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, May 6, 2007

Cabin sides stripped/sanded....

I was supposed to be taking it easy on my foot and using crutches etc but the weather was too nice not to be working on the boat so I spent the entire day standing on/climbing up and down on the ladder. I'm having the stitches out tomorrow so we'll see what the doctor thinks about that.

The sides were in pretty rough shape and removing the old varnish was taking a lot more effort than I would have expected from 16 year old varnish left outside. The varnish was thin and failed in a couple of spots but seemed overly thick and hard as a rock in others. The grain of the wood was really raised as if the wood wasn't properly prepped before covering it up with coat after coat of varnish . It also seemed that someone had just painted the sides with epoxy in places and when one of the previous owners came over to drop off the boom, he said just that. He had covered the sides with epoxy. He said he did this because he planned on just painting the sides and not finishing them bright because they seemed so far gone and because more bright-work means more work in upkeep.

I thought it would be a crime to paint over it and if there was a chance that the wood was still good under there, the reward would be worth it in the end (even considering that bright work would mean more work).



I was able to strip the epoxy and varnish off in a few hours with some really nasty chemical stripper. I had tried some more environmentally friendly stuff but it wasn't even making a dent. It took about three sessions of application and scraping.



After sanding for a few more hours the wood look almost new. I need to replace a few bungs but basically it cleaned really up nice. If I ever decide on how to fix that gap in the boards the sides will get a fresh coat (or 10) of varnish and will look great.

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