Our 1947 Chris-Craft cedar-planked U22 blew past a major milestone today. Her deck, gunwales and transom have been sanded fair, stained with Lake Oswego Boat Co. J’eld stain – Post-War Chris-Craft, and sealed with multiple coats of Smith’s CPES.
Next we will scuff sand these surfaces using medium Scotch Brite pads, clean them with Acetone-dampened shop towels and begin applying Pettit Flagship High-Build varnish.
After applying about 15 coats, and because they will be painted white, we will fill the deck seams using mahogany Sikaflex, paint them white Interlux Boottop and Striping Enamel and then apply the final five or so coats using Pettit Z-Spar Captain’s Ultra Clear varnish, thereby adding UV protection to the paint.
Yes, she is the U22 who encountered the gnarly rocks, and, yes, she has survived to run her home waters for many a decade to come.
She’s also the centerpiece of the film, On Golden Pond.
Her engine is back from Robert Henkel, Peter Henkel Inc., Marine City, MI, where he executed a complete rebuild. That work included the short and long blocks, transmission and everything bolted onto the engine.
She received a True 5200 Bottom, repaired keel, new landings for the strut and rudder mountings. Her topsides, decks, covering boards and transom were stripped to bare wood.
Her bottom is now painted in the correct blue, with a double boot stripe and Interlux Semi-gloss White Premium Yacht Enamel (six coats to date).
After sanding all bright-finished surfaces fair, Anthony applied Daly’s A & B Wood Bleach – 3:1 B:A ratio – throughout the day yesterday. The result, perhaps the first albino U22 you have seen!
Once the wood tests ten percent moisture or less, maybe this afternoon, but more likely next Monday, we will stain it using Lake Oswego Boat Company’s Post War Chris Craft Gel’d stain.
After we scuff-sand using medium Scotch Brite pads, we will apply Smith’s CPES – four coats – followed by scuffing once again.
Finally, we will begin applying Pettit Flagship High-Build varnish.
It won’t be long before the engine “drops” in and we are in assembly!
Our 1956 19’ Chris-Craft Capri Runabout is upright again! Joe has focused on repairing damaged deck and engine hatch framing, after which he fabricated the new deck planking made necessary by the previous “restorer’s” butchery.
Happily, Joe resawed a 5/4 FAS grade Philippine mahogany plank that was long and wide enough to saw out and replace all the offending deck and hatch planks. The result is book-matched planking from bow to transom.
Several of the retained foredeck planks’ edges had been severely beaten up by the previous folks, so he fashioned 1/8” thick strips, which he wrapped in wax paper and inserted into the seams temporarily. Using TotalBoat ThixoWood from Jamestown, he was able to fill the gouges and leave a dead straight knife edge behind.
He is now having way too much fun sanding the decks, covering boards and engine hatch fair, after which we will bleach with Daly’s A & B Wood Bleach and stain using Loboat J’eld stain – Chris-Craft Post War.
Four full coats of CPES will be followed by launching varnishing, which will continue until we’ve built 20+ coats.
This 12-foot, 1953 Penn Yan Swift (HIN CZT 2351) is as original a boat that has ever entered the shop.
She is complete and original down to her Penn Yan optional waterskiing bracket.
We will shoot and issue a detailed video covering her preservation soon. Today we are executing her on-land engine trial.
We are using, and her owners MUST use only Ethanol-free premium gasoline lest they destroy her Johnson outboard’s seals, hoses and other “soft” parts in a few outings.
The correct mixture is 24:1, even though some owners run 32:1 in an effort to reduce smoke, even though they are risking damage from insufficient lubrication.
Fran Secor, Otego, NY, once again executed and absolutely museum-quality restoration and conversion of this 18 HP Johnson from manual to electric start.
Fran disassembled the engine down to a pile of parts, pieces, nuts, bolts, screws and on and on. The video hardly does justice to his accomplishment.
One challenge remains, sourcing five- or 6-foont throttle and shift cables, as the standard 8-foot cables just cannot be shoehorned in the space available behind the helm station, which is aft in the CZT. Fran is hunting, and I’m sure he’ll produce a pair so we can finish assembly, enjoy her sea trail on Lake Champlain, and be loaded into the enclosed trailer that will squire her to her home in Seattle, WA. Note: we will release the engine for the cross-country trek, less it beat up the transom in the process. The Johnson will be secured to a strong stand, which will be lashed to the “V” in the front of the trailer. Only thing left is finding my own CZTM, the Swift that was fitted with mahogany trim. I am a buyer
Having emptied her innards and flipped her, we are hard at removing decades of paint, some sort of Bondo-like material, West epoxy and more from our 1959 16.5’ Lyman runabout hull’s exterior. The image is anything but pretty, as you should have noticed by the thumbnail at the front end of this clip.
Much of what is on the hull is over 3/16” thick with some sort of West Epoxy layers between layers of paint. As of shooting this clip, we have consumed six gallons of industrial paint stripper. She is severely hogged. Her failed keel, keelson and multiple ribs must be replaced. Multiple strakes’ aft tails are rotted through and through. Her keel is gone and must be replaced. The spray rails are gone, having been poorly repaired and partially replaced at some time. Her strakes are fastened with an array of screws and clench nails.
We will aim at de-hogging her, if that is a word, and repairing/replacing much more. In my world, this little runabout is among Lyman’s most iconic family models. We must save her, but the hill we must climb doing so will be steep and long.
What a great milestone to have disappearing in our wake.
Once the wood dried down to 5%-10% moisture content, which required applying Dalys A & B Wood Bleach, mixed 3B:2A, twice, the uniformity we sought was achieved.
