Thompson rowboat: photos & comments

[Greg Reiman]

I just got photos back of my rowboat. These are of before I started on the restoration project. She looks pretty good in the pictures already.

I hope these photos will post here.

http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4292315767{/img]

[img]http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4292315767

http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4292315767

Since these photos were taken, I have stripped the paint off the outside of the hull (the white part) and stripped the fiberglass (the green part). Next I had to remove the residue left under the fiberglass, that was a tough job, I used a heat gun to soften it and scraped it up a few inches at a time.

Today I flipped her over and started on the inside, stripping the varnish. I tried both a heat gun and chemical stripper, the heat gun seems to work better. This is much harder then the outside as there are so many oak ribs laying crosswise that there are no big flat surfaces just a boat full of nooks and crannies. This will take FOREVER!

Any suggestions?

I have not started to sand down the outside hull yet, thought I should strip the insides first. When I do start sanding, how clean to I need to get it? I am planning to epoxy the inside and outside, then paint the outside and varnish the inside. Do I have to sand to absolute clean bare wood before epoxying the outside or just get it good and smooth? I don't even want to think about sanding the inside yet, just stripping it will be a killer.

In spite of my complaining about all this work, I am having a great time working on my boat.

Greg Reiman

[Greg Reiman]

Well the photos are not showing for me, so here is a link to the photo album on imagestation: http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4292315767

Anyone know what I might have done wrong?

There are three photos in the album so far. I hope to add more as I progress on the project.

Greg Reiman

[Greg Reiman]

Anders asked me to post some measurments, here they are:

transom to bow along centerline: 13' 5 1/2"
transom to bow along gunwale: 13' 9"
beam width (at oarlocks): 48"
transom width (at splash rail): 38"

Depth gunwale to keel:
at bow: 26" (not sure I did this at right place)
at midships: 35 1/2"
at stearn: 34

Greg Reiman

[dasboat]

Great looking little boat.
What is she?
Reminds me of the long/narrow skiffs that were built to run the narrow sloughs of the river delta.
Darryl
Well shoot howdy,I see she is a thompson.Gotta get these glasses fixed. http://media5.hypernet.com/~dick/ubb/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by dasboat (edited 10-14-2001).]

[PugetSound]

More or less bare wood on the outside will do fine. What you're after here is an absence of holidays (dents and minor imperfections) and a proper "tooth" for the epoxy or paint or whatever. Anything that really doesn't seem to want to come off should be considered part of the wood. If it were mine to do, I wouldn't be all that crazy to epoxy the whole outside of the boat. It just seems like alot of work when I could just as well paint the damn thing with a good epoxy paint and be done with it. If you are concerned about rot prevention then treat the outside with CPES and then paint.

As for varnishing the inside . . . . well, think of all the bad bad things you've ever done and of how much you really deserve to be punished...... Actually, you might consider investing in some good quality cabinet scrapers of various sizes and use those instead of sandpaper. Once you learn how to keep them sharp the job will go easier and probably faster. As a last resort, varnish a couple of coats and then paint the inside. The varnish coats guarantee that you can always go back and bright finish the interior if you change your mind.

The boat looks great though...

[Andreas Jordahl Rhude]

From the 1945 Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co. catalog, she looks like she's a "Zephyr" Outboard Rowboat. I took a gander at your photos and with the measurements I have come to this conclusion.

Is there a hull ID number stamped into the wood of the transom?

By the way, there is a CD-ROM with catalogs of Thompson; Cruisers, Inc.; T & T Boats; Thompson Boat Co. of New York; Thompson Royal-Craft; etc.; plus articles on the history of the Thompson marine endeavors. Cost is $35.00 postpaid. Order them at: www.dragonflycanoe.com (http://www.dragonflycanoe.com)