1937 20-foot Lyman Runabout

According to her Boat Builders Certificate, Eagle is a 1937 20-foot runabout, hull number 8842. She left Sandusky, OH on July 10, 1937, bound for Lake George, NY and her first owner, Adelaide Brown of Camp Adirondack. The Camp is accessible by water only, so Eagle served double duty, both as a “freighter” bringing supplies to the Camp and endless hours of enjoyment to many generations of campers in the ensuing seven plus decades.<br /> Her current, second owner purchased her from the Camp in 2005, but immediately leased her back so she could continue operating at and for the Camp until about 2010, at which time she was put into covered storage.<br /> She bears many similarities to my 1940 16’ Custom Yacht Tender – coamings and windshields are near identical. The engine boxes are more furniture than boxes. The aft cockpits face aft in both boats. I will not be surprised if Eagle’s hullside strakes are Cyprus like the Tender’s.<br /> That owner towed her to Snake Mountain Boatworks last Sunday, October 21, at which time he challenged us to preserve her in the purest sense of the word. Our goal is to save not only all her original wood, but her bright finishes. <br /> While she most likely arrived with white hullsides, the Camp painted them black many decades ago and has maintained that color since then. We will keep her black with a white boot stripe and do our best to source a dark red, think of red lead primer, antifouling paint for the bottom.<br /> Other than two damaged starboard windshield frame corners and broken glass, as well as some relatively minor bruises elsewhere, the hull is in amazing condition. Her fasteners appear sound, but we will not know that for sure until we begin stripping bottom and hullside paint. <br /> She is powered by a Gray Marine Phantom flathead six, Model 6-103 and engine number 71684. While her current owner suspects she was repowered at some point, Robert Henkel, Peter Henkel Inc. in Marine City, MI, reports that it is both very early and, what with its Babbitt bearings, is a tough, super reliable engine. Given how long it has set, and as long as it is not seized, he suspects it will want components like the carb, distributor, generator (still 6 volt) and starter rebuilt. The transmission should be disassembled and cleaned and possibly need several clutch plates replaced. “It will also likely be weak in the piston/ring area, but we will know more once Michael and RJ run some tests and then put fire to the engine.”<br /> A note of caution here. That water pump with its bronze impeller has not turned in a long, long time. We will be sure to pour some soapy water into it before we fire it.<br /> We will also squirt Marvel Mystery Oil into each cylinder and turn the engine over multiple times by hand before we light up the starting motor.<br /> She will come into the shop in a month or so, but we will likely pull her engine for testing and bench running ahead of then so we can get it shipped to Robert Henkel if needed.<br /> We greatly appreciate the opportunity to rise to her owner’s challenge to us and will keep you in the loop as her preservation progresses.

Eagle is a 1937 20’ LOA Lyman runabout who spent many decades as the go-to supply and play boat at Camp Adirondack boys and girls camp on Lake George in New York State.<br /> She is powered by her original Gray Phantom flathead six and Paragon transmission.<br /> Eagle is remarkable original throughout. Most impressive is that save for several internal seating framework components, she is completely rot free.<br /> All of her copper rivets – roves and nails – appear to be absolutely tight. Even on the closest inspection, we failed to sight the tiniest bit of deterioration or rot in her ribs, which is beyond noteworthy in our experience with lapstrake hulls. <br /> Snake Mountain Boatworks is honored to accept the challenge of executing her comprehensive preservation.<br /> As a photo in the Camp’s Website makes clear, Camp Adirondack chose black for her hullsides https://www.adirondackcamp.com/about-us/the-adirondack-story/the-history-of-adirondack-camp. <br /> Save for the bilge, interior framing, floor panels and her interior hullsides, which are painted Lyman tan, the transom, foredeck, coamings, windshield and all interior seating and the engine box are finished bright.<br /> RJ and I deconstructed the interior and removed the windshield and all the hardware save for the lifting rings and rods last week.<br /> He just smiled with, “Guess it is your turn,” when our attention turned to stripping the black paint and primer from her hullsides.<br /> We will never know for sure, but I’ve now stripped 90% of that surface to bare wood. Nowhere can I find any evidence of any other paint, so the Camp must have ordered her specifying that she be painted black.<br /> Her owner is quite keen on keeping her as original as possible, and we had hoped we could save the varnish on the decks, coamings, gunwales and so forth. But when placed beneath our strong shop lighting, it is clear her foredeck planking is cupped significantly and must be released, and that the vast majority of that varnish’s adhesion with the mahogany has failed. <br /> The cupping combined with the failed varnish makes simply sanding it flat and apply additional varnish all but impossible.<br /> All of the strakes, save for the one immediately beneath to rub rail, which are fastened with clench nails between the ribs, the entire hull is riveter and tighter than tight.<br /> Several people have asked about riveting vs. clench nailing, so I searched and found some excellent online instructions from Faering Design Inc, http://www.faeringdesigninc.com/instruct.html