Now that we have scuff-sanded the entire surface with medium grit Scotch Brite pads, it is time for bleaching her with Mike Mayer’s Lake Oswego Boat Co. Post-War Chris-Craft J’eld stain.
We are now standardized on J’eld stain, whether it is sourced directly from Wood Kote, or most often from Mike. The advantage of using Mike’s products is that he offers a wide array of stains formulated to match original company stains exactly.
It’s bleaching, well, bleaching-over-two-days, for our 1956 19’ Chris Craft Capri Runabout. Joe has been applying Dalys A & B Bleach, mixed 3:1, B:A for about 2+ hours when the first half of the clip was shot on May 28, 2020. That clip promises a follow-up view of snow white topsides and transom today, May 29, 2020.
While much of the wood, which is still 35% moisture content on the gauge this morning, is quite white, and will get even whiter as it dries, the fact that there are so many replaced planks, each of which is a different species of mahogany, we failed to achieve our desired uniformity. Anthony has attacked the topsides again, and he will keep apply the 3B:1A bleach mix for the next several hours. Then we will allow it to dry down to 10% or so before we scuff it with medium Scotch Brite pads, vacuum it thoroughly and begin staining it.
Our stain of choice, and it will be yours as well once you try it, is J’eld stain from the Lake Oswego Boat Co. Mike Mayer offers this incredibly easy-to-apply, easy-to-get-to-uniformity stain in quarts. We will use Chris-Craft Post War.
Now that is a Milestone! Susan, who is a 1940 16-foot Lyman Yacht Tender with an rear cockpit that faces aft.
Other than having been stripped of all her finishes and preserved to our Snake Mountain Boatworks standard, and some repairs to her windshield and garboards, her hull is completely original.
Extensive research throughout Lyman World convinced us that her topsides had been finished brite at Sandusky, and have stayed that way since.
While she was flipped over, I spent way too many weeks beneath her removing decades of dirt, scuzz and old finishes, but I did so while preserving the fact that she’s been in service for some 80 years. Once cleaned, I stained all surfaces with Sandusky natural stain and applied four coats of Sikkens Cetol Marine – not Gloss.
After setting all of her clench nails through mahogany strakes below the waterline and cypress strakes above, we sanded her fair.
(The fact that, even though she’s not floated for over 20 years, and we expected some infiltration during her sea trial, neither bilge pump activated even once. Was there any water in the bilge other than that leaking in while we adjusted the prop shaft and rudder stuffing box? Yes, but so little that nothing came out when we opened the bilge drain.
Her topsides were stained with Sandusky natural stain. Her mahogany elements were stained using Sandusky Lyman stain.
All surfaces were sealed with four heavy coats of CPES, and then varnishing began and continued until we had applied 40 coats to her topsides and 30 coats to everything else using Pettit High Build varnish, which is now Pettit Flagship High Build.
Mickey Dupuis and his team transformed tired, pitted, and just awful into the jewelry you see here.
Robert Henkel, Peter Henkel, Inc., Marine City, MI, completely disassembled and then rebuilt her original Nordberg four-cylinder 60 HP engine and everything bolted to it.
Shauna Whiting, Kocian Instruments, executed an historically-correct preservation of her original gauge panel.
Loadmaster Trailer Co, Ltd, outdid themselves once again designing and fabricating a trailer that not only supports Susan completely, but almost hugs Susan during retrieval. Never before have we experienced such a smooth, effortless loading!
Now she can come home to Susie and Dana, longtime Lyman aficionados, But perhaps the best part is that, since her new stewards live on northern Lake Champlain, we have good reason to hope we will see much of them and of Susan.
She was Christened SUSAN in 1940 as she left Sandusky, Ohio, and now, for the first time in 20-plus years, we put fire to her totally-rebuilt, original, 60-HP, four-cylinder Nordberg engine.
OMG! Who ever thought a 4-banger would have such a voice! She fired almost immediately after we hit her starter. Initially, the idle was set a bit low, but, once Anthony turned the screw a bit, she idled along, producing 50 pounds of oil pressure while idling as smoothly as can be. We were a bit taken aback as she pumped the exhaust pipe full of water.
Once again, Robert Henkel, Peter Henkel, Inc. in Marine City, MI transformed a tired-and-worse marine engine into a power plant the both runs incredibly well, but also sits like a piece of jewelry in her engine bay.
Her original Cyprus strakes, every one of which is original, simply glisten behind the 30-plus coats of varnish we applied, but you will really see what she presents when we have her in the water, which we hope will happen tomorrow, as long as the launch ramp is not crowded by Memorial Day revelers refusing to practice social distancing or even wearing masks.
Starting with Voodoo Child, my 1953 22’ Model 110S Shepherd Runabout, we now install specific safety elements in every boat we do.
Megan Meisler, her family and crew at Loadmaster Trailer Co. Ltd., in Port Clinton, OH – once again designed a super-supportive, absolutely stunning custom trailer for Susan.
Let’s give credit where credit is due. Credit for this excellent Dutchman repair of the 1956 19’ Chris-Craft Capri’s bullnose goes happily and totally to Joe.
The fix is in and the glue is curing. Tomorrow he can execute the final sanding in after he’s addressed the tiniest of voids with his no not-so-secret sauce: TotalBoat Thixo Wood 2:1 Epoxy can be stained!
Joe will mix up a batch using the same Jel’d stain we will use on the hull and pay it. Once it’s cured and sanded, the seam will disappear.
With the battens and planks repaired, one of which will receive another Dutchman from the hands and mind of Joe, they will be installed and sanded fair, and it will be time to bleach. Her topsides will be stained, sealed and varnish will begin soon!
