Andrew Guest

March 25, 2024

2023, Part One

Andrew Guest

March 25, 2024

Hello again! I have a bit of catching up to do, as usual. 2022-2023 was a busy time, and the work was extremely varied.

*Boring for the prop shaft, December 2022*

My friend Josh helped to bore out for the propeller shaft, which was an interesting operation I’ve not done before. I bored a pilot hole large enough to centre a 1” boring bar in, and then we progressively increased the cut until the bore was perfectly round and large enough to accept a specially machined bronze tube which will hold the seal inboard and a cutless bearing outboard. The “gland” (for lack of a better term) on the outside of the hull is an angelique keel offcut shaped to fit.

*Laying out the cabin sole, January 2023*

*Interior painted and bulkhead underway, February 2023*

Painting the interior white made a huge difference to the space, and to my morale!

*Lead ballast stacked on top of the keel - April 2023*

Next was ballasting, everyone’s favourite… I was able to acquire an old sailboat keel a few years back which I cut up into chunks (I highly recommend never doing this, it was extremely unpleasant and nearly destroyed my chainsaw. And probably myself haha) - this combined with the lead ballast remaining from Rosalind’s complement when I got her gave me 3100 lbs of lead internal to be set in concrete, plus the 1500 lbs of lead external.

*Thinning the concrete/confusing future archaeologists, April 2023*

Now, according to my calculations the volume of concrete needed to fill between the floors would have been heavier than was wanted so I went about “thinning” it with whatever light, space filling stuff I could get my hands on ranging from tupperware to cut up pool noodles. The next person to chip out the concrete is going to be very confused... But I kept the full complement under 10,000lbs which should leave a bit of space for trim ballast on top of the concrete (I have a bit more lead for this purpose).

This is all calculated based on the weight of the ballast and other heavy stuff I took out of the boat originally, and my best guess at how much more she wanted (she was sitting a little high during the Richard era) - all of which does give me some anxiety! There’s a possibility that on launch day I’ll have to remove some, though I think it’s unlikely. I’m really glad to be launching by travellift however, as I can easily do a test run the day before hard launch and make sure.

*Dane and Andy assist with hoisting Amelia, May 2023*

In May I cut through some of the workshop’s framing to allow Amelia the Perkins into the boat. Andy ran the boom truck and Dane came to help maneuver (thank you again), and it went off without a hitch.

After Amelia was situated I embarked on building the house, which amongst other things entailed making a mould and laminating a whole bunch of beams, all out of resawn larch and douglas fir planking offcuts. The sides are MDO, and the top itself I made out of 3/8 beadboard (looks nice from inside) and MDO, all glassed.

*The house assembled and primed, July 2023*

*The first assembled stave of the foremast, July 2023*

At the same time I started working on building the foremast, out of a black spruce I got for free on facebook marketplace and milled up the year before. To keep weight down, and to allow running electrical up the middle I elected to build a hollow box laminate.

*3 sides done with conduit installed, 4th side suspended overhead. Lowering it into place with glue on everything was… interesting. August 2023*

And in the midst of all of this, I was also installing the bulwarks - again out of resawn larch planking offcuts (ended up being a bit of red cedar in there too as I ran low on long stock).

And the caprail! I built the caprail out of american white oak, a live oak breasthook, and a stern hook of eastern larch. I elected not to do the ultra traditional thing with caprails, which is to mortise their undersides to meet tenons on the stanchion tops - instead I attached a stringer to the inboard face of the stanchions, and fastened the caprail to that and to the top of the bulwark planking. This strikes me as being stronger, as it turns the system into a truss. It does make for a wide caprail but I feel that’s not out of place on a working boat like Rosalind.

To be continued! Thank you for reading.

Andrew Guest

March 15, 2023

A long overdue update

Andrew Guest

March 15, 2023

Hello! As is probably obvious, when I started a youtube channel in 2019 it supplanted this blog for a while. I think this format is better for explaining some things though, and for general musing on the work - so here we are!

