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John has installed the original covering boards, has rough-fit, fastened most of the foredeck planks temporarily, and is now focusing on installing the aft deck planking.
Here he is fastening the center plank, one that is devoid of seams, bedded in 3M5200. The balance of these planks have been sanded-in to fit. John will next fabricate the seams by running them through a fixed-place router before he screws them in place, also bedded in 3M5200.
Bleaching and staining are next, followed by building coats of Pettit High-Build varnish.
As always we encourage your comments, questions and reactions.

Almost immediately following the last update on addressing the transom failure, and suggesting that we could save at least two of the vertical transom frame members, RJ ran a test. Will they hold fasteners? Nope. There was just no there there any longer, so RJ set about fabricating entirely new framework for the transom.
Now it is time for what is truly deconstruction. Our Dutchman will attach to that portion of the transom we are saving with a horizontal shiplap joint. Since it is his project, RJ “gets” to man the router.
Once we clean out about 3/8” of old material, we will have created the inner half of the shiplap. Yes, we’d rather have this joint reversed with the top tab on the outside half of the transom, but trying what you are about to see from the inside is beyond realistic. We will seal the joint with Thixo Thickened Epoxy and 3M 5200, thereby ensuring zero water infiltration into the joint.

Planking will begin in full speed tomorrow, even though full speed when it comes to planking is more like plodding through waist-deep snow. Thankfully having the original planking intact is helping us, but those boards are pushing 70 years old. Understandably, they have not held their original dimensions during that time.
And, despite our best efforts, the original king plank just could not be saved. As with the rest of the foredeck planking, it became badly cupped over time, probably due to the outer side having higher moisture content than the underside, which had been painted in the factory.
For now we’ve fabricated all the blanks, and have coated their backsides with two coats of Sandusky Chris Craft Mahogany Bilge Paint (part # 9605). The deck and gunwale framing has been similarly coated.
Once they have been provisionally positioned and temporarily fastened, we release and rout Sikaflex seams in the fore and aft deck planking, after which they will be bedded in 3m5200 and fastened down for good.

RJ hit a major milestone this morning when, after finally excising all the rotted material from the lower portion of Knock on Wood’s transom, he finished fabricating the new white oak bottom frame plank.
His attention then turned to the thee upright transom frame members, each of which was rotted at its lower end, indicating that, since they were not sealed with CPES, and given how fiberglassing the exterior and plugging the drain hole trapped it, water wicked up through the ends of the planks. Two can be saved, but be sure to pay attention to the third one.
Rap it with a hammer on the outside and you get a nice dead-hit response. Given all the rest of the rot in the area, RJ probed into the end of this third frame member. His drill bit, which he held in his hand, simply disappeared 8” into the plank. It might have gone further, but there was no point in further testing. This plank must be replaced.
Bottom line: the extent of the destruction and the repair cost visited on this transom by slapping fiberglass on its exterior is mounting exponentially.
Truly fiberglass is not the friend of wood boats or their owners!

My goodness. That bottom edge was fiberglassed within the decade and look at it now.
We must literally claw out the rotted wood, mostly using hammer and chisel since there is too little space to attack it with our Fein Multi-masters. RJ is building an ever-higher mound of black rot on the floor beneath the transom.
We must remove the interior framing, which means releasing every fasteners passing through the bottom planking and up along the transom’s sides to the waterline.
Once the rotted frames have been excised, we must carefully remove the entire transom from starboard to port and from keel to waterline. We are good at the Dutchman repair, but will be expanding horizons on this one.
Bottom line, and I rest my case, please, please do not slap fiberglass onto your wood boat. What little you might gain now will be shocked a few years hence when the damage you are almost surely inviting now erupts.

We’ve made good progress on this 1968 20’ Lyman runabout. As of the end of work today, we will have completely stripped the bottom, removed the fuel tank in preparation for repairing the transom, and, most surprising perhaps, is that what we thought was a major stem problem is not.
As with the forward lifting rod that was removed when the king plank was replaced and never re-installed, someone had extracted the carriage bolt that had secured the stem to the knee at the point of maximum curvature. We could actually pass a screw driver between the stem and the knee, which led us to suspect we were dealing with a major through-and-through break at the point of that ugly gouge that was apparent in our initial project clip.
Not so. RJ climbed inside and found the bolt hole passing through the knee had been filled with some sort of silicone material. A similar glob issued from the stem when he drilled all the garbage out of the hole.
After packing the space between the stem and knee, and those on both starboard and port between the stem and forward ends of the strakes with TotalBoat Thixo Thickened Epoxy, we inserted a new bolt. Tightening the nut against the knee drew the stem back until it was hard against the knee. That ugly sagging is gone and has been replaced by the gracefully curving stem that Lymans are known for.
Dutchmen patches need not apply….

Knock on Wood is a 1968, 20’ Lyman runabout, who is powered by her original engine, and is pretty original throughout. The rub rails have been replaced and we will have some work to do on the bright work, but her hull is absolutely solid above and below the waterline, save for some major transom and stem issues.
We are introducing her to you today, and will be chronicling here progress over the coming weeks and months. Stripping the bottom and transom come first, followed by selective refastening, countersink hole filling, fairing, and priming with five coats Interlux 2000E two-part epoxy barrier coat primer, followed by Sandusky copper bronze antifouling paint.
So far, addressing the below waterline transom issues present our most significant challenges. We could simply discard and replace the 42-year-old transom with something new. Besides being hugely expensive, investing so much time and energy simply wastes money and destroys a major part of what is classic in this Lyman, original planking.
Given our penchant for saving every bit of original wood possible, we will engage a Dutchman repair strategy. The rotted and compromised wood, 98% of which is below the waterline where it will be painted, will be removed with a router to prepare a mating surface for the largest Dutchman we have executed to date. (The transom above the waterline is in great shape and can easily be preserved with one relatively small Dutchman, bleaching, staining and varnishing.)
We begin today and will report in as doing so makes sense.
As always please weigh in with your reactions, comments and ideas.