Subject: more from Minnesota's Matt Swanson and his "new" W623
From: Richard Harrington
<rmharrington@sbcglobal.net>
To: Al Schonborn
<uncle-al3854@cogeco.ca>; Matthew Swanson
<matthewjswanson@yahoo.com>
Cc: Nick Parker
(W982); Chuck & Ginny Jordan W767; Don Schaffner W613; Hans
Gottschling W938; Tom Erickson; Dave Hansman; Gary Hirsch; Charles
Jordan; Tony Krauss; Frank Pedersen; Jim Phoenix; Brian Ritchie; Don
Schaffner; Earl Schnur W1028; Kit Wallace
Sent: Wed, January
6, 2010 2:27:37 PM
Subject: New Wayfarer Owner
Welcome, Matt,
I
own W-887, 'Blue Mist', built in England in 1964. When I acquired
her 20 years ago, she had sat and dried out for a while, but nothing
like your boat. Though your boat hasn't seen any use for 25
years, it has still been aging - particularly the
ancient glue holding her together. If your aim is mainly to
make her look pretty and use her gently, dinking around in small inland
lakes, then just restoring the finish may be acceptable. (She
will definitely leak around the centerboard trunk log.)
But if, on the other hand, you want to make her a seaworthy craft and
put her to the test of racing, or adventuresome cruising, you'll need
to take a whole different approach - meaning some hard work and
research. In Uncle Al's Whiffle Web library there is (at least
was) an excellent article about restoring
a Wayfarer. Before doing anything you should read that
article. You may decide not to abide by all of it, but
you will gain some worthwhile insight.
By
the way......you own a treasure that many Wayfarer sailors would give
their right arm to have. Good luck and have fun!
DICK
-----
Original Message -----
From:
Matthew Swanson
Cc:
Nick Parker (W982) ; Chuck & Ginny Jordan W767 ; Don Schaffner W613
; Hans Gottschling W938 ; Tom Erickson ; Dave Hansman ; Gary Hirsch ;
Charles Jordan ; Tony Krauss ; Frank Pedersen ; Jim Phoenix ; Brian
Ritchie ; Don Schaffner ; Al Schonborn ; Earl Schnur W1028 ; Kit Wallace
Sent:
Saturday, January 09, 2010 9:41 AM
Thanks for the welcoming message and for the initial bits of
advice. I plan on moving W623 next month and will then get
started on her. I would certainly like to use the boat for day
sailing and for such things as sailing the Apostle Islands for
week-long trips - so, it seems I may need to cure the 'old glue' issue
to ensure a water-tight rig and minimize future issues. Any
additional advice you can give in starting this process would be
greatly appreciated. I will reference the refinishing guide as
well.
All the wood seems to be in very good condition. If I want to
reglue the hull (which is what I am reading is what I'll want to do),
is it simply a matter of deconstructing, cleaning all surfaces and
reconstructing (screw and glue) using the same hull wood?
I'm sure I'll run into some hardware replacements/upgrades so I'll keep
you posted and take advice as for recommended items and suppliers.
Thanks again. Looking forward to getting things
started and sending some initial pics when I do!
Matt Swanson W623
Saint Paul, MN
-----
Original Message -----
From:
Charles Jordan
To:
Matthew Swanson W623
Sent:
Wednesday, January 06, 2010 9:38 AM
Subject:
Your Wayfarer
Matt,
I’m
W767 in Eau Claire.
At your option we could get together and discuss what I’ve learned
about reviving an old Woodie.
Chuck
-----
Original Message -----
From:
Don Schaffner W613
To:
rmharrington@sbcglobal.net ; uncle-al3854@cogeco.ca ; Matthew Swanson
W623
Sent:
Wednesday, January 06, 2010 4:00 PM
Dear all
My boat #613 sat in a barn for 35 years. I bought her sight unseen and
shipped her from Ontario to CA. I restored her from the ground up. She
doesn't leak. Here's the deal: Now that your boat is totally dry,
use the West System along with fairing compound and
build fillets on all hull/ frame interfaces. Take a dremel tool
sander and grind to bare wood the interface. This will provide good
adhesion to the wood. Use a fudgesicle stick or finger to get a good
fillet radius. Once dried, you paint as needed. See attached.
By the way, #613 was used in the Advair TV
commercial:
From:
Richard Harrington <rmharrington@sbcglobal.net>
To: Matthew
Swanson
Sent: Sun, January
10, 2010 2:24:35 PM
Matt,
This is a complex subject and one that can't be properly
covered in a few e-mail exchanges. I haven't looked at the
article I mentioned on Al's web site for some time. As I recall,
I thought it offered some good insight, but I didn't agree with
some of the extreme measures the authors took in restoring their
Wayfarer. For one thing, their hull was in very poor
condition. What I'm trying to say is, I believe you can end up
with a strong seaworthy Wayfarer without having to completely
disassemble her - which is a horrendous task. There is
an alternative. Don Schaffner alludes to this in his e-mail
where he states that the problem can be addressed simply by
applying epoxy fillets along critical members, except he understates
the situation. Applying epoxy to the inner and outer hull, and
applying filleting at important joints is 90% of the
solution. But there are some places where additional
reinforcement is needed via applying fiberglass. There are other
areas that will develop separation over time (possibly not for several
years), e.g. the decking, which will need to be fixed. These
can be dealt with on a piecemeal basis as they occur. What I
have described, in simple terms, is how I've restored
my woody. That was over 20 years ago and she is still going
strong.