So a lot has happened, of course - Rosalind is fully decked, fully planked, fully caulked, and my work has transitioned into the interior. But to get to this point has been a mission!

*Planking during the holidays, December 2019*

Planking has been the biggest part of that mission, taking the better part of 3 years off and on to complete. Rosalind is an extremely technical shape to plank, so it’s been interesting!

Boats built in St Ives have very flat floors - i.e., the planking midships is almost perpendicular to the keel. This creates two challenges - a hell of a lot of twist fore and aft, and a fiendishly complex keel rabbet. If I had just cut a conventional rabbet, it would’ve only been about 3/8” deep at midships, which firstly didn’t feel like enough to me, and secondly isn’t how it was done originally. As far as I could tell, originally a fairly consistent rabbet was cut into the keel and the garboard was shaped to meet it - which leads to this:

In order to get the shape that edge would need to be, I had to make a planking fid (a bit of scrap wood the width of plank thickness, usually with a 90 degree edge) for each frame, and transfer those marks to the plank-to-be. What this amounts to is a rolling bevel mitre! I think if I were to do it again, I’d have installed a hog timber (a wide timber that makes up the top of a keel assembly) rather than do this, but I’m glad it’s in keeping with the original construction.

Since I worked either by myself or with one or two helpers I had to come up with ways of making the work possible short-handed. The two things that helped the most were patterning as you see above with hot glue and popsicle sticks (which allows you to put your pattern on a piece of stock and immediately know if you’ll get your piece out of it - other methods of patterning require transferring your marks to get to that point), and steaming in place in polyethylene bags. Bagging each plank and dispensing entirely with the traditional mad dash from a steam box to the boat before the plank cools really was essential, there’s no way I could’ve done that by myself. As a technique it’s not without its stresses but on the whole is much more easeful.

*Another day, another corkscrew - July 2020*

*Two fully assembled planks, almost ready for installation - August 2022*

Towards the end of the planking process, I was getting regular help from my friends Matt and Dane - this allowed us to assemble entire planks on the boat, take them off to fair them, and then reinstall permanently. It’s a lot more work this way than it was to fasten each piece as I went, but the end result is much cleaner.

I’m sure I’m not the first to come up with this, but I also put together a little jig for a small router, for cutting caulking bevels on the square edge of each plank. It’s literally just a piece of plastic cutting board cut to the right bevel, screwed to the router base. This in combination with a bearing on the bit to ride on the flat at the inboard side of the plank, and cutting bevels is very fast and accurate.

Also completed since my last post: the deck! The framing is all salvaged douglas fir and southern yellow pine reclaimed from the remains of the schooner Australia, and the deck itself is a layer of 1/2” MDO laminated to a layer of 1/2” marine ply, fastened down with 316 stainless screws and then fibreglassed in 2 layers.

Also, I was very generously given the old engine from Victoria by Acorn to Arabella - she has been christened Amelia, and runs beautifully. She just needs some small parts replaced.

*Amelia, Rosalind’s new powerplant - a Perkins 4108 formerly of “Victoria”*

To be continued! Thank you for reading.

Andrew Guest

July 19, 2019

Marine restoration carpentry, and other thought experiments

Andrew Guest

July 19, 2019

BYSNOWYDHBOATWORKS JULY 19, 2019

Recovery from surgery was long and difficult (and still is), but as soon as I was physically able I got straight back to work.

*Fairing frame faces and the inner stem – December 2018*

One of the big challenges I’ve faced has been preservation of hull shape. Through repair work over the years, asymmetric loading, and various other things there were several areas of unfairness and asymmetry in the hull. Since her original lines weren’t recorded, and everything was so degraded and delicate, I elected to frame piece by piece to the original hull and try to sort it all out later – rather than try to resolve shape issues in the framing process. I think on the whole this approach was the best one, as anything more aggressive would have risked compromising the structure and losing everything (I put my foot through several planks, and many of the frames fell apart at a touch) – but was also quite a lot more work, I think.

