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, April 6, 2010

Fiberglass Deck....Finally!

So when the forecast called for 4-5 days of sunny warm weather, I knew I had to get the fiberglass on the decks now in order to get everything else finished for her to go in. I wanted to just get started with the epoxy but once I was out there, about to spread out the cloth, I realized that I had to grind/scrap, sand a few inches of the hull in order to make a stronger bond between the hull and deck. The hull is covered in a thick gel coat (thick on the port side but thinner on Stbd. for some reason. Probably has to do with when they were building up the hull in the mold back in 1965. Its so clearly thicker on one side that I'm guessing that afterthey sprayed the gelcoat, and then the glass, that the boat rested on its port side and the gelcoat settled more on that side? All just a guess.) and getting that gelcoat off is not easy. The best way was to use a 3 innc grinder and if I was careful, I could feather and smooth it from gelcoat to raw fiberglass hull. If I was in a rush to get back in the house to read a bedtime story or to make dinner for the girls, I would grind it in a real choppy rough way that was harder to sand smooth before the glass and epoxy went on.

Some pictures from the last few warm days...

Glass cut and ready to go...


Three inches or so of the gelcoat was grinded, sanded and wiped clean...


The deck was sanded flush/fair one last time, the transition from deck to sides was sanded smooth and wiped down....


Glass waiting for epoxy...

The weather really cooperated, warm sunny and no wind on the coast for once. Once I had the cloth cut to the rough shape that I needed, I made sure there was enough to extend over the edge to bond to the hull. Then I would mix up 5 or 6 oz of West System epoxy, pour it along the cabin house first and drizzle the rest out on the rest. Once the epoxy had really soaked in and set along the cabin house, I "Squegeed" the rest out away from the house towards the sides. This seemed to work great and I have to say that I ended up being pretty good at this. On the whole deck, I have only found one small bubble that I must have missed. Once the epoxy had kicked off and was getting set, I cut the excess cloth and peeled it off.



A couple days later...... the deck is fiberglassed!!

Ok, whats still left is...

1. sand the deck
2. run glass tape along the edges, cabinhouse and pulpit area
3. epoxy those areas and sand fair
4. mix up PLENTY of epoxy and microballoons, spread, fair and sand
5. do this a couple more times
6. high build paint?? not sure if this is overkill
6. or 7. epoxy paint.
7. or 8. re install, deck hardware
Done.
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