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1957 Lyman Runabout Topside Transom Strip Milestone

1957 lyman runabout topside transom strip

Simply put, there is nothing sexy or exciting about stripping paint and varnish, unless building shoulders and core muscles is your thing! Happily, save for below the waterline and the myriad components we must still strip, the nastiest part of this process is a major milestone that we are thoroughly enjoying fade into our wake.

But it is done! The 1957 23-ft. Lyman runabout’s topsides and transom are bereft of paint, varnish and stain.

We’ve also stripped most of the bottom paint off the first three or so strakes from the waterline down. At the behest of a SMB YouTube Channel subscriber, who swears by a product named Ultra Strip for stripping bottom paint. I bought a gallon for testing, and…

Hmmm, I agree, there are zero VOCs, and its jelly-like consistency hangs on the vertical surface. However….

We tried applying it with a stiff wallpaper brush and with a wide putty knife, and eventually had a thick layer on starboard. After leaving it to “cook” for four hours, per the directions, I tried scraping an area.

Even though there are only two coats of ablative bottom paint below the waterline, very little of it had been softened. We tested at six and eight hours, when, finally, the glop was ready for scraping. Perhaps the worst part of this experience was the maroon-colored glop that made a mess everywhere – Tyvek suits, scrapers, gloves and shoes. As always happens, some of the scrapings dropped outside of the cardboard sheets we laid out to protect the concrete.

Here we had to use a floor scraper, but have been left with stain blotches on the concrete. We applied two successive coats of Circa 1850 Heavy Body Paint and Varnish Remover to the same strakes on starboard, allowed it to “cook” for half an hour, scraped most of the paint down to bare wood, and escaped the maroon lakes we experienced on starboard.

Guess I won’t buy any more Ultra Strip!

She’s back on her trailer until the heating component of our pressure washing system arrives next week. Then we will clean her bilge and all interior framing before we bring her back into the shop for bracing and flipping.

The condition of her hull components continues impressing!

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1957 Lyman Runabout Paint Varnish Stripping Update

1957 lyman runabout paint varnish stripping

We are so close to being able to shout, “There! The topside paint and transom varnish are gone!”

Yes, so close, but also just not quite there. We’ve completely stripped the starboard topsides and the transom, but the port topsides have dug in and are battling against our Circa 1850 Heavy Body Paint and Varnish Remover and our Sandvik scrapers.

RJ and I leave each day with ever-stronger, but always tired shoulders and lower backs. But we are about halfway through to watching the exterior stripping challenge fade into our wake … at least the one above the waterline.

Some years back we preserved a 1955 20’ Lyman runabout, for which I kept “score” as I stripped the topsides. When I hit 93 lbs., all I could say was, “This is silly!”

Well, since I’d collected all of the scrapings from starboard into two big garbage bags, why not? They weighed close to 50 pounds in total. Stripping the 8 or so layers of paint has not been our biggest challenge here. Somewhere around layer 4 or 5, someone decided to apply some sort of battleship gray fairing compound to almost the entire topsides.

Yes, on both port and starboard. This stuff is like concrete and takes four applications of the stripper to begin softening.

On the happy news front, what a fantastic hull! She’s 60 years old and there is nary the tiniest spot of rot anywhere, strakes and transom planks included. Moreover we have yet to come upon a clench nail that is other than as tight as the day it was pounded home in Sandusky, OH.

It’s a real honor to be trusted with preserving such an original boat that is in such good shape. I know we will find issues as we keep working, but at least the hull’s major components are straight, true and strong.

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1957 Lyman Runabout Preservation Launch

1957 lyman runabout preservation launch

This 1957, 23-foot, narrow-strake Lyman Inboard Runabout never strayed from Ohio until I brought her to Vermont some weeks ago. Once we finish her complete preservation, she will split time between upstate New York, where her new owners have a summer home, and Austin, Texas.

Peter Henkel, Peter Henkel Inc., will rebuild her 125 HP Chrysler Crown engine. Indeed he’s already torn it down and reports that is both solid and clean. He will completely rebuild the long block and everything bolted to it, and have it sitting in my shop early next spring.

Other than the pretty standard weakness and splitting in the stem-gripe-knee area, her hull is as solid and unhurt as any Lyman we’ve worked with to date.

Being of pre-1960 vintage, she has a mahogany planked transom, which is in perfect condition. (We usually see some deterioration around the exhaust port, but even this wood is absolutely solid.)

According to Tom Koroknay, Lyman Boats, Legend of the Lakes, Lyman built 893 23-foot Inboard Runabouts from 1957 through 1960.

