Category: Lyman

Susan, our 1940, sixteen-foot LOA Lyman Yacht Tender, HIN 10151, with aft facing aft cockpit is oh, oh so close to the finish line.

Yes, she was Susan when new, so our vinyl master duplicated that freehand font and Susan she will be until a future steward can express her/his preference for some other name. That said, I chose 7-year vinyl and will not varnish over it, which facilitates simply peeling it off if a future owner wishes to without doing any damage to the varnish.

A REQUEST: Her original 12” x 18” ensign was in tatters and worse when I bought her, so I am searching for a period, or at least period-correct, but not-brand-new ensign. Anybody have one I can buy that will become Susan’s? Thanks.

Other boat obligations forced us to banish her to storage for a bit, before we install her windshield and seating – the latter will return from upholstery soon. We are also waiting on an exhaust elbow, as the one bolted on when she arrived was, well, junk.

She is fitted with Cypress hullside strakes down to the waterline and mahogany from there down to the keel. She is rather stunning mahogany everywhere else. Viewing the clip surely puts a spotlight on her mahogany.

Save for one small, rectangular Dutchman repair just below her starboard rub rail and just about at the helm station, 99.99% of her wood is original. Every rib and every frame member are original and one-hundred percent rot-free. The one .0001% is the below-deck bow light backing block. We replaced it.

We stripped her to bare wood inside and out, stem to stern and started back, beginning with RJ and I sanding and finishing her interior hullsides and bilge while she was upside down. RJ has yet to forgive me, but gives credit to me for having suffered through at least half of this torture.

The interior hullsides received multiple coats of Sikkens Cetol Marine, and we applied three plus coats of SANPACO Lyman Sand Tan Bilge Paint to the entire bilge and all of its components.

Her bottom seams were sealed with TotalBoat Thixo Flex from Jamestown Distributors before we applied three coats of CPES and three of Pettit Tie Coat Primer 6627 and four coats of Sandusky Lyman Copper Bronze Antifouling Bottom Paint.

Deck seams were filled with Sikaflex 290 LOT – Mahogany based on a former owner’s memory.

After sanding everything fair, we bleached decks and hullsides as well as every “loose” component.

We stained using mahogany components with Lake Oswego Boat Company “Lyman” Gel Stain. The Cyprus hull sides received natural Gel Stain, and then the varnish marathon began. Pettit Hi-Build followed by the last two coats of Pettit Captains Varnish Ultra Clear 2067

OMG! Thirty-two coats later, my crew decreed, “That’s spectacular. Enough already!” Indeed, the gloss is a mile deep.

Preservation team:

Gauge Restoration: Shauna Whiting, Kocian Instruments, Forest Lake, MN
Metal Restoration: Mickey Dupuis, Custom Metal Restoration, Holyoke, MA
Engine Rebuild: Robert Henkel, Peter Henkel INC., Marine City, MI
Woodwork and finishing: Snake Mountain Boatworks LLC’s crew

Maybe, maybe, maybe we can pull everything together by Labor Day. Might even celebrate a bit as she romps across Lake Champlain!

With her decks bleached with Daly’s Wood Bleach, sanded with 80 grit, stained with a Wood Kote Jel’d stain – red and brown mahogany in a 2:1 ratio – and sealed with three coats of Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer, Joe announced, “Let’s see how my years of window glazing and auto striping experience translate into delivering absolutely knife-edge deck seams.”
Let’s just say that Joe proved himself to be a master seam striper! With RJ assisting, the aft deck is finished and they are pulling tape from the completed foredeck as I type.

My 1940 16’ Lyman Custom Yacht Tender will be ready for varnish next Monday.

Lyman fabricated this model’s decks are simply carvel planked, but without any interior battens. The athwart frames are closely spaced, so the decks are plenty strong, but the seams are completely open and must be filled at least part way to render the decks waterproof.

We are using Mahogany Sikaflex 291 LOT, with the acronym standing for Long Open Time, which gives us ample freedom to work at a measured pace. The seams were filled almost to the top at their edges, but with a concave profile, which is consistent with my research and other boats in this model line built between 1938 and 1940.

Joe began taping using three-quarter-inch Scotch blue painter’s tape, which lines each edge, followed by a one-inch-wide strip that covers the plank completely. He very much wants to share from his experience that pressing the tape down and onto the wood’s surface with pressure across its width is critical to avoiding driving the Sikaflex beneath the tape, which translates into ragged, rather than knife-like edges. (He has one request, “Even though it is more expensive, Frog Tape produces a tighter seal and straighter line than Scotch Blue does. Pressing the Frog Tape down firmly completely seals the edge)

Note to self: order some Frog Tape for the next deck seaming.

All Sikaflex is applied in the same direction, and the tape is pulled in the same direction, from the beginning of each seam at the helm to its terminus at the bow. Doing so ensures that the Sikaflex separates from the tape cleanly and consistently.

Additionally, Joe admonishes that, “The bubble chases the gun. Take great care to cut the tube’s tip at precisely forty-five degrees, with an at most one-eighth-inch orifice. That way, squeezing the gun presses the material down and back into what precedes it. Remember, the bubble chases the gun. Reverse direction at your peril.”

Clean-up uses lots of Interlux Special Thinner 216.

People often ask how long procedures like this one take. Joe spent about five hours yesterday, and he and RJ worked about four hours this morning. The entire process used up about three tubes of Mahogany Sikaflex 291 LOT.
Varnishing her decks, so they can begin catching up to the nineteen coats on her topsides, transom, windshield, engine box and seating components!