New Wooden Boat owner, lots of questions, Sea Tigersand gretings from The Netherlands

[swing daddy]

After a year reading about wooden boat building and restoration I have finally found a project boat to occupy my spare time. It's a 5 Meter Mahogany runabout of unknown origin that was found in Germany. At one stage in it's life it has been converted to run an outboard and I think the transom has been doubled. Recently the boat has been stripped for restoration and stored inside for many years. Most of the hardware has gone missing as well as the drive-train. Someone once told me that the two best days of wooden boat ownership are the day you buy and the day you sell but as an avid woodworker, I'm determined that this won't be true.


Now to the questions:

As you can see in the photos, there are some cracks near the bow in the top side planks on both sides, is my best bet to replace the planks or are there other solutions?

The Transom is made of 2 1inch planks laminated together, Does this seem like an original design feature or do you recon that this was added when she was converted to an outboard?

I have also found a motor and gearbox for the boat. It is a Ford Sea Tiger 4cyl and the owner doesn;t know how many horsepower it has. I have found precious little on these engines, does anyone know of them? I have heard they were made with between 59 and 100 hp.

As my subject reads I am in the Netherlands and looking to make contacts in the wooden boat world... so far all I've found is students trying to keep bundles of rot afloat for another season and guys who won't speak to you if you don't have a riva... Anybody ever heard of a wood boat club in NL?

Any advise on the above would be greatly apreciated.

Thanks,

- Douglas

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

can't see the photo's

[NormMessinger]

Hello, Douglas, and welcome. For some reason the pictures you refered to did not show up?

[swing daddy]

You can see the photos at http://www.geocities.com/super_leggera/5Meter.html

- D

[ken mcclure]

Welcome to the group!

What a GREAT project you have there! I hope you'll be updating your site with progress photos.

[Hedzer]

Hard to tell of the foto's (they take ages to fill the screen by the way) but it looks difficult. If you would replace then howfare to go back, the curve to the stem is quite fierce so you would have to steam that in place. How thick are the planks. Could you attach the new plank on a frame somewhere?
I have found boatbuilders easy to talk to if you take the time to appraise their work. I'm from Holland myself and info on woodenboatworking is found everywhere, even on the yard whee your working on your boat.

If you like more info or have questions you can contact me directly.

good luck, Hedzer

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

Hmm.. Looks sort of like a Chris Craft Barrelback, but has the front end of a hacker... Not a bad looking hull though. There are some difficult curves to deal with. Certainly a much nicer boat with an inboard engine, the one you have should be just fine for canal and inlet cruising. Look in the boat for any numbers punched into the hull or any other identifying marks.

As to the topside planks, I would think you could repair by injecting colored epoxy into the cracks or some splines. Take a good look in behind to see if there is any other damage. Looks like the boat has been out of the water a long time (obviously)so take a good look and the garboard planks and other underwater seams for splits as well. My feeling is that you can spend as much a you want, but pay attention to under the water first, and then see how much money you have left to handle the rest.

You could have a nice boat there with a little sweat

P.S Take a look inside and tell me if you think it's possible the boat has been shortened Something seems not quite right with that transom in relation to the hull

[ 02-18-2003, 05:35 PM: Message edited by: Peter Malcolm Jardine ]