The 23-foot Inboard Runabout was one of the best rough-water boats that Lyman ever made… All of these inboard models were basically earlier versions that were stretched and widened until the desired length was achieved. Thanks to this trial-and-error method, the 23-foot hull was nearly the perfect combination of beam and length and featured the traditional Lyman soft entry, rounded chine, and slight dead rise in the stern….Standard inboard construction was used for this model.. but the ribs were increased to 1-1/8-inch width with the standard 13/16-inch thickness, and placed on 6-inch centers. These hulls could take a good beating. One of the most dependable workboats ever conceived, this model was used for everything from charter boats to water taxis to service boats for the Ohio Division of Natural Resources laboratory on South Bass Island in Lake Erie.

p. 98 – Tom Koroknay, Lyman Boats, Legend of the Lakes

Our 23-foot has survived her first 60 years remarkably well. Nary a rib shows any sign of age let alone any rot. The softness we typically site in the aft corners of the bilge is nowhere to be seen here. Her gunwale and deck framing are, for the most part true and sound. (Someone did crank the forward lifting ring down about 3/4-inch too far, so we have addressing a hollow in her foredeck in our future.

While she is structurally sound above the waterline, someone has released the covering boards and then installed them anew without any sort of adhesive and using far too few fasteners. Those we can find appear to be common finish nails or bards. We must release and reinstall both of them.

That said, this situation is actually a blessing in disguise. With the covering boards released, we will be able to clean and seal the gunwale frames and undersides of the covering boards with copious amounts of Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer (CPES). Then we will install them one more time, but now bedded an appropriate adhesive.

Finally and sadly, someone chose to replace the port foredeck panel with other than ribbon cut mahogany veneer plywood. The result is, well, just awful. We will replace the foredeck completely, using proper ribbon cut ply for sure. Doing so affords us access to the foredeck framing, both for purposes of addressing the hollow referenced above, and also for sealing the framing with CPES. She has lots of paint on her topsides, which can sometimes hide a host of issues, both major and minor. We will know more on this score once we have cleaned and applied Sandusky Paint Company Lyman sand tan bilge paint to her bilge.

The bottom, and especially the garboards appear sound, at least as far as we can tell lying on our backs. We will know much more once we have braced the cockpit area and rolled her over. First we will scrub and scrape the bilge clean – way too much fun for sure!

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1957 Lyman Runabout Arrives from Ohio

1957 lyman runabout arrives for preservation

According to Tom Koroknay, 893 23-foot Lyman Runabout were built from its introduction in 1957 until the end of 1960.

“The 23-foot Inboard Runabout was one of the best rough-water boats that Lyman ever made…. All of these inboard models were basically earlier versions that were stretched and widened until the desired length was achieved. Thanks to this trial-and-error method, the 23-foot hull was nearly the perfect combination of beam and length and featured the traditional Lyman soft entry, rounded chine, and slight dead rise in the stern…

“Standard inboard construction was used for this model also, but the ribs were increased to 1-1/8-inch with the standard 13/16-inch thickness, and placed on 6-inch centers.” (Tom Koroknay, Legend of the Lakes, p. 98)

It took less than a heartbeat to agree on the transaction when I learned from Dave Ramsey, Ramsey Brothers Restorations in Toledo, Ohio, that hull number E1083, powered by her Chrysler Crown M47, was available.

So I asked Trailer Outlet in Tilton, NH, my go-to source of Sea Lion trailers, to get an appropriately spec’d trailer to me. Joe’s son delivered it last Friday, and I left midday Monday for a trek that took me first to Toledo to load the Lyman and then to Marine City, MI and Robert Henkel’s engine shop, Peter Henkel Inc., to pull the engine for a total rebuild.

With 1,484 miles logged, the Lyman and I arrived in Vermont late last night.

The hull is in remarkably sound shape. That the keel is straight as an arrow is a huge plus. Her four-plank, solid-mahogany transom needs nothing more than stripping to bare wood, bleaching, staining sealing and varnishing.

We will know more once the paint is off the hull, but the crew and I went over it today. Other than the typical gripe-knee gapping, there is little to be worried about.

The foredeck will get most of our attention. The previous owners replaced the foredeck’s port panel with some sort of mongrel plywood. She will have a proper ribbon cut foredeck when we are through.

And the white pegboard ceilings? Happily Dave removed the one on port, but left to us the fun of releasing the one on starboard. (Fortunately these folks cut the peg board around all of the seating and bracing!)

I am certain other surprises await us. For now she’s in storage and in line to come into the shop, but I fully intend to have her on the water soonest after ice-out next spring!

That I began building a great relationship with Dave, his dad and brothers who comprise Ramsey Brothers was the best part of the whole trip!