*Relatively intact examples of frames and planks. In the worst cases, some planks were about 1/3 dutchmen – December 2018*

The two big areas that I wish I had handled more efficiently were the midship area (buckled outward a bit from removing the centreline hog) and the port forward topsides – for some reason in Greece back in 1975 the sheer strake and first strake down were redone as a single super wide board, and the stiffness of it combined with the already aging frames significantly flattened the hull. Rosalind was about an inch and a half narrower on port up forward, it turned out – I’ve managed to reduce that to about 3/4″, which is about as aggressive as I’m comfortable with.

*Knightheads under construction – January 2019*

Now, don’t get me wrong – I’m making some changes to her original construction and layout, for instance the addition of knightheads to reinforce the bow, layout of the hold to maximise living area and ultimately cargo capacity, strengthening the centreline assembly, and so forth. But as I go along and replace almost every single piece of this old boat, the philosophical debate of the ship of Theseus inevitably comes to mind – at what point is it no longer the same thing?

Installing the new foremast step. Luggers seldom had keelsons, and the foremast step often only spanned 2 floors. In this version it scarphs into the keelson, bolts through 5 floors, and laps onto/bolts through the forefoot knee – February 2019

I’ve had an awful lot of time to ponder this… and what I’ve arrived at is that her shape is her essential character – so I have generally taken a conservative approach to correcting shape issues. In short – things like hog, centreline twist, and midship buckling are issues which could adversely effect performance and longevity but if she’s a bit wider on one side than the other… she’s an old girl. She’s not only entitled to a few idiosyncrasies, but those idiosyncrasies feel like a part of her identity.

*Felling frame stock in upstate NY. Note the flying tree… my directional felling skills aren’t always up to trees this tall, growing this close together – December 2018*

In the end I think I felled about 2/3rds of Rosalind’s new framing myself – largely on my family’s property in Fishers NY, which is 11 acres of mixed woodland (and most importantly, a lot of black locust). I also milled about 1/2 of that myself, using a my chainsaw and an alaskan chainsaw mill (which is a lot of work, but a really wonderful invention). In all I replaced 159 of 160 floors and futtocks – 2 more original pieces I hope to reuse elsewhere.

*Locust tends to ripple like this when it grows in a tight curve – almost too pretty to use! – February 2019*

*Milling the last few futtocks with my new curvy alaskan mill rail – March 2019*

*Framing complete. Inside faces still need to be faired – May 2019*

*Disposing of the old Perkins – February 2019*

I also decided that it was time to say goodbye to the old 95HP Perkins, which having been underwater twice was completely seized, and with a dry weight of around 1300 pounds was just a bit much, to my way of thinking anyway. And, y’know. Scrap money helps.

*Angelique outer sternpost installed – February 2019*

*Great but peculiar old Boshco left-handed bandsaw on loan from the estimable Mr. Wheble – March 2019*

I also found a source of hackmatack, or Eastern larch by way of craigslist of all things. The price was good, and was one of my top choices to substitute for the original pitch-pine. The pile is stacked, covered, doused in borate, and waiting til the autumn when it will hopefully be dry enough to start using.

*4 loads of eastern larch for planking – April 2019*

A new Danish white oak beam shelf (/sheer clamp, depending on where you learned the names for things) is now in as well. This meant a lot of fussing over the sheer line (the curve of the topmost plank, which is the most visually distinctive line of any given hull), which is difficult with a boat in a shed surrounded by trees, a house, and several other boats! But after much clambering and squinting and late night laser hijinks and setting up a stepladder in the back of my truck etc. etc. I think it came out pretty well.

*Doing my best to sight the sheer line from the deck of Klang II – May 2019*

*Beam shelf section steaming in situ – May 2019*

Also just briefly, I have launched a Patreon site at

https://www.patreon.com/restoringrosalind

If any of you are willing and able to support me in this mad mission of mine, Rosalind and I would of course be enormously grateful.

That’s it for today, thank you for reading! More on steam bags, steam generators, how to do awkward heavy things by yourself with a dodgy shoulder and a bad back, and many other things to come.

