Preview: Wooden Boat Repair – Refastening Part 1 – Scoping Out the Job

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Every wooden boat owner knows that refastening is in their future; but where do you begin? John O’Donovan and Patrick Dole walk us through assessing the state of the fastenings of Bill Mayher’s Concordia 31 that’s five decades old. We learned a lot.

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13 Responses So Far to “Wooden Boat Repair – Refastening Part 1 – Scoping Out the Job

  • Avatar

    Tim Stephenson says:

    How can you take out all the screws without the boat falling apart or movement between planks and frames.
    Why don’t you take out a screw then replace it.

  • martin Thomas

    martin Thomas says:

    After replacing 2200 screws, the majority that cam out reasonable well. Three tools were helpful.
    First a screw driver which was ground down to sharp chisel ended finger with sharp square sides, used to clean out the screw head slot. This helps with cam out of the screw diver which also ruins the slot and adds to the problem. The use of an impact drive can be help to start the screw, it does not need a hefty swing of the hammer Just enough to break it free. The impact from the hammer helps to hold the diver in to the slot with out cam out and the size if the impact diver allows you to hand turn the screw out.
    Some of the screw just rotated with out coming out. To remove, grind down an old hack saw blade too a thin finger, heat he end and bend the end to a curve around 45 degree. This can be squeezed around the side of the head, levering the head away from the plank while rotating the screw with a driver. Take care not to damage the sides of the bung hole.
    Very few had to be extracted by drilling off the head and using a hollow drill screw remover.
    This makes a big hole which will be needed to be filled . I would be interested to know how that could be fixed. Dowel and glue! would you do the same for hole where the screw damages the surrounding wood?

  • Avatar

    Thomas Morley says:

    i wonder how big are the ribs… you dont talk about them and they are equally important if not more so. i wonder how big they are on this boat ?

  • Avatar

    BW BLAKE says:

    My boat was built in 1959 by Bud Mcintosh so it’s fastened with copper rivets,and the inside of the hull is covered with ceiling.
    How would you check the rivets or would it be better to just add bronze screws.
    Both ends of the few rivets I’ve looked at seem to be in good shape and none are leaking.

  • Avatar

    martin schulman says:

    How can I jump to the second and third video in this presentation? Thanks in advance.

    • Steve Stone

      Steve Stone says:

      Hi Martin. With any video series, you can click the category in the “breadcrumb trail” below the video to go to the other videos in that category. Usually series are lined up neatly in a category.
      In this case, it’s the blue “Wooden Boat Restoration & Repair” link.
      You can also use the search feature in the top right corner.
      We also usually have a link to the rest of the videos in a series, but not on this one, so we’ll get that done soon. Thanks for the heads up.

  • Avatar

    Michael S. Ellegood says:

    Super video! Really explained the process. That said, I thought that the Concordia 31s were originally fastened with galvanized nails – can’t recall where I saw that possibly in a listing somewhere.

  • David Tew

    David Tew says:

    The boatshop in the video is a useful, open design. It looks like Bill Page’s shed on the road to Sedgwick and another one on the road to Blue Hill from Brooklin. Almost identical. Are there plans available for the shop somewhere, or is it a case of great minds thinking alike?

    Thanks!

    • Avatar

      Molly Blake says:

      David, the two buildings you write about are very similar to Bills. No magic set of plans just a simple boat barn. The key to this style is that they are framed on concrete frost wall, and the interior floor is left dirt which is ideal for a traditionally built boat. I also like the band of clear plastic roofing around the top of the wall, just under the eve’s. This gives plenty of light to the interior space. Best Eric

  • Avatar

    Eric Blake says:

    What do you do if you don’t have a few loose screws? You just hold your horses Walter, nasty screw surgery is on its way my friend.

  • Avatar

    Walter Connolly says:

    John and Patrick were very good at explaining what needed to be done, it looks like a very labor intensive job .I look forward see them as they make progress on the refastening.
    What is the procedure when a screw wont come out? Great video

    • Avatar

      Steve Stone says:

      Ohhhh, Walter… if you like this one, you’re gonna love parts 2 and 3. They’ll be released next week and the week after looks like.

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