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1940 16′ Lyman Yacht Tender “Susan” – Preservation Launched

1940 lyman yacht tender arrival

Susan, hull number 10151, is a an intriguing 16-Foot, 1940 Lyman inboard runabout, but we knew very little about her when I bought her in June 2015, other than that she is absolutely original, complete with Cyprus strakes that were finished bright, and a rear-facing aft cockpit. I shot an arrival video, which you can enjoy by navigating here.

Her engine looks all the world to be a 60-HP, Chris-Craft B, except that it is now. Robert Henkel, Peter Henkel Inc., Marine City, MI, who executed a complete rebuild, and has an extensive research library, reports that, “It is a Hercules long block that the Nordberg Manufacturing Company of Milwaukee, WI purchased, completed and stamped its own logo, etc. on the exhaust manifold. Nordberg Manufacturing Co., which, before WWII, was best known for its steam, diesel and gasoline engines, in was founded in 1889 by Bruno Nordberg:
According to Wikipedia, the company was founded by Bruno V. Nordberg and Jacob Ellis Friend in 1886. Nordberg had been working previously at steam engine and sawmill maker E. P. Allis & Co. One hundred years later, in 1989, the company was sold to Finish conglomerate Metso. By 2004 the Nordberg operations were defunct. (Read more about Nordberg here on Wikipedia and Vintage Machinery).

Gene Porter, who is renowned for his encyclopedic knowledge of things Lyman took one look at her and asked, “Do you have any idea what you have here? She was used as a yacht tender before WWII. I’ve been searching for one of these boats for decades.”

Sorry, Gene. You may rank among the top of my best friends, but that will not get Susan away from me.

To date we have released everything down to the bare hull and will begin stripping ancient varnish today.

I have had her hardware preserved and plated by Mickey Dupuis, D&S Custom Metal Restoration in Holyoke, MA.

Shauna at Kocian Instruments, Forest Lake, MN, executed her typically masterful preservation of the gauge panel.

Time to break out the Circa 1850 Heavy Body Paint & Varnish Remover and go to work.

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Bon Voyage! Kingfisher 1955 20′ Lyman Runabout is Holland Bound

1955 lyman runabout holland bound

We shot this video as our farewell to the 1955 20’ Lyman Runabout on May 20, 2016. We and her new owners, Marjanne and Kees Hoek, were in the final stages of launching her voyage from Vermont to the Netherlands, where she would introduce American wood boats and especially what I believe is one of Lyman’s finest boats, the 20-foot, narrow-strake runabout, to Holland.

Then, as life would have it, her new owners suffered what they feared were an explosion of tragedies. Happily for Kees and Marjanne Hoek, the difficulties were mercifully less than first imagined, and were resolves as quickly as they erupted on this couple. Soon “Kingfisher” will be on her voyage to Holland and to her new owners, Marjanne and Kees Hoek.

Kees asked me to share a piece that will introduce “Kingfisher” and her new owners to fellow boat enthusiasts in North America:

To start with: I have been fond of boats all my life, anyway as long as I can remember.
As you already know that’s quite a time because in fact I am 10 years older than the Lyman.

A few years ago my eye fell on a photograph of a Chris-Craft Sea Skiff in the guide to Wooden Power Boats by Benjamin Mendlowitz. When I saw this picture I was hooked at once.

So to be honest, it all started with a Chris-Craft Sea Skiff.

At that time I had a Boesch 5.80 myself. This is a runabout made in Switzerland with a big V8 block. but in fact I never got used to the looks of this boat because of the convex sheer. According to me a boat should have a concave sheer.

So I tried to find a buyer for the Boesch and at the same time started to search the web for a Sea skiff. By doing so I accidently struck the site of your colleague Tom Koroknay, and I phoned him and he convinced me that I had to look for a Lyman instead of a Chris Craft because of different reasons you know better than me.

This Tom sent me his book “Legend of the Lakes” America’s Lapstrake Classics. Since then I was looking for a lapstrake Lyman. The 18′ was too small for me and the 23″to big.

On page 96 of this book I saw a picture of the 20” but I read in the adjacent article that there were only 147 built in 1955 so that was impossible to find.

And then, in the meantime it was a few years later, I struck on your site and there it was.

A 20′ lapstrake Lyman in complete preserved condition. Nearly too beautiful to be true.

The rest of the story you know.

The Lyman is coming to Holland (The Netherlands) in spring and my wife, Marjanne, is as curious as I am myself.

The boat will be berthed at “Loosdrecht” with the Royal Watersport Society in Loosdrecht. According to Dutch ideas quite a big lake located in the centre of Holland. It will certainly be the first Lyman in Holland. I am quite sure of that. Never seen a Lyman, not even another model.

So when an American visits Holland and he spots a Lyman it must be me.

Only once I saw a Chris-Craft Sea Skiff but this one was in a very bad shape.

So Michael, you can imagine that Marjanne and I are looking forward to spring so that we can, kind of show off with the Beautiful Lyman. There it will be a real head turner and that is where it is all about.

