1956 Collegian restoration

TRBenj wrote: Is it out of the question to split the hatch? How’s the Hurricane configured? That does look like a heavy beast. How about some old window weights and pulleys? More period correct?

I like the window weights the best, LOL

I think splitting the hatch would go too far away from the original look. I was thinking of adding some sort of cantilever hinge to the existing hatch with the cantilever being hidden under the deck and attaching some shocks to that.   Somewhat out of sight. Lot's of time to think about it yet.

Got a days work done Saturday, This transom looks simple but it is kicking my butt. It has a slight compound curve because it leans in at the top. Getting this all to line up before final fastening took hours. By the time I got it all glued up I was covered in 5200, The stuff is fantastic but after 10 years of working with it I just can not avoid making an absolute mess! I start with nice clean gloves and long sleeves and about an hour later I'm covered in the stuff to my elbows and the gloves come off because I can't pick anything up and everything I touch makes it worse LOL. It's probably pretty entertaining to watch.

I really wanted to try and do an epoxy glue up but I think that would have been even worse working vertically. When I glued up the transom frame pieces a few weeks ago I ended up breaking out in a pretty substantial rash on my arms so I think I've finally acquired an allergic reaction to epoxy, From what I understand that is a slow process and becomes worse with your exposure to it so I'm trying to avoid using epoxy now whenever possible. I'm going to be exposed to a lot of it on the next boat so I hope this is something I can learn to work around.

In any case I'm happy with the results but I'm on my third boat and I realize I still have a lot to learn.

Next weekend I hope to get the transom frame ends shaped in and add a few more pieces that are needed to support the top deck, then I'll move on to the hatch frames. I plan to pull all that out and replace it with new.









My wife has a healthy obsession with Halloween and the props never get put away.    This guy "Bones" ends up doing something different everyday. Keeps us laughing. He wasn't much help but he did manage to stay cleaner than me!

Hey Magic,
Project is coming along nicely. Just make sure you protect yourself from that nasty stuff.. We don't need you looking like Bone's there !!!!

Moj'

Tripling up on gloves helps with the real messy stuff... just gotta remember to put more on before you’re down to none.

With Snow Friday evening and temps in the teens all weekend, not having any winter hobbies ( I don't even like going out to shovel snow) Dana and I decided it would be a workshop weekend. She lended a hand last weekend and actually had a good time so I think she may be hooked. I know she didn't want to work on the Hurricane with me because that boat was a bit intimidating to me as my first wood boat project. I had a lot to learn and was unsure of every step so she just decided it was best to stay out of the way unless I needed a second set of hands. This boat is completely different and as I said I still have a lot to learn but everything is so much clearer now as to how to proceed that this "Hobby" has now become fun where as the Hurricane wasn't fun at all, too much self imposed pressure on that one to be perfect and in the end it still wasn't.

So here's what we did this weekend for fun! Might not be your idea of a good time but it works for us.

This weeks goal was to get the transom finished, rebuild the hatch framing and start cleaning the bilge to prepare it for paint.

I spent a lot of time thinking about how to trim the transom ends down to match the shape of the sides and figured a jig saw would get it close but then I'd spend quite a bit more time fine tuning it. I finally decided to fasten a scrap piece of 1/4" plywood to the side of the boat to use as a guide for a mutli tool. I trimmed the ends off flush to the plywood then set up a router at a 1/4" depth and used that to copy the contour of the sides exactly. Worked great and all I had to do was finish cutting the top and bottom ends where the router wouldn't reach. It was almost too easy and worked flawlessly.

Next up was the simple, quick job of replacing the deck frames!   That's when the fun started! LOL.

I replaced the forward frame and then started laying out the opening. Set my side frame pieces in place and put a framing square on it and "What the.." it was out of square by more than a 1/2". I started measuring everything I could to try to figure out what needed to be fixed. Turns out I needed to fix everything. There wasn't a frame member on the boat that was square to anything or even parallel each other. We then measured the actual hatch and found it to be 1/2" longer on one length than the other, again head scratch, HUH!

So i went and reset the forward frame where I thought it needed to be and layed out the opening again, now it's square but about an inch off center at the transom, Sound familiar? Same problem they had when they replaced the deck years ago.

