is the tiller after two coats of the 50/50 varnish and thinner. The other picture shows the nice Turk's head grip detail someone made for it. Its pretty beaten up with years of paint but I like it.



Over to the right are two of the drawers and the rails that make up the shelves for books etc. Hanging up in the background are the remnants of the teak decking. While this isnt going back on the boat, it still may be useful for something else. We'll see.


These are the are the settee berth/drawer fronts. They really cleaned up nice and will be great after a couple more coats.





This is what it looks like now in the workshop. Wall to wall finished teak. A couple weeks ago, this room used to smell like an old boat, now its just the clean smell of fresh varnish. I could barley get out of there with out ending up like a fly on a flytrap. Every available square inch of space is filled with drying varnish. I need a bigger workshop.


So the plan now is to just get down there now every couple nights or so over the next week and get the rest of the coats on this stuff. Then, when that's done, its on to making the frames for the settee benches, the sink and the icebox. And, while that's going on inside, I'll also have to find time to get outside to finish grinding and sanding the interior of the boat so its ready to tab in the new cabinets etc.




Here's the kid picking out her room and helping me decide what I want the icebox and sink layout to look like. She's asking for a combination of butcher block and granite counter tops with an ice cream machine, but I'm not committed to anything yet.
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