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 13, 2010

Field trip to Maine....

Back in April a couple of us went to a boat yard in Maine where we were hoping to pick up a few things for the fleet. The word was that there was a yard selling bits and pieces off of their older inventory and it was a kind of self serve situation. Go in, rummage around, grab what you want and agree on a price. We got there and there was some cool, old bronze bits and plenty of useful things. I was tempted to pick up these three inch bronze cowls because while I have the old Nicro cowls, I really want a nice pair of bronze ones. These bronze though were abut ten inches high and looked like a corn a copia.


In the end, I picked up a small portlight, a small bronze (yard made) snubbing winch, a small Merriman wich and two small bronze Merriman winch holders and a Merriman winch to fit ( I have one already that came with the boat).
My Box.......

What was cooler than the stuff on the inside was the stuff on the outside.



There was a lot of nice boats but the one that caught my eye was a small pilot sloop that someone was just finishing after six years of work.



Inside and out, this thing seems to have been built strong.




Beautiful boat...

Saturday, October 9, 2010

New(er) Countertops.

While I had made a stainless counter for the sink....I liked the idea of boat sides being wood... I made these with some scrap mahogany...




Tuesday, October 5, 2010







Sunday, October 3, 2010

Gold cove stripe....

This weekend, it was sunny and cool and I painted the cove stripe/CL scroll gold. I used One shot sign painters gold paint. It took a really long time because I didn't tape it off (because it was recessed/routed into the hull) but it really needed a steady hand to make it look smooth/uniform. All in all, it looks great and I'm really glad to see the outside of this boat come to a finish.



( The new Awl Grip looks pretty good too.)