We truly believed we’d found any and all rot existing on Eagle’s hull, but forgot a major reality. Some sort of stained paste filler and varnish, which is what was used on parts of the foredeck and elsewhere on her hull, can hide all manner of deterioration. <br /> In the Eagle’s case it hid rotted foredeck planks on both port and starboard along the seam between the covering boards and deck planks.<br /> We now face releasing the coamings and dashboard if we wish to address these issues, and the required plank replacement properly.<br /> This rot strengthens our resolve that the deck, coaming, windshield and covering boards be stripped to bare wood. <br /> Additionally, as I strip the foredeck using a DeWalt LCD heat gun (https://www.amazon.com/DEWALT-D26960-LCD-Heat-Gun/dp/B003079A56/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1550164685&sr=8-2&keywords=dewalt+lcd+heat+gun), Sandvik Ergonomic scraper and BAHCO blade (https://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=61) . I have been exposing more of that paste filler under what appears to be precious few coats of varnish.<br /> As I will amplify in our next update, just releasing varnish, whether chemically or using a heat gun, is only the first step in cleaning the wood. As is clear in the clip, scraping away the varnish leaves a residual-stain-mottled surface behind.<br /> All of that stain must be scrubbed and bled out of the wood using Circa 1850 Heavy Bodied Paint & Varnish Remover (https://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=1695), stainless steel pot scrubbers and lots of elbow grease. How clean is clean? You will know when you get there.<br /> I will go into these last topics in greater depth later today.