At that point I was dumbfounded on how to fix it because we moved frame members several times, each time we fixed one issue we caused another one elsewhere. We finally decided the only important measurement was a centerline to use as a reference point, nothing else matters, If we had a centerline to the keel of the boat and worked our frame members square off of that then the rest is what it is.    At least we would end up with a square, centered hatch and we could build around that.

I know I've been hard on the factory in the past but I can see where these boats were mass produced and not labored over for a day trying to get the hatch just right. They had boats to get out the door and there was a lot of "good Enough" to go around. For the most part they did look good when completed, it's not until some guy with nothing better to do on a Saturday tears them apart 60 years later and thinks he has the right to criticize what someone did to put food on the table so no more critique from me, only comments. Lot's of respect for them because I don't think they had a lot to work with, Correct Craft was darn near broke at the time, you can see where nothing was wasted. there were no nice 5 or 6/4 boards to work with, everything was built up using 3/8 thick pieces because it was faster and cheaper than actually doing the millwork required using heavy dimensional lumber. They were still craftsmen but were not held to a higher standard I believe because of issues out of there control.

Anyway, I ramble but I think about this stuff as I'm dissecting the past. So here's where we ended up on the hatch, Compete except for a little fairing in when we get to working on the deck. I'm going to try to reuse the hatch if I can but it may be easier to build a new one rather than fix this.




Centerline





Meanwhile Dana spent a good part of her day cleaning and sanding the bilge, That was a lousy job but she never complained. As usual I'm so darn serious and there she is singing along to the radio wearing her fingerprints off and of course a high five from her helper who never seems to be too far away.


A little crazy but it sure beats shoveling snow!

Riley wrote: Interesting how in the boat's original production, it went together and looked good with the hatch and deck being that far off.

I agree, I think since there's nothing square on a boat your reference points are difficult to establish, sort of a moving target. Step back a few feet and it looks great just leave the tape measure at home.

Amazing work. Thanks for sharing all of this

81nautique wrote: I'll be calling on some locals to come out and help with the flip, beer and lunch will be on me.

Just say when...

I wish i lived closer! I'd love to help with this project. Looks awesome.

Riley wrote: 81nautique wrote: Riley wrote: Interesting how in the boat's original production, it went together and looked good with the hatch and deck being that far off. I agree, I think since there's nothing square on a boat your reference points are difficult to establish, sort of a moving target. Step back a few feet and it looks great just leave the tape measure at home. Wouldn't that imply that at least the finish carpenters building those boats were very good?

Yes I agree on this. I'm sure there were different levels of carpenters in the shop. Apprentices probably worked on the frame work and as you said finish carpenters did the rest. When I was an Apprentice builder many years ago I was always told good finish work starts with good rough work. I can tell you that with all these side planks being hand fitted they were remarkably well done so there was some talent there. Also some of the deck patterns Correct Craft did on these boats was fairly difficult to do. They had a lot of inlays where the deck colors changed and they were all done by hand. When I had to replicate the deck on Todd's Commuter I did it all with a router and follower plate and it was still a challenge. Those guys only had band saws and block planes. Well done.

Those details are beautiful and make the quality look to me as good as a Chris Craft or Century. That inlay took a lot of time.

I then spent some time fitting the side inner layer of plywood. This is where that repair that was done when they replaced the deck came into play. I decided to pull off the covering board to get access to it as it would be so much easier to repair. I'm going to have a fairly substantial repair job there to get that void filled and straighten the landing for the plywood. Might be easier to just replace it, i'm certain I'll find the same issue up towards the bow where they made a similar repair.




You can see my shirt selection was appropriate for the day!   


Plywood is just tacked in place for now while fitting it in but that's where we ended up for the day

Simply amazing. Other than getting Dana to do it how do you go about degreasing the bilge? I would have thought once that wood gets oily your pretty much out of luck but the results speak for themselves

Gary S wrote: Simply amazing. Other than getting Dana to do it how do you go about degreasing the bilge? I would have thought once that wood gets oily your pretty much out of luck but the results speak for themselves

Maybe the word Degreasing was the wrong term because all we did was wipe it down with solvent (Xylol) and sand it. There is still a little bit oil in some of the impossible to reach places but I think it's as good as it's going to get.