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

1948 18-foot Century Seamaid Preservation

1948 Century Seamaid Preservation Bondo Gone

1948 Century Sea Maid Replacing Bottom Frames & Bow

1948 Century Seamaid Bottom Frames & Bow

1948 Century Sea Maid Bottom Time To Skin

1950 Chris Craft Riviera 5200 Bottom Update

1948 Century Seamaid Bottom Disaster Update

1956 Chris Craft Capri Bullnose & The Art of Toothpicking

1956 Chris Craft Capri 19′ – How We Do Bottom Work

1956 Chris Craft Capri Foredeck Repair

1947 Chris Craft U22 Bottom Damage Quandry

1947 Chris Craft U22 Chine Frame Damage

1947 Chris Craft Cedar Plank U22 Hull Damage

1954 Penn Yan Captivator Aristocrat: How to replace the Transom

1954 Penn Yan Captivator Aristocrat: How to Fabricate a new Transom

1954 Penn Yan Captivator Aristocrat Releasing the Transom (pt 2)

1954 Penn Yan Captivator Aristocrat: How to Release the Transom

1957 Lyman Runabout Decking Time

1957 Lyman Runabout How to Mock Up Helm Station Seating

1957 Lyman Runabout: How to Fabricate and Install Ceilings

1959 Chris Craft 17′ Sportsman Engine Install Alignment is Cricital!!!

1957 Lyman Runabout Paint & Stain Update

1957 Lyman Runabout Foredeck Off!

1940 16′ Lyman Yacht Tender Bottom Priming!

1940 Lyman 16′ Yacht Tender Keelson, Keel, Gripe & Knee Update

1940 16′ Lyman Yacht Tender Bottom Work & Keelson Replacement

1940 Lyman Yacht Tender Gets a New Keelson

1946 Chris Craft Brightside U22 Installing Her Splash Rails

1946 Chris Craft Mahogany U22 Bottom Planking Fabrication

1946 Chris Craft Brightside U22 Bottom Framing Update

1959 Chris Craft 17′ Sportsman Transom Planking & Framing Update

How To Replace a pre-1950 Lyman Plank Transom – Correctly

1946 Chris Craft U22 – How To Release the Keel

1946 Chris Craft U22 – How to Release the Gripe

How to Flip a 1946 Chris Craft Mahogany U22

1953 Shepherd Sportsman 110 S Fabricating a Stem Dutchman

1953 Shepherd: How to Repair a Stem with a Dutchman (update II)

1953 Shepherd: How to Repair a Stem with a Dutchman (update)

1953 Shepherd: How to use a Dutchman to Repair a Stem

How to Rout the Windshield Seal Dado Into a ’55 Lyman Windshield

How to Bore a New Prop Shaft Hole – 1946 Gar Wood Ensign

1958 Cadillac Seville – Rub Rail Steam Bending
Excerpted from “Bottom Frame Repair,” Classic Boating, November / December 2021:
Danenberg_Frame_Repair_Classic_Boating_Nov-Dec_2021