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





Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Small Regatta...

I was able to get some work some work done on the shelves and planned on finishing them at the end the day when I had some free time when I got a call asking if I wanted to go for a quick sail. I met the guys down at the club and after a quick dinghy ride out to Cicada we were off. It was about 330pm and the wind was up. That would have been nice enough but I then got a call telling me to stay on the boat because the kid was going to play with her friends (the real owners of Cicada) and to just show up later for dinner. Sounded great and we headed back out to sea where we were met by a Concordia yawl looking for an unplanned wooden boat regatta. The Concordia came out of the starboard quarter and we turned to greet it. She passed us on our port side and that went by (literally) with little comment from us, other than to say “that’s a good looking boat”. She then came about to pass us on the starboard side. The details of who was faster then who etc is being debated but needless to say, after it tried to round us again, she had our full attention. We sat up, put our drinks down, cleaned up the lines and sheeted in the main. Steve even put the center board down, which I can’t remember being used in the last five years or so.

Some photos of the "regatta"….

First pass..


Commenting...


Pass on the starboard side...


Heading home....

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Companion way part 1...

I had every intention on sanding the hull to finish the prep for painting but ended up staring at the bare, open hole that is supposed to be the companion way. I grabbed some teak I had and started making a mock up for the trim pieces and "threshold" Not sure if that is what Its supposed to be called but its the bottom piece. I've been using a number of books on this boat project but the one that I am modeling the companionway after is "How to build a wooden boat" . Its a simple design which he took from Sam Crocker, I think and I've seen essentially the same design on other boats including my friend's Sparkman and Stevens (Cicada). The one thing that my friends S & S has is a stainless rail embedded in the slot that the boards drop into. It gives it a real strong feeling and seems built to last, so I may copy this on Jack-a Roe.

So I cut the pieces to fit and didn't have piece of teak big enough for the "threshold" so I used red oak. I wont use this in the end but used it because it was the only piece I had in the shop at the time that would fit. Trying to hold all the pieces in place while attempting to slide the drop boards in is a real pain. I had a bunch of clamps holding everything and eventually all of it would come crashing down when I tried to slide the boards in. Finally, it worked and amazingly it fit with almost no room to spare.

Until this boat project, I struggled with cutting things to fit well. Every home project seemed to be cut too long and was pounded into place or was cut too short and the difference was filled with putty or caulk. I seem to have finally have the knack for it. Or maybe I just care a lot more about this boat than home projects. Anyways, the pieces are cut and I still have to go out and buy one more piece of teak before gluing it all in place.

I didn't take photos of the companion project so far but this is a picture of Cicada's and its basically what I expect mine to look like. I took this shot the other afternoon when we went out for a quick after work sail. (See Small Regatta post)

Monday, October 8, 2007

Hull (above the bootstripe)...

I didn't have the camera with me so there's no pictures of the work, it's not that exciting anyways. I went out to work on the shelves and ended up working on the hull because the weather was nice.

The hull has a variety of scratches, crazing, spider cracks from stresses inside and outside the hull, nicks and holes that needed to be repaired before painting. The faint scratches, I did nothing to excpt wipe them clean with solvent and applied a thin skim coat of two part Interlux epoxy filler/fairing compound. Deeper scratches and cracks, I opened up/cleaned up and filled with the two part epoxy. The nicks and holes, I cleaned the opening with a grinder, then used the sander to create a smooth taper from surface to hole and filled with the epoxy.

Next step is to sand everything smooth, then fair the hull building up any low spots and sand some more.

Then it's on to the hull below the waterline.

Saturday, October 6, 2007

CL Circumnavigation...


Its not a Frisco Flyer but it is an old '69 Cheoy Lee sailing around the world so I thought it was worth keeping an eye on it. Looks like the owner has made a lot of repairs in preparation for the trip. I'll add a link to the site in the margin.
"In September, 2007 Glenn Wakefield will attempt a solo, non-stop circumnavigation west about from Victoria, British Columbia, making him the first sailor to attempt the voyage from North America. Glenn will sail Kim Chow, his Phil Rhodes designed Offshore 40' sloop built by Cheoy Lee in Hong Kong in 1969. For more than 4 years, Glenn has been making extensive modifications to Kim Chow, preparing her for the rigors of sailing offshore for approximately 10 months. "

See it here...http://www.kimchowaroundtheworld.com/public/index.html

Friday, October 5, 2007

Frisco Flyer On Craigslist


Here's a Flyer that was just posted on Craigslist. The seller believes the boat to be a 63 0r 64. Unfortunately, the ad only has two pictures. One of the port side and another shot of the Dragon carving. The seller doesn't have any additional photos (I asked). I would have really liked to have seen the oarlocks mentioned in the ad....
Any ways, here it is...

http://monterey.craigslist.org/boa/431657365.html

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Reply to: sale-431657365@craigslist.org


25' Cheoy Lee Pacific Clipper/Frisco Flyer Fiberglass hull, full keel, wooden mast, originally came with inboard diesel but is now setup with oarlocks and oars. New bottom paint last year. Boat is in Berkeley. If you are capable of sailing her from Berkeley to Monterey, a transferable mooring in a great location in Monterey Bay is a possibility.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Shelves, part one...

I've been putting off the shelves for one reason or another but finally got started on them tonight. The shelves are simple enough to make, just a couple of narrow pieces of Ply squeezed between the knees and bulkheads. One side cut to fit the curve/profile of the hull, the outside edge left straight to fit the teak trim rail I had varnished last winter. The shelves then sit on small blocks on the knees/bulkheads.

I cut them to fit tonight (which at 900pm made my neighbors happy), next time I'll sand and paint them white like the rest of the inside. Then cut the blocks, sand them and attach to the knees/bulkheads. Attach the trim pieces and their done.


Aft Port side. These are the Port and Strbd side pieces of ply. The piece across is the rail that will make up the edge of the shelf hold in the books, food and assorted junk.


Forward port side shelf in place. The piece on the cushion is the trim.


Forward Strbd shelf. Cut to fit the old knees, new knees and a place for the head plumbing. The piece on the shelf is the trim and the wood on the cushion are a bunch of 1/1 pieces of teak cut to make the braces/supports for the shelves. They will be cut with some kind of nice finish to any exposed edges and then varnished.

This what they should look like when done...
Cant wait to start filling them up.