Category: 1954 Penn Yan Captivator

Thank you for the emails and generally supportive reactions to our 1954 Penn Yan Captivator Aristocrat. In response to your several pleas that we parade her, her is a follow-up to yesterday’s post-preservation debut clip.

She arrived at Snake Mountain Boatworks last fall having been “restored” by someone about whom I can say nothing nice, so I will say nothing at all.

Revisit some of our early videos on this project and hear the despair in our voices.

But we have saved her. I misspoke a bit on her post-preservation originality in the clip. In addition to the seating, we fabricated new thwart bracing and replaced her transom and transom framing. So she leaves us with much less than 90% of her original wood.

The important fact is that she has been saved and will leave shortly for Lake Simon in Tupper Lake, NY, where we hope for a long fall boating season for her owners

Preserving her has been extremely challenging, but this 1954 Penn Yan Captivator is finally nearing the finish line. While all three of us have worked on this project, John has taken the lead and executed most of the structural work involved in reshaping her hull; and fabricating and installing her new keel, transom framing and transom, ribs, athwart braces, splash rails, rub rails and much, much more.

As is evident in this clip, all that hard work is returning substantial dividends in the form of a stunning outcome. Shortly we will begin installing her new seating and hardware, racing towards the target completion that will have her back with her owners by Labor Day.

The finish line on our 1954 Penn Yan Captivator project is just peeking over the horizon. We have rolled and tipped the first seven coats of Interlux Perfection Plus two-part polyurethane varnish, with sanding three times between coats thus far. We began with 400 grit and progressed through 600 and now 800 grit along the way.

Now there is sufficient film thickness that John has been able to sand more aggressively towards a uniform snow field that we dared to between earlier coats. Sanding too aggressively risks cutting through the varnish down to bare wood. It happens, but building it back without producing visible boundaries around the “patch” is horribly difficult.

We will roll and tip two additional coats and then sand on last time before we apply the 10th and final coat to the decks and covering boards.

Anticipating your questions, yes, we are varnishing over the Sikaflex U295 seams. Perfection is crystal clear and, unlike some spar varnishes, it adheres tenaciously to the Sikaflex, and it imparts the same UV protection to the seam material as it does to the planking.

We have applied five coats of Pettit Hi-Build varnish below the rub rails, and on the transom, with three more to go.

We should be installing wiring, gauges, seating, the windshield and hardware by this time next week.

Happy 4th of July!

Finally! The spray rail milestone was among our most challenging in our preservation of this wonderful little 1954 Penn Yan Captivator.

John began with 8/4, air-dried, FAS grade white oak and then fabricated a pair of almost 17-foot-long spray rail blanks the cross-section of which matched her decayed, too-far-gone-for-saving original rails.

Next came the steam-bending challenge, which began with soaking the blanks by standing them in a 12 foot x 8” PVC tube standing upright for three weeks. We shared our successful initial bending and installation of the rails in an earlier clip.

We left them on the hull until our moisture meter read 10%, then came endless hand sanding and final fitting of the ever-changing angles so that the rails set tightly against the hull.

We bleached them with Klean-Strip Wood Bleach and then stained them with Sandusky Chris Craft Corina Blonde stain, which will also be applied to the half-round rub rails we have been able to save. Two coats of CPES were followed by an initial coat of varnish.

Today, bedded in 3M5200, John and RJ installed them permanently.

We will spend the balance of today installing the mid-deck seat supports and the coaming that encircles the gunwales and both cockpits.

Two coats of varnish have been applied to the decks, topsides and transom at this point. Once the coaming is installed, sealed and stained – yes, in place, we will continue varnishing until she presents a deep gloss.

She could be home in time to celebrate July 4th with her owners! Let’s hope.

The little Penn Yan Captivator is truly “coming into it,” our shop phrase for projects that moved past major preservation milestones with flying colors.

Speaking of color, I hope you will agree that the TotalBoat JD Select Bottom paint complements the mahogany topsides and transom very nicely. It also echoes the upholstery, which is the same forest green.

The newly-fabricated white oak splash rails have been bleached and the final sanding is finished as of this morning. We will stain them blonde to match the half-round white oak rub rails that have yet to be fabricated.

Varnishing is next, but wait. Why have the seams been filled with white Sikaflex 295 UV already? Because the decks, coaming boards, dash and gunwales will be varnished with Interlux Perfection Plus Two-Part Epoxy Varnish, which is crystal clear. As corroborated in the current issue of Practical Sailor magazine, Perfection Plus delivers incredible UV protection and, in PS’s tests, retains its gloss for years – 5 in the PS tests.

We will roll and tip at least eight coats of Perfection, sanding after every three and then every other coat.

As I type Pettit Hi-Build Gloss Varnish is being rolled and tipped on her topsides and transom. We will build at least eight coats, sanding with ever-finer dry paper between every 2 coats.

What great lines! What a truly neat little boat, especially once we hang her 30 HP Johnson Javelin on her transom!