Vintage Boat Preservation How-To
No matter how diligent we might be, at least some part of the wood in your boat will rot at some time. Fabricating a new bottom typically means replacing both the inner skin and external planks. Working on your boat’s bottom means first flipping her. Just dropping your inboard engine onto its mounts and bolting it down does not align it with the drive line.
Preservation often means releasing the keel, gripe, stem, planking and frames.
These are but some of the topics this section covers.
Sadly, Don Danenberg, North America’s foremost wooden boat restorer, has retired. Happily, however he is still writing and has just published what I consider is the seminal article on repairing antique and classic wooden boats’ bottom frames. The piece, entitled simply, “Bottom Frame Repair,” appears in the new issue of Classic Boating, November / December 2021, and is a must read for novices and experts alike (click here to read the article).

1947 Higgins Speedster Bottom Transom Framing & Toothpicking
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1948 18-foot Century Seamaid Preservation
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1948 Century Seamaid Preservation Bondo Gone
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1948 Century Sea Maid Replacing Bottom Frames & Bow
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1948 Century Seamaid Bottom Frames & Bow
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1948 Century Sea Maid Bottom Time To Skin
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1950 Chris Craft Riviera 5200 Bottom Update
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1948 Century Seamaid Bottom Disaster Update
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1956 Chris Craft Capri Bullnose & The Art of Toothpicking
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1956 Chris Craft Capri 19′ – How We Do Bottom Work
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1956 Chris Craft Capri Foredeck Repair
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1947 Chris Craft U22 Bottom Damage Quandry
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1947 Chris Craft U22 Chine Frame Damage
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1947 Chris Craft Cedar Plank U22 Hull Damage
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1954 Penn Yan Captivator Aristocrat: How to replace the Transom
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1954 Penn Yan Captivator Aristocrat: How to Fabricate a new Transom
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1954 Penn Yan Captivator Aristocrat Releasing the Transom (pt 2)
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1954 Penn Yan Captivator Aristocrat: How to Release the Transom
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1957 Lyman Runabout Decking Time
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1957 Lyman Runabout How to Mock Up Helm Station Seating
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1957 Lyman Runabout: How to Fabricate and Install Ceilings
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1959 Chris Craft 17′ Sportsman Engine Install Alignment is Cricital!!!
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1957 Lyman Runabout Paint & Stain Update
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1957 Lyman Runabout Foredeck Off!
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1940 16′ Lyman Yacht Tender Bottom Priming!
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1940 Lyman 16′ Yacht Tender Keelson, Keel, Gripe & Knee Update
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1940 16′ Lyman Yacht Tender Bottom Work & Keelson Replacement
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1940 Lyman Yacht Tender Gets a New Keelson
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1946 Chris Craft Brightside U22 Installing Her Splash Rails
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1946 Chris Craft Mahogany U22 Bottom Planking Fabrication
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1946 Chris Craft Brightside U22 Bottom Framing Update
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1959 Chris Craft 17′ Sportsman Transom Planking & Framing Update
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How To Replace a pre-1950 Lyman Plank Transom – Correctly
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1946 Chris Craft U22 – How To Release the Keel
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1946 Chris Craft U22 – How to Release the Gripe
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How to Flip a 1946 Chris Craft Mahogany U22
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1953 Shepherd Sportsman 110 S Fabricating a Stem Dutchman
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1953 Shepherd: How to Repair a Stem with a Dutchman (update II)
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1953 Shepherd: How to Repair a Stem with a Dutchman (update)
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1953 Shepherd: How to use a Dutchman to Repair a Stem
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How to Rout the Windshield Seal Dado Into a ’55 Lyman Windshield
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How to Bore a New Prop Shaft Hole – 1946 Gar Wood Ensign
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1958 Cadillac Seville – Rub Rail Steam Bending
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Excerpted from “Bottom Frame Repair,” Classic Boating, November / December 2021:
Danenberg_Frame_Repair_Classic_Boating_Nov-Dec_2021