Stripping paint and varnish from antique and classic wood hulls must be the least rewarding element of their preservation. It’s all about getting it off. <br /> That it is a cliché’ is immaterial. Preparation is 95%+ of great wood boat preservation. Cleaning the wood completely, until all traces of penetrating stain or surface coatings have vanished, is the cornerstone of thorough and complete preparation.<br /> And, what with grain typically running in multiple directions, great care must be taken that the scrubbing involved here does not raise a forest of cross-grain scratches in the process.<br /> While we do sometimes reach for the heat gun when stripping paint, chemical stripping is our go-to method, especially when stripping bottom paint. The chemical stripper encapsulates any lead that might be released by the stripper, where there is danger in using a heat gun that exceeds 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature at which lead vaporizes.<br /> Stripping varnish with a heat gun has advantages, not the least of which is that the waste flakes off in a dry state, which obviates the need for taping areas off lest dribs and drops of chemical stripper fall on them. But, as is evident in the clop, and RJ’s implicit expressed disdain for heat, it is both slower and potentially more damaging to wood, especially those portions of the hull that will be finished bright.<br /> Burning the wood or dissolving the glue in plywood strakes of a lapstrake hull is the major risk when going the heat gun rout. Indeed, the blackened mahogany tells us that someone must have stripped our 1937 20’ Lyman Runabout’s hull sides with heat. What we found beneath the many, many layers of black paint and primer is a veritable sea of blackened leopard spots. <br /> Fortunately, Eagle’s strakes will be painted. Even more fortunately, the same person did not strip the decks, covering boards, windshield and coamings, for sanding through the singed areas would require major thinning of the planks.<br /> We are standardized on three BAHCO-Sandvik ergonomic scrapers and the wide variety of BAHCO carbide blades. Both are available from JamestownDistributors.com and Amazon.com.<br /> • BAHCO-Sandvik 650 Premium Ergonomic Carbide Scraper, 1”, 2” and 2.5” – a one-handed scraper<br /> • BAHCO-Sandvik 650 Premium Ergonomic Carbide Scraper, 1”, 2”, 2.5” – a “big dog” two-handed scraper with a knob just behind the blade.<br /> • BAHCO-Sandvik Premium Ergonomic Carbide Scraper, 1” – a small detail scraper<br /> • BAHCO Heavy Duty 2-Inch Replacement Scraper Blade #442 <br /> • BAHCO 449 L-inch Triple-Edge Triangle Scraper Blade<br /> While we do occasionally give competing brands a chance to outperform it, nothing we’ve tried holds a candle to Jamestown Distributors’ Circa 1850 Heavy Body Paint and Varnish Remover. Period., at least during our nine months of winter when cold temperatures, snow and ice make stripping hulls outdoors with one of the spray-on strippers at best impractical.<br /> Finally, after trying a dozen or so brands, we have settled on New Star Foodservice 54460 Extra Large Stainless Steel Sponges Scrubbers sold by Amazon.com. (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B1FZEW2/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1) <br /> RJ takes you through the steps needed to arrive at you clean wood goal.<br /> o Strip the surface material – varnish or paint - using the chemical stripper of your choice.<br /> o The Chemical Route<br />  Apply the stripper three times, allowing about 20 minutes working time between each of the coats.<br />  Scrape with the wood grain using the two-hand scraper and long strokes.<br />  Apply another coat of scraper. Let it work for five minutes or so and repeat the long-stroke, two-handed scraping.<br /> o Apply the stripper again, wait a minute or so, reach for the stainless-steel sponge scrubber and scrub the surface briskly with the grain until the wood is dry.<br /> Avoiding produce long, deep scratches that result if excessive down pressure is applied. While we continue using the same sponge for job after job after job, reaching for a new one, which will be less aggressive on the wood, might be a good “first-time-through” strategy.<br /> <br /> Congratulations! You have reached the clean-wood goal and are ready to bleach!

With the initial stripping of paint, varnish and stain from the topsides, transom, decks, coamings, etc., our attention turns to the hull below her waterline.<br /> That said today the Eagle soared into the upper reaches of our shop using our overhead I-beam and rolling car system and two eight-inch-wide, 6-ton lifting capacity straps.<br /> The bow is lifted with a strap wrapped around the hull at one of the major bow area’s athwart frames, which is connect to a single chain fall.<br /> Aft of the engine bay and again beneath an athwart frame, another strap connects to two chain falls. Why? Doing so minimizes inward pressure in an area where the hullsides have minimal lateral bracing. This arrangement also stabilizes the hull against rolling.<br /> Before she took off, however, I made one last post-stripping assessment of the hull. <br /> The coamings were (sadly) fastened with mild steel wood screws which held moisture and rusted while they sort of welded themselves to the surrounding wood fibers. Later on we must drill the decayed screw holes out and plug them with appropriately sized hardwood dowels that will give the eventual silicon bronze fasteners the bite they need to secure the coamings.<br /> When Joe and I had cut off the screws that held the coamings in place, we expected that, since they would be bedded in some sort of sealant, that we’d be faced with using our FEIN MultiMaster to release each side. NOT!<br /> There was nothing between the coamings’ mounting faces and the gunwales. Nothing! Nada! Not even any sort of sealer on the raw wood.<br /> We will bed them for sure when we install them towards the end of this preservation.<br /> Stripping also revealed that the frame running beneath the aft edge of the foredeck is severely rotted on starboard and somewhat rotted on port, both of which resulted from the poorly designed weep holes through the coamings just forward of the windshield.<br /> Finally, the Eagle flew and is now resting on five jack stands, not three as I erroneously reference in the clip. (The two pair of stands at the transom and a bit forward beneath an athwart frame are chained together lest they “walk,” spread out and possibly drop the boat.)<br /> You must have scratched your heads when I recommended placing the forward jack stand under the “knee.” My bad. Placing the stand there would almost surely lead to an accident since that area is about 45 degrees relative to the ground.<br /> Gripe, Michael, not knee! The forward jack stand is best placed under the gripe, which runs horizontal.<br /> Placing this stand aft of the gripe locates it where the support needed to keep the keel from hogging.<br /> OK … time to bring out the Circa 1850 Heavy Body Stripper, Bosch-Sandvik scrapers and lots of patience.