Andrew Guest

October 6, 2018

The Keel Job

Andrew Guest

October 6, 2018

BYSNOWYDHBOATWORKS OCTOBER 6, 2018

My apologies for the sparsity of posts lately. As you will see, much has occurred!

I knew from the first day I saw Rosalind that I was going to need to replace her keel. There was significant grounding damage at the stern, many graving pieces let into soft areas, a pretty massive heart check running down one side, and most conclusively a multi-faceted hog. Hogging refers to the tendency of the ends of a boat to drop over time relative to the area amidships which is larger and more buoyant, and sometimes for other reasons as well.

*Rosalind’s keel, July 2017. The red line is the rabbet line, which ought to be fairly straight*

While some hog is kind of expected in such an old boat, this was a bit much. I was also able to ‘correct’ the hog in about 20 minutes with some wedges and a bottle jack – it ought not to be quite so easy. So I decided that she definitely needed a less noodly keel.

There’s no non-invasive way of replacing a keel though, and given how degraded and fragile the rest of the boat was I didn’t want to rush into it – in a restoration of this scope, the integrity of the shape must be carefully shepherded. My first thought, which would have allowed keel replacement sooner, was to replace the heads of all 25 frames, and then install a new beam shelf – with that done, I would run heavy beams athwarts under the shelf in a few places and lift the boat up by jacking on those beams.

*Plan A. Sort of a scaled down version of the I-beam support structure built by Arnold M. Graton Associates Inc. to support Mayflower II during her restoration.*

After spending some time examining the state of the existing framing and replacing a couple of the most degraded frames in the boat I was less taken with that plan though, for a couple of reasons – first, the entire structure was so weakened by age, rot, and iron sickness that I doubted that the rest below what I would install would actually hang together. Similarly I wasn’t comfortable with the simplest plan, of just cutting away the keel first thing and taking the weight on her bilges, for the same reason. Having removed the last of the cement from inside I found that in some places it had been structural. Second, I found that either through inconsistency in the original build or changing shape over time, Rosalind’s frames weren’t very straight or consistent from keel to sheer, sometimes curving or leaning in ways that would be much easier to remedy if I started framing from nice square and consistent re-established frame spacing at the keel.

So… I arrived at plan B. Replace the entire inner centreline structure, and about half of her frames prior to lifting from underneath the keel, and taking the weight on her bilges. I decided to replace roughly half rather than all of them in order to better allow her to settle onto a new, totally straight and flat keel.

*‘Twas a tad brisk, removing the forward deadwood… March, 2018*

I began rebuilding the stern in December as I previously related. With that complete I framed forward and replaced the forward deadwood assembly and apron. I had a pretty serious injury at work at the end of March, which slowed me down quite a bit but I was still ready to go looking for a keel by the middle of April.

I made the obligatory pilgrimage out to the excellent fellows at Gannon & Benjamin to buy a big chunk of Angelique (Dicorynia Guianensis, native to Suriname and French Guyana, and like black locust a mighty arboreal legume), which after considerable trials and tribulations arrived in Mystic owing to the kindness and generosity of Ralph Packer, who I really can’t thank enough.

*Angelique stash at Gannon & Benjamin, April 2018*

*Unloading this timber from the flatbed was one of the sketchier operations I’ve performed with my indomitable truck crane & swing set duo. But it worked!*

Sadly the constraints of shipping the stuff up from South America meant that the piece was a little bit too short to do a one piece keel, so after alaskan milling out my pieces I got to work on a big hook scarph, which got bedded in a mix of dolphinite and bottom paint and through bolted with ½” silicon bronze bolts. Framing tends to be a lot of power tool work so this was a nice chance to break out hand tools and enjoy the quiet!