Moreover I can tell you that it is in good hands with me and Marjanne because we are fond of beautiful things in general. My Boesch I had for 15 years and was more beautiful when I finally sold her a few weeks ago then when I bought your, now our Lyman, so no worry Americans, relax!! We will take utmost care!!

I have had boats as long as I can remember and started with a canoe. I still have a small 12″ Jol, a sailing dinghy. This boat is also lapstrake mahogany over oak ribs. Very difficult to handle but in summertime we still race in a field of approximately 20 boats. Much fun but very bad for my back.

So Michael now you have a small idea who you sold the Lyman, and I hope you will have enough info for your newsletter and of course Marjanne and I feel very honored that “our Lyman” is getting that special attention.

I will try to send you a few photos of our club in Loosdrecht but you must give me some time because as I told you before, this is not usual stuff for me. Have patience!! I will succeed.

We keep in touch, Best Kees and Marjanne Hoek.

Talk about living the dream… and that goes for all three of us, John, RJ and me!

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1955 20′ Lyman Runabout New Convertible Top

1955 lyman runabout new convertible top

Our 1955 20-foot, narrow-strake Lyman runabout, Hull No. C1028 with one-of-a-kind aft steering capability now sports a new convertible top in linen Sunbrella. Fabricated by Chris Hansen, Marine Canvas of Shelburne, VT, her top flows from and emphasizes the deep rake of her old style windshield quite nicely.

As soon as her original Chrysler M-47 engine returns from being completely rebuilt returns from the shop and is installed, we will have her on Lake Champlain for her debut curtain call.

With any luck you can see her at the American Boat Museum ACBS boat show in Clayton, NY, July 31 – August 2, 2015. I hope to meet you there.

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1940 Lyman 16′ Yacht Tender – How to Paint Bottom & Bleach Topsides

1940 lyman yacht tender bhow to paint bottom and bleach topside

John texted me early this morning, “That little Lyman turned into an albino!” Yes she did.

He experimented with our customary bleaching process. Rather than just applying and leaving the Daly’s Wood Bleach be, during the 5-1/2 hours bleach was being applied, he periodically scrubbed the surface ever so lightly with Scotch Brite pads.

One data point proves nothing, but given the absolutely uniform results, John, RJ and I will be treating the transom of the 1957 23’ Lyman Runabout to the same process.

Yes, I know that choosing Pettit Hard Racing Copper Bronze for the bottom paint is an anathema to the Lyman world, but my decision was driven by the reality that she will be a trailer- and lift-sailed boat, for which antifouling paint is not well suited.

John has worked his usual invisible Dutchman magic, and the countersink filler he concocted using two-part TotalBoat Thixo 2:1 Epoxy, cypress sand dust and Sandusky natural filler stain 9805, is a nearly exact match. (We decided against using wood bungs as the countersinks along the stem and aft transom corners are way too shallow for glue to hold them in place.

Now it is time for the wood to dry down to about 12-15 percent, at which time we will stain the topsides and transom with Sandusky natural filler stain 9805, and then seal everything with three coats of CPES.

Soon she will be albino no more!

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1955 20′ Old Style Lyman Runabout on the Water

1955 lyman runabout on the water

So many of you have requested a video of our 1955 Lyman 20’ Runabout on the water, but shot from a dock or other boat. Thanks to Vermont’s new state launch access beneath the Champlain Bridge that connects VT and NY, we are happy to deliver.

You will see a bank of very unfriendly clouds to the northwest as she romps across the water. Well the threat became a reality just as we were loading her on her trailer. A few drops of rain quickly became a deluge of thunder, lightning, rain and hail!

The bilge pump worked overtime as we headed for the shop.

We’ve drained the bilge of all the rain water, and have a pile of wet terrycloth towels on the floor from wiping her down inside and out, stem to stern.

Mid-50s, old-style runabouts are mighty rare, but this one could be yours. Just email or give us a call and we will explore with you how we can make that happen.

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1955 20′ Lyman Runabout Water Test

1955 lyman runabout water test

Yes! The 1955 20′ Lyman Runabout’s water test could not have gone better today.

We did find a minor leak in the area of the strut mount and one along the keel forward of the helm station, both of which we will repair once the hull dries.

Beyond that, she performed beautifully as she romped across the morning’s mirror-like Lake Champlain surface. RPMs rose and fell nicely in response to the throttle. She held 60 pounds of oil pressure at speed, and 40 pounds when idling.

And once again I marveled at the silky smooth ride Lyman’s deliver. She was no different as she carved turns, rode flat and made all three of us smile.

Now she is ready to meet her new owner. Contact me should you have interest in a completely preserved, largely original 1955 20′ Lyman runabout.