After raising her five feet above the floor, RJ and I have been fully enjoying applying copious amounts of Circa 1850 Heavy Body Stripper – three coats in each area at a time before we begin removing what appears to be five to six coats of tired bottom paint between her boot strip and keel.<br /> The bottom planking is tight and the wood is in excellent shape, at least over the forward half of the bottom. <br /> Our real disappointment erupted as soon as I began stripping the port garboard along the seam between it and the keel. The corner of my scraper blade caught the caulk payed into the seam and released about six feet of completely free material. <br /> No, it was not 3M 5200. We found that imbedded all along the starboard garboard-keel seam. I’ve dealt with enough of this stuff bedding hardware on my sailboat. Boatlife Caulk it was. Adhered in any way to the wood anywhere it was not. A bit of tugging and long strings of this stuff literally just fell away.<br /> That most of it exhibited a shiny, slick surface tells us that it most likely never adhered to the adjoining wood at all.<br /> The seam is as much as a strong 7/16-inch wide in some places, and 3/8-inch wide along most of this distance. Properly addressing such seams is straightforward and involves first caulking them with cotton roving, which is then primed before paying the chosen caulking material begins.<br /> All of that said, this experience, along with the arrival of this month’s issue of Practical Sailor and a heads up about a Wooden Boat Forum discussion on sealants got me to thinking.<br /> While I am still researching, I believe there is value to you in sharing some of what I have learned to date.<br /> Interlux Seam Compound v. Slick Seam Compound <br /> Albeit twelve years ago, The Wooden Boat Forum hosted what can only be described as impassioned exchange. Visit: http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?68333-Interlux-Seam-Compound-vs-Slick-Seam.<br /> One contribution reporting that heating, and then thinning the Interlux product with mineral spirits results in a consistency that “trowels out like butter.”<br /> “…trick I used to use with any brand is to get a hot plate and put the can in a shallow pan of water and keep it hot, goes in the seams like butter, deeper, cleans up easy, and stiffens back as it cools...saves the fingers, hands, and wrists...and makes the bottom go quicker.....and another plus is in the cleaning process when you knife off the excess flush, and then wipe with your cleaner soaked rag, you get a concave seam, which allows for a smoother look after the boards have swelled.......”<br /> And then there were several experienced-base observations that in cold climates where she must live on the hard for six months annually and dries out as a result, the Interlux Seam Sealer tends to become brittle and break away from the wood.<br /> Bottom line: Slick Seam adheres tenaciously and handles the swell-shrink cycle well, but its waxy consistency presents offsetting issues that may outweigh its adherence advantage.<br /> Interlux Seam Compound when heated and even thinned, applies easily, but may tend to lose adhesion during the annual swell-shrink cycles our woodies must endure.<br /> <br /> Practical Sailor Magazine, March 2019 Issue – Sealant Testing Results<br /> We tested a field of leading sealants including 3M 5200, 3M 4200 Fast Cure, 3M 4000 UV, Sika 291, Sika 295,Loctite PL S-40, Loctite PL Marine, Boat Life Caulk, Boat Life Seal, and Sudbury Elastomeric Sealant, for three years….<br /> 3M 5200<br /> Intended as a permanent bonding adhesive, not a sealant or bedding agent, 5200’s increased stiffness worked against it in the flexibility test. It took more than twice as much force to flex the samples, despite the fact that 5200 is thin and only about 50 percent as much material was present in the joint.<br /> To our surprise, 3M 5200 began losing bond strength by the third year. Bottom line: Recommended as an adhesive, but not as a flexible sealant.<br /> SIKAFLEX 291<br /> Sika 291 is Practical Sailor’s best buy of this group. “…(it) delivers more consistent bonding on a wider variety of materials. It came clean easier than most (of its competitors) and retained flexibility. Bottom line: A best choice for most applications.<br /> Missing in the results is any mention of Sika’s bonding to wood below the waterline.<br /> BOATLIFE CAULK<br /> This sealant failed to bond effectively in our shear testing, and it failed the flexibility testing completely, debonding completely the first time samples were bent. While you may like a sealant that is easy to remove, we think bond failure is never acceptable.<br /> Bottom line: Not acceptable.

