Whats going on

I've been contemplating writing a post for the past two weeks but I wanted
to have some progress made and some photos taken, Unfortunately the
camera charger has yet to reappear,
I've contacted a man who says he will have the keel timber for us but when
I rang yesterday he said maybe next week so We'll just have to wait and
see with that one, It will be worth the wait if he has it because his prices
sound very good indeed, less than half what I expected.
We went to the boat last Friday and took templates of most of the starboard
sawn frames, They should be close enough to use for picking the grown
crooks for both sides, We also took down all the timber for the stand we
need to build, Unfortunately we didn't have everything as Liam offered
to move the boat for us, Anyway Ken wasn't feeling good and that was
apparent from the gas leaking from his rear end, and the weather was crap
to boot,  Its probably a good days work to get it done.
I went to town to today to get the Iroko to make the new rudder as I can
get on with that at home but when I got a look at what they had in stock
I decided it wasn't good enough for what they where charging so there
going to order in a few lengths of good quality timber for me, Its only
two lengths 2.300x200x80 and 2.500x200x65 and that works out at 150
euros. I know the rudder isn't a priority at this stage but I can make it
at home and I would like to see some progress and at the
end of the day we need a rudder.
I also picked up 5 lengths of M12 treaded bar, 10 bolts and 50 nuts and
washers for making the stand so I think we're ready to go with that.
One other thing we got done was to cut out the steel compression post,
It had to be removed to get the bow knee out and the floor bolts under that,
We also uncovered the mast step so she did indeed have a keel stepped
mast originally as we had expected, We plan to return it to a keel stepped
mast but thats a long way off yet.
Hopefully my next post will show some real progress and have some
pictures as well.

How she looked

Just a pic or two of Teal, The first one was taken on the Baltic in 04 or 05,
Images borrowed from www.midsummerenergy.co.uk
Just to give you an idea of just how pretty a boat she will be when restored.
The second pic was in a 1914 issue of yachting monthly, Her original owner
Percy Woodcock wrote an article named 'Our new ship' which was featured.

Looking for Oak

So can't say a lot has been done since the last post but there is a definite plan of
action at least, The yard is pretty busy with trawlers and such so Teal still sits
on the forklift, Once some space has been made we're going to make up a frame
to support her in a way that leaves the keel free to be removed and as we sit her
on to it we'll let the ballast come away. For the keel we need a length of Oak
15"x5"x15' . It will probably take a bit of searching to get hold of that and quite
a few phone calls as apparently people who sell timber don't respond to emails.
The only other job I've done was to measure up the rudder for its replacement
and scraped some paint off of it to see what timber it was made from. On doing
that I found a nice crack running right a long the lower rudder plintel , Could
have been nasty had it failed at sea.

From what I can make out her rudder, keel and deadwoods are Elm, I know her
original transome was wych elm so the rest are probably the same.
The new keel will be of Oak but the rudder will probably be of Iroko.

Garboards out, Nice hole in the deadwood, On the plus side the garboards themselves are in really good order, Got some measurements so time for timber shopping.

" Do ye want to make a right job of her "

So first job we done was packed up all the rigging and loose gear, brought it
home and put it away. Next up was to rip out all the fixtures, Bunks, sea toilet
etc and give it a proper inspection,
On doing that Liam stuck his head in for a look and on seeing all her doubled and
frankly quite messy looking frames in her rear quarters asked if we want to make
a right job of it, to which we nodded a "yes" . There goes sailing in 2012.
So whats on the agenda now.
Well with it being Christmas there is not a lot happening at the moment but I did
go down on Christmas eve and done some measuring and documenting of things,
She has 22 sawn frames made up of two futtocks with a butt joint and a doubler,
9 of the lower futtocks are soft or split, we may end up changing all of the lower
futtocks if we decide it would be worth while.
Between each set of sawn frames there are two steamed ones, 40 in all, 10 of these
have doublers and will have to be removed and replaced with new.
The first job and this is a big one, The keel needs replacing. Liam has already
condemned the bow knee because someone has cut the bolt heads off and a notch
has been taken out to accommodate a shorter Keelbolt , We also need to take the
ballast off to replace the bolts through the floors so they will also be out of the way,
Then we will have to see what condition the deadwoods are in and hopefully just
replace the bolts through them but thats probably wishful thinking.
The sternpost and transome I will look at when the keel is done.
So yes we're going down the rebuild route, We hadn't ruled that out anyway and
at the end of the day we feel the boat is well worth saving.
The next thing I'll do is remove the garboards and get a proper look at the keel,
We also need to get the ballast off so we can get her covered up and remove the
cockpit. I can't wait :D

Its arrived

Finally after ferry delays and Lorry trouble Teal finally made it to Oldcourt and is now sitting on a forklift waiting for some space to be made.
We started by wedging the car full of all the bits and pieces we could get into it but we'll need another trip to get the rest of it put away.

                    Never saw a boat moved like that before

                  Ken gets to see what I spent his money on :D

                                            

We're going to start by removing the rest of the interior, the sea toilet and the cockpit to make room for
repairing the frames, She has sawn frames with two steamed frames between each of them, a few of the sawn ones need work, two due to rot where the cockpit supports attach below the companionway and a few others have splits, four of the steamed frames in either rear quarter have doublers and we'll probably remove all of them and replace , I'm sure there will be more on closer inspection.
The ballast keel will probably be the first thing to come off, The keelbolts are new by the looks of them but they only go through the wooden keel and that is then separately bolted through the iron floors, The bolts through the floors are a complete unknown and probably 98 years old. Without them the ballast would essentially be hanging from the garboards so we're going to go to the effort now for the sake of it.
Wonder what we'll find in the process ?????????????????????????????????????

Classic boat Magazine

There was this write up on "Teal" in Classic Boat in 2007 following her quick fix and trip to the baltic.
I got a copy with the boat which was nice.