Her hull number is TFK 873, and her owners bought her as a 1957 Penn Yan Captivator, but she is virtually an exact duplicate of the 1954 Captivator from which her owner graciously allowed me to release the seating and floorboards so we could pattern new and correct seating and floorboards for our project boat.
I am not sure how we could have made any headway using photos alone. Armed with the under-seat framing and all seat and floorboard components, we have solved a challenging, three-dimensional positioning and fabrication challenge.
No, the two hulls were not exactly identical. TFK 873 is just a bit wider at the chines, possibly from use over the last 60 years. But having the components allowed us to first fabricate cardboard patterns, from which we could transfer lengths, angles and bevels.
As of this afternoon, John has masterfully finished and temporarily installed all of the components, save for the aft outer seat brackets.
Only the outer seat bench braces remain. These were originally steam twisted into quasi-corkscrew shapes that fit into the hulls ever-changing radius curves. Duplicating these complex shapes, each of which was just slightly different from the other three, would have sent us on a maddening, probably fruitless fool’s errand. Rather, John applied his ingenuity to the problem and came up with sanding the backsides of each brace into shape using our 4-foot, stationary belt sander. Of course, his challenge involved shaping the outer face while maintaining the top face, where the bench fastens at the correct angle.
You see the front braces already installed in the video, and John is attacking the aft braces as I type.
Once we are satisfied that everything is perfect, all of the new components will be released for finishing, and so we can apply bilge paint up to the chines and topside paint to the inner surfaces of the topside planks, the ribs, and the back face of the aft seatback.
While RJ and I are painting, John will focus on installing her new transom and refastening her bottom planking starboard of the keel.
Vintage Boat Preservation