Our 1937 20-foot Lyman runabout is still planked in her original Philippine mahogany that has become as hard as any exotic tropical hardwood I have ever seen over her eighty plus years. Step aside Cocobolo and Bubinga!<br /> Her hull has been stripped to bare wood from keel to gunwales and stem to stern. RJ and I then worked along each strake searching for loose rivet fasteners. We found two; yes, only two.<br /> However, she’s tangled with all manner of docks, trailers and possibly lake bottoms over those eighty years, so her strakes have been dinged and gouged, leaving a myriad of declivities and ragged strake edges that must be faired.<br /> First, however, I reached for a pneumatic longboard sander and 80 grit paper, and got to work. OMG! Not only is most of this work well above my head, I might as well have been sanding our concrete floor! Well, not quite, but progress was all but nonexistent until I reached for the 60 grit.<br /> Once the surface was reasonably smooth and free of feathers and other waste, it was time to begin fairing with 3M Marine Premium Filler (https://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=6515).<br /> Our first pass, which focuses on all declivities, and is behind us, will be followed by sanding every strake as fair as is possible before we apply a second and final coat.<br /> We will then sand again, first with 60 grit, followed by 80 grit, and, at least above the waterline, her hull will be ready for sealing with three coats of Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer (CPES).<br /> Then we can focus on the below-waterline strakes that, while the wood is sound, will require substantial filling and fairing before we seal the strake-overlap seams with fillets of TotalBoat Thixo Flex.<br /> She’s a tough old bird whose elegance is slowly reappearing. She will surely turn heads once she returns to Lake George in New York!

Yet another milestone on Eagle’s, our the 1937 20-foot Lyman runabout full preservation project is teetering on a precipice and will soon be behind us! Yahoo!<br /> Let’s count the steps:<br /> 1. Strip hull to bare wood<br /> 2. Sand strakes with 60 grit, followed by 80 grit<br /> 3. Fair strakes with multiple layers of 3M Premium Marine Filler, sanding them towards fair after each layer was applied<br /> 4. Once the entire hull was fair, we sealed all the inter-plank and garboard-keel seams with TotalBoat Thixo Flex<br /> 5. Three full coats of CPES were followed by three coats of Pettit Tie Coat Primer 6627<br /> 6. We then taped off the waterline – boot stripe – and applied five coats of Kirby Low Lustre Topside Paint that George Kirby mixed for us. (We avoid using high gloss topside paint for two reasons, getting the surface so smooth that all declivities disappear gives us a fiberglass-like shine. Not doing so and applying high gloss paint accentuates and amplifies even the tiniest declivity.)<br /> 7. Finally, this morning, Joe is taping the boot stripe off anew and applying Interlux Brightside Boot Stripe Paint.<br /> By weeks end we will have thrust that milestone over the precipice, lifted her in slings and onto boat dollies, and launching a new campaign on the decks, gunwales and interior.<br /> She may be “only” twenty feet long, but, as I believe you can discern in the clip, she is a very, very stout girl! So much surface area.<br /> We cannot wait for her sea trial before she leaves for Lake George, NY, her home water.

