"Misty Isles"

[LakeErieSailor]

Hello all, and Folkboat gurus especially.

I've had the extreme good fortune to acquire a Folkboat, free!

She has a lapstake hull, mahogany over oak, fastened with machine screws, nuts and washers. According to the former owner, she was built in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, some time in the 1950s. Power is a Graymarined gasoline two-cylinder of the same vintage.

I've made only a very casual inspection so far (should one look a gift horse in the mouth?), and at least in the cockpit she looks sound; no cracked frames or obvious rot. The owner told me that he'd replaced her original laid deck with plywood sheathed with fiberglass, and that there may be some soft spots where the 'glass cloth turns the corner from the deck to the topsides. She still has her shape, and was fairly well covered most of the time. All the same, I know that rainwater has to have gotten in over the time that she's been sitting on the hard.

What should I be looking for, and where?

Any tips, suggestions, etc., would be more than welcome.

"Misty Isles" has been sitting on her cradle for at least the eight years that I've lived in the area.

[Thorne]

Congrats!

I think you should get a professional survey done by an experienced wooden boat surveyor -- ASAP. That should give you a good idea of what issues need to be dealt with first.

[djn]

Hi Lake Erie, I hope you have the boat in the water for our wooden sailboat race as part of our Luekimia cup next September on lake St. Clair. If you send me your email I will put you on the eblast list for further information as it becomes available. Cheers.

djnagle@comcast.net

[LakeErieSailor]

Thorne, excellent advice as usual. Any idea of what such a survey would cost? I wouldn't hold you to any guess; ballpark is fine. I also expect to lean on your expert assistance in the future, if that's o.k. with you.

It goes without saying that I'll be looking for same from my other stand-bys on the forum, Bob Smalser, et al.

dj, I will be sending my e-mail address to you via my e-mail system. I hope, fervently and sincerely, that I'll be able to race in the Leukemia Cup on Lake St. Clair in the fall. Someone I knew just recently died of that horrid disease; a 27-year-old mother of two small children. I'm not a racer at all, at all, but I'll try to give it the old college try. However, if "Misty Isles" is not in the water by then, I'll bring my 20' Maryland Crabbing Skiff, if the rules allow it. It's an open day-sailer.

BTW, I'm an old (in both respects) east-side/east-suburbs Detroit boy; live for most of my life within 4 or 5 miles of Lake St. Clair.

[djn]

Hi Lake Erie, we will have every thing from square meter racers to tubby looking schooners. This is more about showing off our boats then winning the race. We will probable assign PRHF ratings after we drink a lot the night before.:D:D:D:D:D:D We look forward to seeing you there whatever you sail. Cheers.