Cutting the scarph, May 2018

When that was all together I gathered as many friends (thank you all, again) as I could for the big operation, which went as follows –
Step one. Lift the boat straight up with 6 jacks placed at intervals underneath the old keel, and take up on the stands so she doesn’t fall over
Step two. Brace on the apron and inner sternpost, and under the temporary plywood wale at the new height
Step three. Cut the remaining keel bolts
Step four. Let the jacks off very gingerly, hoping that Rosalind stays suspended on the stands and temporary bracing…

And she did! It was a strange view and a strange feeling, to look into the hull from the underside. Thanks to my previous anxiety about this, there was very little fairing needed on the underside of the floors. We soon proceeded to roll the new keel up onto the blocking…

*Rosalind the flying boat, May 5th 2018*

Now, angelique is a truly admirable timber in many respects, but in life it is a full sized rainforest tree growing up to 150 feet tall – this leads to all sorts of directional stresses which only present when you try to turn it into things. Long story short, my new keel was undesirably banana-like vertically and horizontally.

Fortunately there was a large heavy semi-immovable object where it was going – the boat itself. Essentially what I ended up doing was to align the forward end of the keel and clamp it in place, and then jack and winch the aft part up to the boat until her weight pushed the curve flat. Once pinned in this fashion I put winches on the aft end and the midsection to pull the lateral curvature out. Finally I applied as many really large clamps and ratchet straps as I had available to keep everything in place, and called it a day.

In the following months I replaced the remaining floor timbers, and then repeated a smaller version of the keel straightening operation in installing the keelson (but with the curvature reversed, which will hopefully encourage them both to behave), which with the keel sandwiches the floors and turns the whole system into a truss. She wouldn’t originally have had a keelson, but I’m rebuilding with greater longevity in mind than what is usual for fishing boats so it seemed a good idea.

*Threading 5/8ths silicon bronze keel bolts, July 2018*

I still have a quarter or so of the framing to complete, but I’ve been held up by the previously mentioned major shoulder injury back in March, and subsequent surgery at the beginning of August. I’m on the mend now though, and have been taking the time to reorganise some things and do some of the larger planning that I haven’t managed to find time for previously. Thanks for reading, and much more to follow soon!

Andrew Guest

March 11, 2018

A brief update

Andrew Guest

March 11, 2018

BYSNOWYDHBOATWORKS MARCH 11, 2018

It’s been a busy few months here in Mystic – I have about a third of the boat re-framed now (25-22, 20-19, 15, half of 11, 4), and the stern is pretty much wrapped up. I’ve left frame 21 til later, purely because the starboard heel having snapped off of it makes for a convenient way in and out of the boat at the stern! I’m also leaving the floors for 20 and 22 til later on, since I plan to affix the mizzen step across 20, 21, and 22 – and I’m not ready to think about that yet. Onward and forward! I’m starting to plan for the keel swap operation as well, more on that next time.

*Floor 19, restored and reinstalled. Not bad for 115 years old.*

*Framing – February, 2018. I’m installing temporary cross-spalls as I go to try to keep everything stiffened, since I’ve removed almost all of the deck and beamwork.*

*Frame heels meeting the new deadwood assembly – March, 2018*

Andrew Guest

December 31, 2017

The Posterior Project

Andrew Guest

December 31, 2017

BYSNOWYDHBOATWORKS, DECEMBER 31, 2017

*The original deadwood assembly, September 2017*

*The same assembly on removal – December 2017*

*Frame #4, renewed. Interior faces not faired yet but I’m getting to it, honest – December 2017*

Since Rosalind arriving in August there have been all sorts of things that needed doing – interior and deck demolition (working on a video on that, stay tuned), ballast and engine removal, shed building, untwisting her severely twisted centreline without breaking anything (some rebar, a 20 ton jack, a 10 ft pine 4×10, an electric winch, some ¼” dyneema, and a suitable anxiety level. Unfortunately I didn’t video this, was too busy doing it!), and so forth. All of that is pretty well in hand now, and I replaced frame #4 (numbering from the stem, aft) so that I could brace it across and safely remove the foredeck, and the port side of frame #11 because… well because it wasn’t there, and it’s also pretty much where a jackstand needs to be so I was a bit anxious about it!