Once again, we learn and share the sad, but powerful lesson that taking shortcuts seldom yields lasting positive results. <br /> Indeed, the short cuts taken by someone on the foredeck of Eagle, the 1937 20-foot Lyman Runabout we are preserving,<br /> What we just discovered also helps explain why answering, “Please give me as exact price you can what you will charge to bring my boat back,” is all but impossible. We can offer guesstimates together with a warning, “We never know what secrets she is keeping from us behind planks, in the framing and on and on.<br /> We have been rejoicing at Eagle’s incredible condition, especially when factoring in that she is 80+ years old.<br /> The intersection of the coaming, windshield and dashboard corners of her foredeck form a perfect water trap, especially once the original weep holes were plugged with some sort of caulking compound on both port and starboard.<br /> Water did what water does, found its way through the deck and other seams in the area and collected on the framing beneath the foredeck.<br /> In time both ends of the aft-most deck frame member – the running behind the dashboard. And the rot migrated to and through framing forward of that corner, rotting the deck-plank-supporting blocks. <br /> Finally the rot reached and rotted off both ends of the next frame member forward of that running behind the dash. The deck planks above the framing rotted away as well, helped by what looks all the world like automotive Bondo that someone decided to apply. Since automotive Bondo absorbs water, this shortcut attempt at repairing the rot actually hastened the eventual rotting through and through beneath these planks.<br /> Rather than type forever here, I will allow the clip to present our strategy options. In the end we will choose the one that permits us to save the maximum amount of original wood.<br /> Oh, and those weep holes will be opened again before we install the coamings!

Eagle has blown by one more milestone, and almost two. Her bilge has been degreased, scrubbed and scrubbed some more, before its hullsides received two coats, and bilge received three coats of Interlux Bilgekote.<br /> Yes, it is gray, not tan. We sanded to bare wood in many places throughout the bilge during which we found zero evidence that anything but gray bilge paint had been applied in Sandusky, Ohio in 1937. That said, we applied the Interkote gray for both its ease-of-application and our experience with it as a tough material that adheres aggressively to a wide variety of surfaces.<br /> RJ has now addressed the issues issuing from the plugging of the coaming weep holes just ahead of where the windshield attaches to it. Several small rotted planks have been replaced on each side using old mahogany saved from past projects.<br /> RJ’s next step is paying the few open deck seams using TotalBoat Thixo Flex dyed to match the eventual color of the deck. He will then sand it with the grain until i9t is fair using 80 grit on an inline Festool sander.<br /> Joe, in the meantime has focused on repair windshield frame and interior component rot. To date we’ve saved all components’ original wood save for the windshield uprights, which were rotted despite showing signs of many repairs. (This windshield stands very erect, and without and support, so it has been assaulted by people coming aboard or debarking using the upper corner of the windshield for leverage.)<br /> Parts and parts and parts ….. We are always amazed by the extent and sheer volume that issue from the insides of the boats we preserve, and Eagle, our 1937 20-foot Lyman Runabout is no exception. The sea of released parts, each of which must be repaired and refinished completely.<br /> We will stain the areas we will finish brite using a 3:2 ratio of red and brown mahogany Jel stain available for Mike Mayer at the Lake Oswego Boat Company (www.Loboat.com; [email protected])

Our soon-to-be-elegant-again Eagle, a 1937 20-foot Lyman runabout preservation has blown through a major milestone – all structural work has floated into our wake.<br /> Even better, with only a few of them awaiting final varnishing, the myriad of interior seating and engine box components’ preservation is nearly complete. Only their eventual installation awaits.<br /> We painted the topsides provisionally with a low-lustre black paint, suspecting that it would serve as an excellent base if we concluded that it is just too low-lustre to serve as her final finish. Our suspicions proved correct, and, once all else is done, we will be applying three to four coats of Pettit EZ Poxy Topside Boat Paint (https://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=1329).<br /> RJ, who has taken the lead in this project, is now focusing on cosmetic details on the decks, rub rails and coamings and must install the dashboard, at which time we will bleach all remaining surfaces. Staining, using equal parts of dark and red mahogany Wood Kote J’eld stain will be followed by applying three full coats of Smith’s CPES. Then it is varnish time! Yahoo!<br /> Her engine is in Marine City, MI, where she has been completely disassembled and rebuilt by Robert Henkel and his crew at Peter Henkel, Inc. (http://www.chris-craft-parts.com/). Robert forecasts that her engine will be on its way back to us in three weeks or so.<br /> That said, with any luck, Eagle will be ready for her sea trial before year’s end. However, since Lake Champlain will be ice bound by then, she will have to languish in our storage facility until next spring.

