Bill's 1957 Peshtigo Thompson Sea Lancer

[Bill E]

Well, we got the boat off the trailer and flipped in my driveway today. I had stripped her of everything I could from above in order to lighten the load. Then I screwed about four 8' 2x6 boards across the gunwales, into the oak (predrilling my holes, of course). The overhangs gave us good handles for lifting.

We had four guys, plus my wife, but we sure could have used another one or two. On "three", we all lifted the boat straight up, while my wife pulled the trailer out. We had to set her down partway a couple of times to rearrange as the wheels passed by, but finally the trailer was out of the way, and we eased her down to the ground. I say eased... more like the boat said, "PUT ME DOWN NOW!!!" and I obliged. It's been WAY too long since I've done any squats, and I'm feeling it now!

Once on the ground, those 2x6 overhangs made a convenient buffer to keep the gunwale off the concrete. We did put down some blanket just for insurance against little gravel pieces, etc. I'll definitely have to be more careful after repainting when flipping her back upright.

Lessons learned?
- 4 guys is plenty for flipping.
- Flipping is much easier than hoisting. But it's all pretty easy.
- The boat looks very small/shallow when upside down and at ground level!

Thanks also to JoeCB who sent me the beam measurements off his '57 Sea Lancer. I used those when attaching the 2x6's across the boat. To my surprise, the natural set of my gunwales was pretty much dead-on with his measurements.

Here are some photos. Sorry there are no progress shots; all hands were busy!




That front 2x6 has another 2x6 screwed to it on edge. That's to provide protection for the dashboard and the crown of the deck once flipped over.





I just had to start on the bottom work a little! With a painter's 5-in-1 tool, I was able to press a corner into the wood just beside the filler of each screw-head, give a twist, and it would pop right out. I'm pretty sure they used automotive Bondo for the filler on the last bottom job. The original 51-year-old filler has held better than the Bondo! A surprising number of screw heads were already exposed, the Bondo having popped out. This fact, plus a little softness on the bottom at the transom makes me inclined to go ahead and replace the garboards (again), even though they're largely in good shape.

[Bill E]

After flipping my boat the previous weekend, this weekend I forged ahead. Friday late afternoon, I got the casters under the boat between rain showers, and I pulled a late night clearing the garage some more and got the boat inside around 12 or 12:30am. Then I was up until about 2:15 scraping out putty/filler and pulling screws. MAN! There are a bunch of those little buggers!

In the photos, all those frames that don't make it over to the keelson were either currently completely rotten, or had been rotten in the past when someone else did a questionable job of repairing them. I had thought that the new frame tails were jut butt-joined, but I found that they had used half-lap joints. This still provided no real structural support. However, they had used mahogany, of all things, so the wood was still in good shape. I've taken out most of those, except for one at the bottom of the first photo, and I'm going to scarf-in new white oak frame tails to match the originals. Where necessary, I'm going to steam-bend entire new frames. Pretty much any frame that's rotten at the turn of the bilge or below, I'm going to replace completely. I'll also scarf-in new planking, doing it in place, if possible, using the old pieces as templates.

I have to admit, yesterday I was feeling a little overwhelmed about all the work that's ahead of me, but I have to remind myself that there are those who've gone before doing this same stuff, and it'll be great when it's done. In the meantime, I AM still having fun!

First, a couple of shots from where I left off last night. Starboard side, bottom plank removed up to the keelson/stem joint, next plank removed back to solid wood; third plank cut a couple of feet back from there, but not removed. On the port side, I've removed a lot of the screws, but not enough yet! Viewed from the bow, then the stern:



Next, a few shots of my quick & dirty technique for exposing those screw heads. I got tired of scraping out the old filler, especially in areas where I'm going to be replacing the next plank anyway. It occurred to me that I could make a couple of quick saw cuts around the screw head, then chip out the top layer or two of plywood. This gets rid of most of the old putty, and it gives me some "working room" around the screw head for cleaning out the screw slot.





Once I got past the point where I'm going to keep that next plank, I had to switch to the old scrape & chip method of putty & screw removal, although on a few tough screws where I couldn't get the nut off, I slipped a hacksaw blade between the planks and just cut the screw in half.



As a side note, I generally prefer Phillips head screws because they're easier to power-drive with a cordless drill. However, I'll probably be going back in with slotted screws because they're a lot easier to clean putty out of if they ever have to be removed. That cross-head is almost impossible to clean out to get a screwdriver or driver bit into well enough not to strip it out if they've been filled with putty. Any tips on that would be appreciated! Maybe it's time to buy a screw extractor.... (All the "new" screws from the previous repair are Phillips head.)

-wte