DICK
From:
Matthew Swanson
To: Richard
Harrington <rmharrington@sbcglobal.net>
Sent: Sun, January
10, 2010 8:37:45 PM
Dick,
I have recieved three email responses and all of them are
similar to yours. Therefore, it seems to be a good 'users' guide
to how I will handle my situation. The boat really looks to
be in great condition. I will focus on reenforcing any likely
weak spots and will refinish her and start sailing. From there, I
will address things as needed. Thanks for the advice!
Matt
From:
Richard Harrington <rmharrington@sbcglobal.net>
To: Matthew
Swanson <matthewjswanson@yahoo.com>
Cc:
TonyKrauss@gmail.com; Tony Krauss <tony.krauss@gmail.com>; Al
Schonborn <uncle-al3854@cogeco.ca>; Jim Heffernan
<jheffernan@nc.rr.com>
Sent: Mon, January
11, 2010 7:03:13 PM
Subject: Re: New
Wayfarer Owner
Matt,
If it hasn't already been suggested, let me suggest that you
contact West System for their free books regarding wooden boat repair
and using epoxy. This will be valuable in helping you plan and
anticipate the upcoming work.
I would also suggest that you start on the boat's bottom and
transom first. First remove as much paint as you can using a
stripper and scrapers. Then sand down to bare wood. Use an
orbital sander with a 60 grit paper, then finish with a 120 grit.
It is okay to have some residual paint pigment still present.
Getting it all out requires removing too much wood. Next you'll
need to address the screws. The old screw head fillets have to be
removed - pointed three-corner scrapers are going to become your
closest friends for a while! Hans recommends actually backing out
all the old screws and resetting them in epoxy. Not being privy
to this kind of advice at the time, all I did on my boat was
just tighten up all the screws before refilling all the holes
- with an epoxy/low density filler paste (see West System
info). (Tony Krauss (Michigan area), who is presently
refurbishing a woody says the screws in his hull are pretty tight
and he's not resetting the screws, either.) While you are doing
the screw holes you can also fill in any dings or uneven
areas in the hull with the same stuff.
The joints in the bottom panels along the chines and
keel are probably going to look tight - these usually hold up well
- mine have. One place to check carefully is the joints between
the bottom panels and the transom. If you do find any
spots where you can slip the edge of a jack knife into the crack
you will need to fix those. This is best done by racking the
crack open with a broken hacksaw blade, then inserting epoxy using a
syringe. The West System book will provide more info about
that. Tony K is going one step further and running a strip of
light-weight fiberglass along the chines. You can check with him
as to how that is working out.
I've put Tony K on the 'cc'.
Good luck.........DICK
Original
Message -----
From:
Tony Krauss W4105
Cc:
Matthew Swanson ; Al Schonborn ; Jim Heffernan
Sent:
Monday, January 11, 2010 8:28 PM
Matt and all,
i guess i have to weigh in, although it's fits and starts with me as i
generally have too much work - work getting in the way of my lust
(there's simply no other word for it) to join the leisure classes.
My boat is W276, built in Ontario long ago, raced hard by Al's brother,
but seems to be in quite reasonable shape. Won't be the beauty
queen until i get around to replacing her decks (as Kit & Dave did)
which won't be for several years as things seem now, but in the interim
i hope she'll serve (it may be a couple years yet!).
i talked with Hans about the pulling and dipping of the screws, and
tossed the idea back and forth for some time. In the end, i
simply dug out all the bungs and gave each a bit of a turn: i think i
can safely say that not one came even close to requiring 180°, in
fact, i don't recall any that came close to 90°: without exception
they seem snug, and the slight tightening invariably had a good
feel. If some had felt mushy, or required considerable seating, i
think i would have gone the pull and dip route, but (thankfully) no.
The pins through the keel to the centerboard box were steel (at some
time in times gone by) and were, from the bottom, rather more than
simply in pretty rough shape. Hans apparently is of the opinion
that you simply saw off the CB case above the keelson on the inside and
reseat it (you'll have to ping Hans for the details - Al's note: better yet, phone him at
905-277-3306). In any event, that seemed to be more like
asking for trouble (especially with my lack of skill, patience, and
time). As the general condition of the case to keelson (inside
the slot and out) did not look terribly scandalous, i opted to sink
long stainless screws (on the order of 15-20 mm) up from the
bottom between the original iron pins. The screws had hex-heads
so i added a stainless washer. Now, all this
probably had little effect, as the, by now essentially fused corroded
iron and wood of keel and trunk wouldn't really allow for much
draw-down, but it added a bit of tightness and no end of unwarranted
confidence. Just be careful to jig the drill so the bit doesn't
walk out one side of the trunk, should you go this route.
While the West Epoxies are certainly quite good, i use MAAS (Oedipus
Maas, if you're a fan of Pynchon), which is very slow and completely
clear.
The boat now sits in a barn over in Ann Arbor, so come the warmer
weather, i'll re-tackle the project.
Best of luck to you.
-tmk
-----
Original Message -----
From:
Matthew Swanson
Cc:
Tony Krauss ; Al Schonborn ; Jim Heffernan
Sent:
Monday, January 11, 2010 8:27 PM
Great. I'll print this advice out along with the
others and will use it to identify and guide me during the
refinishing/sealing process. I will also order the West System
wooden boat repair book as well. That will help me a bit in
deciphering some of the terminology you are all using - I'm new to
'boat talk' and will get there soon enough I'm sure. On that note, is
there a good description of all the Wayfarer parts and a pictoral
description of the boat to help me describe and understand things a bit
better?
Thanks,
Matt (W623)
-----
Original Message -----
Cc:
Tony Krauss ; Jim Heffernan
Sent:
Saturday, February 13, 2010 6:58 PM
Hi again, Matt:
Best regards,
Uncle Al (W3854)
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