*New 1st 2nd and 3rd deadwoods, temporarily fastened to the original centreline and permanently fastened to each other – December 2017*

*What was left of the original inner sternpost after vacuuming out the top of it, laid on the only slightly oversized stock for the new. …You may notice a slight disparity. December 2017*

*Tapered rolling bevels taking shape – December 2017*

But that’s all done, so I’ve moved aft to rebuild the stern in its entirety. I’ve settled on this as my next project because I want to ensure that the centreline twist I corrected remains corrected. Best way to do that is to frame her out as quickly as possible in the new/original orientation, to lock it all in. She’s fine lined down low at the stern, so the aftmost 7 frames foot to the deadwood assembly – an assembly which after much thought I have decided to replace. The deadwoods were some of the best preserved parts of the boat, being salt-submerged, diesel pickled elm – but not only would completely removing all of the corroded ferrous metal and iron sickness from them be a huge undertaking, but also I have to look at the long term. I’m unlikely to be in a position to so readily replace them as I am now, for a very long time! I’ve now replaced 3 of 4 with donated live oak (thank you, you know who you are!) – and the 4th and the stern knee are in hand. I also have a piece on the go for the new inner sternpost, which foots to the top of the 3rd deadwood. I’m trenailing and drifting the assembly together as I go – only temporary lags into the keel and outer sternpost, the idea being that ultimately when it comes to be keel time the whole thing will hang together, and then get through bolted down through the new keel. And once the whole assembly is together, back to framing!

Happy new year from the boatworks, and a big thank-you to the West Mystic Wooden Boat Company and the Mystic Nautical Heritage Society, without whose hospitality none of this could happen. I promise to be better about photo and video in the new year!

Andrew Guest

December 9, 2017

In which things are undertaken

Andrew Guest

December 9, 2017

BYSNOWYDHBOATWORKS, DECEMBER 9, 2017

When it comes to building or rebuilding wooden boats, I have often been told that for many very sensible reasons, the best thing would be to build a given boat in steel, or in fibreglass. It’s hard to argue directly with the logic of this, but I think when it comes down to it… if you’re interested in sensible things, you ought to stay away from boats in the first place! For me wooden vessels are the ultimate expression of human ingenuity, of cultural and geographical specificity, and of the audaciousness of our forebears. Being sensible doesn’t really enter into it.

And in that vein… I’ve bought a boat. Her name is Rosalind, she was built 114 years ago by William Paynter of St. Ives, Cornwall as a fishing lugger. She’s 39 foot 6 and a half inches stem to stern, and displaces about 22 tons. She had a long career, originally registered as Susan out of St. Ives but later renamed Rosalind when working out of Mevagissey between the wars. In 1959 she was taken on by a chap named Richard Griffiths, now sadly passed away – from what I’ve heard of him I would have liked to have known him. Rosalind was Richard’s home on both sides of the Atlantic until his passing late last year, since when Rosalind has sunk twice at her slip, and now been put on the hard where she was awaiting the dreaded chainsaw. She needs a complete restoration, and the scale of it all is honestly and I think appropriately daunting, and the “sensible” thing would unquestionably have been to walk away from her. But that’s not what this business is about really, is it?

At some length I sorted out the logistics of hauling her from her prior abode in Oxford, Maryland to a suitable site up here in New England, and the haul went beautifully (thank you Brownell Systems, you’re awesome). Interior demolition is done, engine is out, bilges are as clean as they are likely to get, the shed is up, and frames are going in. More to follow, and once I remind myself how to process video there will be lots to see! Stay tuned. In the mean time, check out instagram.com/snowdrops.and.avalanches for progress.

“So great is the dignity and excellency of humane nature, and so active those sparks of heavenly fire it partakes of, that they ought to be look’d upon as very mean, and unworthy the name of men, who thro’ pusillanimity, by them call’d prudence, or thro’ sloth, which they stile moderation, or else through avarice, to which they give the name of frugality, at any rate withdraw themselves from performing great and noble actions.”

-Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri, Giro Del Mondo (Voyage Round the World), 1699