Ready for varnish is a huge milestone, and the prospect of applying the initial four to five coats of Pettit Hi-Build Varnish is generating lots of excitement in the shop.<br /> Even though we currently have six other wonderful woodies at various stages of preservation in the shop, the 1937 20’ Lyman Runabout is iconic and more.<br /> We will apply the first four to five coats and then block sand by hand with 120 grit. Sanding after each group of three coats will follow using ever-finer grits.<br /> She and her stately beauty, which is so typical of Pre-War wooden boat design, will emerge, slowly at first, but then at an accelerating pace. <br /> Robert Henkel, Peter Henkel, Inc. in Marine City, MI, has, as always, executed a masterful comprehensive tear-down and rebuild of her engine.<br /> Stay tuned for updates as we move towards completing her preserevation.

The finish line is just peaking over our 1937, 20-foot Lyman Runabout’ preservation horizon.<br /> She returned from lettering this morning, after Joanie Alden, Vital Signs Screen Printing in Vermont, hand-painted her transom and registration lettering that matches her original precisely.<br /> The transom, as is the case with everything else finished bright, has received twenty-plus coats of Pettit Flagship High-Build varnish, which we sanded flat so that the paint adheres well. Now we will add an additional four to five coats of Pettit Z-Spar Captain’s Ultra Clear varnish.<br /> Her topsides, which are planked in solid mahogany down to the keel, were painted black in Sandusky, OH, and will remain that way for years to come.<br /> Assembly, which had already been well along the way, will resume in earnest tomorrow. <br /> All we are waiting on now is the upholstery.<br /> Test running and her sea trail is targeted for the last week in July.<br /> Her road trip back to Lake George, NY may well happen the first week of August.<br /> Rather than type out all the materials’ names and source links correctly each time, you can find a comprehensive roster in one place: https://snakemountainboatworks.com/ma...

She arrived in the shop for a comprehensive preservation in February, 2019. Today our 1837 20-foot Lyman Runabout enjoys showing off during her post-preservation debut. <br /> She still wants her bow strip and temp gauge installed, but other than that, Eagle is ready to deliver decades of pleasure for her stewards on Lake George, NY.<br /> Wow!<br /> We removed every spec of paint inside and out after completely deconstructing her. Other than a couple of very minor Dutchman repairs and endless sanding of every piece of this incredibly iconic hull, she retains all of her original wood.<br /> Our only major repair involved reconstructing her windshield frame.<br /> After sealing her strakes using TotalBoat Thixo Flex Flexible Epoxy above and below the waterline, we primed the entire exterior with six coats of Pettit Tie Coat Primer. Four coats of Pettit 1933 Copper Bronze Antifouling Bottom Paint.<br /> Her Topsides received 8 coats of TotalBoat Topside Paint – not Interlux as I mistakenly said in the clip. We achieved a semi-gloss finish using Interlux Flattening Agent.<br /> Her bright-finished areas received 20 coats of Pettit Z Spar Flagship Varnish followed by 6 coats of Pettit Captain’s Ultra Clear Varnish.<br /> Shauna Whiting, Kocian Instruments in Stacy, MN, researched and executed a history-correct gauge panel restoration.<br /> Mickey Dupuis, D&S Custom Metal Restoration in Holyoke, MA, once again transformed tired, ugly hardware into jewelry.<br /> Robert Henkel, Peter Henkel INC. in Marine City, MI, magically transformed her Gray Marine Phantom flathead six into what you will see and here in the next clip.<br /> Joanie Alden, Vital Signs and Screen Painting, Colchester, VT, hand-painted her lettering to an incredible standard, as she always does.<br /> Rather than type out all the materials’ names and source links correctly each time, you can find a comprehensive roster in one place: https://snakemountainboatworks.com/ma...w.

Eagle, a 1937 20-foot Lyman runabout, is powered by her original Gray Marine Phantom Six flathead engine.<br /> Robert Henkel, Peter Henkel Inc. in Marine City, MI, once again worked his magic by transforming this Pre-WWII engine that has not run for well over twenty years into the purring beast you hear and see in this clip.<br /> Rather than type out all the materials’ names and source links correctly each time, you can find a comprehensive roster in one place: https://snakemountainboatworks.com/ma...w.