thompsondockside.com

Clark, I have an original "in the family" 1959 SeaCoaster 473. The bottom outside is all original and has 2 wooden pieces and 2 aluminum pieces. The wooden pieces are the stem and the keel. My keel is identical to yours and is made of white oak as is the stem. The two aluminum strips both with convex top and concave bottom and about a 1/2 inch in width (not near them now to measure) are the cap for the stem attached with screws and the other strip runs from the back end of the keel to the end of the bottom at the transom. This last strip is also attached with screws and should be buttered with LifeCalk before screwed down over the cleaned, CPES'd and buttered joint. It, like the stem cap is only about 3/16ths high but it is what keeps water out of the joint of the garboards for the last section of the boat. Someone's earlier post said Thompson changed from full length wood to the metal last section for improved planing. I suspect if you clean the joint and look closely you will see the holes from the missing metal piece. I believe TACO may have appropriate aluminum replacement metal. Regards, John

Not sure exactly when, but in the late 1950s the keel did stop short of the transom on boats made by Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co. at Peshtigo. It had to do with cavitation on the higher HP motors.

If I recall, on a 1964 Sea Lancer 17'-11", the keel was about 30 inches short of the transom.

The plywood garboard plank gap was caulked and covered by a metal strip from the end of the keel to the transom.

Andreas

Thanks for your replies Phill, Andreas, and John. Next question ... there's some damage to the stem and keel. Most of the stem and keel are in solid condition, except for about a foot on each side of the stem/keel junction. If I was to remove the damaged sections, would I be able to simply scarf in a new piece to the existing stem and keel?

Yup, scarf in new wood. Cut out the bad and scarf new pieces of white oak. Screw etc...

Andreas

Andreas, When looking at his photo above, I notice a gap between the stem and keel. When repairing that wood, would you butt those pieces together (glue them) or leave a small gap with putty in it to allow for expansion and flex???

Verne

Verne,

I would think you could replace both the stem and keel pieces with on continuous piece of white oak. I do not see any advantage to having two pieces at this point in time. Besides it would be one less seam to have water infiltrate.
Main reason the stem and keel where originally done in two seperate pieces was, it was a lot easier then trying to bend a one piece stem and keel. They wanted to build these boats as fast as they could and two pieces are faster then one piece. Besides it would have been a lot more cost for longer wood then two shorter pieces.

Good Luck,

Phill

Good idea Phill, I agree.

Andreas

Excellent ideas ... thanks. I would like to try to replace both the stem and keel with a single board. I'm thinking about how I would be able to bend the stem portion of that long board. If I was to pre-drill holes into the new board, and then steam one end of it, would I then be able to attach it to the boat, starting at the stem end, and bend that board to shape as another person is fastening the board to the boat?

chvjillson,

I believe if you perdrilled the wood it may cause the wood to fail at these drilled locations while bending it.

I would try fastening at the very end of the stem near the deck and then using a backer piece of steel banding, with something between it and the wood so it will not transfer rust to the wood, bend the rest of the wood to get it as tight to the inner stem and keelson as possible and allow to dry. Once the wood is dry then drill the holes one by one starting at the end of the stem and fastern as you go back toward the stern. Be sure to us a good sealer like Boat Life between the new wood and the planking.

Good Luck,

Phill

Thanks Phill ... but I'm not understanding what you mean by a 'backer piece' of steel banding.

chvjillson,

By a backer piece of banding I am refering to a piece of steel strapping material that will be placed on the outside surface of the wood being bent to act as a support. This backer reinforces the wood being bent and helps eliminate possible cracking of the wood as it bends.

Hope that helps.

Good Luck,

Phill

Okay, I got it now Phill ... thanks. I think I'm going to just scarf a new piece in ... it seems to be a lot simpler than trying to bend a long solid piece.

Updates??

After a busy summer, I decided to finally start working on the boat again. Last night I applied a heavy coat of Citristrip throughout the bottom of the boat, and covered it with a tarp so it stayed as moist as possible as it sat overnight.



This morning I was able to wheel the boat outside and slowly started to scrape off the paint. The Citristrip was still moist, and the scraping wasn't that difficult. As I scraped, I kept noticing pencil marks on the bare wood which marked where the builder was to drill holes to attach the garboards to the ribs. Neat!



After about 3 hours of scraping the entire boat, I applied a second coat of Citristrip as there was a lot of spots where the paint layers were really thick. After about 45 minutes of letting the second coat sit, I spent another hour scraping as much paint as possible. Here's what it it looks like now.



Question for the group ... should I sand the rest of the paint off in order to best prepare the surface for CPES and paint?

Lookin' good!

Yes, get the remainder of the paint off. At least as much as possible. The CPES will not penetrate thru the old paint.

If any of the old white lead putty in the screw/bolt holes is loose, get it out now too.

Give that little blond dude some sandpaper and let him have at it!

Andreas