Herreshoff 12 1/2 hull #1498 progress

[esingleman]

Progress is slow but steady. I started a site to post the photos to:

www.erickswoodenboatpics.shutterfly.com

I completed my first attempt at steam bending frames. it went rather well. We only broke 2 out of 20. Fortunately I am bending over molds, and not attempting to bend them into the boat (shape of the boat is too far gone for that). I could see where bending into the boat would be a greater challenge.

I am now getting the forward molds ready and hope to be steam bending the forward frames in a few weeks.

[paladin]

Betcha dunno got the line drawings and offsets, do ya?

[Alex Low]

Proper job!

How much do you think you can salvage from the original?

Alex

[esingleman]

What's going to be left in there that is original? Well, I wasn't sure there was going to be anything left at first glance, but so far the dead wood looks good. The planks had so many sistered frames that there are nine screw holes where one plank was to be screwed on to a frame. I'll try to find some planks that may be useable.

Really the only things I think I can save are the seats, deck stringers (maybe) and some of the floor timbers (by cutting bigger ones down to be smaller ones). Maybe some of the cockpit floor boards. "I'll make as many new parts from wood that came out of the boat as I can. But this boat was in sad sad shape.

I ought to scan in some pictures form when this boat was in the water last. It is just plain disgraceful that a boat was... ah I'm not going to go there.

[seo]

Nice looking job. It's probably late in the day to change tacks, but I wonder if it might have been easier, cheaper, and quicker to set up "as if" you were going to build a new boat, and then just use whatever bits and pieces were salvageable. You may have been more likely to come out with the correct shape that way.

[CundysHarbor]

Keep up the good work. I replaced a gang of frames, transom and several plank in #1493. They are great boats.

[esingleman]

Nice looking job. It's probably late in the day to change tacks, but I wonder if it might have been easier, cheaper, and quicker to set up "as if" you were going to build a new boat, and then just use whatever bits and pieces were salvageable. You may have been more likely to come out with the correct shape that way.

Yes, I think it would be a lot easier to start a new and build it as a new boat. But I have the builders plate and I would like to say its the same boat when i am finished.

The latest consensus about rebuilding her as the same boat requires that the boat look like a boat through the entire restoration process. It's kind of like the USS Constitution, she has very little from the original build left in her, but she always existed as the same structure. They didn't build a new one next to her and just transfer the hardware.

[seo]

I wish that I had the funding that's available to the U.S. Navy, but on the other hand I'm glad that my boat does more than sit at a dock.
There are of course many arcane definitions of what is a reconstruction/replica/re-imagining, etc, etc. I have spend quite a lot of time at Mystic Seaport hassling these exact points on behalf of the schooner Amistad, endlessly making the same boring point- that unlike the vessels that would spend the rest of their days bolted to the pier, the Amistad was due to leave on an atlantic passage in less than a month.
You have the great and enviable privilege of working on your own boat, and you can please yourself. For what it's worth, she looks great.
On the subject of steam bending...There's a reported phenomenon of over-cooked wood losing its resilience and strength. Is this true? Dunno. But I think of oak frames as being like a tuna steak. Undercooked is chewy and odd. Overcooked is no good at all.
In lieu of a lot of experience, it might be a good idea to A) have plenty of stock, so it doesn't bother you to consign some to the stove, B) Start testing the frames for flex a bit short of when your times says they're "done." If one seems limp, and you think it's overcooked, don't use it.
It's a remarkable thing to watch a skilled master builder, with years of experience, work with his gang to bend the frames into a boat-not a wasted motion as one after the other the frames come out of the steam box and be bent in while they're still steaming.
I've never come close to being that good. I've kept a kettle on the stove to pour boiling water over a frame that was cooling, while I was still goofing around, and don't feel guilty admitting it.
The main advice I'd give is to leave yourself plenty of time when deciding the time interval that the frames go in the steam box. If you think it'll take you a half hour to fit a frame, maybe give yourself 45 minutes...The worst that's going to happen is that you'll have a bit of leisure to admire your work.