This BLOG will be a diary of the progress we are making to gettiing our COD’s back on the water..

THE "CodBlog" --- An ongoing progress report on the COD Century Project for restoration of CODs.

CODBLOG 1 : A Place to Work.

What we wanted was a workshop where we could get 4 CODs inside.

 It had to be cheap --- very, very cheap.

I had tried to get a slot for two boats alongside the Helena Project -- that's the old hulk on Conwy Quay. The Trustees of that project were very amenable to the idea but the dead hand of Conwy Council Planning killed it off -- the Bouncing Castle or some other amenity had to be accommodated first!

CODBLOG 2 : Rescuing Kandahar

 The long time out in the open had clearly not been too kind on the condition of the boat, but, it had been well supported and mostly covered by tarpaulin so it could have been a lot worse.

 Kandahar had been languishing outside at Gallow's Point at Beaumaris for about 25 years. Brian Lee and David Gallichen had been meaning to restore it but had never got round to it. When approached, they were happy to donate the boat to our project so one sunny day last Spring we went to Beaumaris with a large trailer and came back with Kandahar on it.

 It was good to get her back to the tent and out of the weather.

CODBLOG 3 ---- A start on Gwalch

 Gwalch had been donated to the CYC a couple of years ago after suffering a few years of neglect and abuse. It was stored in the stable in Sychnant with other COD's. It seemed to us that it might be an easier restoration than Kandahar and therefore the one to start with.

CODBLOG 4 : Tools of the Trade

The CODs are not lightweight dingies! They weigh a ton and with a fixed keel require substantial support and careful handling (or lots of strong and willing bodies!)

As we were going to do a lot of work on the boats they needed strong cradles and also some means of safely lifting them on and off trailers.

 Mike Brookes kindly donated a load of heavy timber and sufficient steelwork to build a scaffolding over the boat so that we can hoist it well off the ground. We put wheels on the bottom of the scaffolding so we could move the boat about. We did reposition Kandahar in the tent with this method but it was difficult because of the uneven terrain inside the tent.

Monty Nicholls kindly donated a 4-wheel trailer that was surplus to his requirements. We've modified it to transport CODs and it has been really useful doing that and also transporting the guardboat "Sior".

We numbered up all the deck beams before removing them. Most of them are shot and need replacing but we will use them as patterns for the new ones.

All the old paintwork and anti-fouling has to be removed, inside and outside the hull. A hot-air gun and a scraper is an effective, if time-consuming method. We have found that the tent gets very warm when there is any sun about. Consequently, operating the hot-air gun soon creates sauna-like conditions to work under!

The anti-fouling and boot-topping are a bigger problem. The hot-air gun just makes it gooey and difficult to scrape off. Also, it gives off some awful fumes and God knows what's in these old anti-fouling products. The answer turned out to be a coarse fleece attachment to the angle-grinder. It looks like a hard, plastic saucepan scourer but it whips off the paint so quickly it doesn't get a chance to heat up and fume up. You have to dress up well with the protective clothing with this operation -- it does kick off a hell of a lot of crap!

CODBLOG 6  ---  Llandrillo College and CYMBA

 Last June Llandrillo College officially opened its new MBEC Centre, for Marine, Building and Environment training and it is a first class facility. The Marine workshop provides training for NVQ levels in most aspects of boat construction and repair including wooden and fibreglass construction. Mechanical and electrical parts of the boat are also covered.

Our intention is to involve the students (and staff) in our project and in return provide sailing experience for them. Of course, they have a curriculum to follow and rebuilding a COD cannot be covered by it. Ability to do ONE rivet may get the box ticked but the 50 rivets per rib would be excessive! Nevertheless, they were very helpful in allowing us to take Cymba up there and they will help us with it.

Cymba's condition is bad but the priority was to get it under cover and supported correctly. The hull is out of shape due to it sitting or poor supports and full of water. We expect, with new floorbeams and ribs it should pull back into shape.

Using our lifting device and our trailer, Cymba was successfully moved to Llandrillo

Cymba had been sitting on a trailer behind the Doctor's Surgery in Deganwy for several years. A syndicate of 3 of our well-founded members had intended to have it restored professionally but the estimate for repair was prohibitively high and that project was abandoned.

CODBLOG 7 -- Start of the Rebuild

The floorbeams that came out were mostly in two halves. By putting them together a template could be made to make new beams using 1.5ins.  thick oak. This is were we missed having a bandsaw. Rod Yates sourced the timber and also found someone to cut it to shape. With a little tweaking when offered up to the boat they fitted perfectly.

  Arthur Davies, who is the font of all knowledge on COD reconstruction then gave us the first lesson in the art of riveting. This is a two-man (or woman!) operation which involves drilling and fitting a copper nail from the outside and securing it with a washer-like "rove" from the inside. All this co-ordinated activity with "dollies" and ball-pein hammers is very manual but it does give a satisfying end result when the piece is secured in place.

Once all the floor beams are back in place the hull feels more rigid and we can safely start on removing and replacing ribs.

CODBLOG8 - GWALCH : Let Ribbing Commence

COD ribs are made from North American Rock Elm. Your common or garden European Rock Elm wont do -- its not flexible enough. It is also resistant to water and besides marine use its apparently used in the funereal business, strangely enough.

Very few of the existing ribs were considered serviceable so we decided to do them all. We wanted 9ft. lengths for most of the ribs. Some of the ribs are shorter but as there are 39 ribs in all our requirement was quite substantial. Once again Rod Yates procured the timber and with his workmate, Bill Macready cut it and planed it all to size and delivered it to our door.

 Arthur has now initiated Keith and I into the art of ribbing. First, we set up a steamer connected to a length of drainpipe. When this is nicely brewing we pop the cut rib into the pipe and steam for about 50 minutes. After this the wood is pliable so it is taken out of the steamer and quickly positioned inside the boat hull and clamped in place. It gets a bit hectic at this time because because it all has to happen before the wood starts to stiffen up.

We then drill and rivet the rib in place. I think its about 52 rivets per rib. We have now put in our first rib  -- only 38 to go!

The original "Knee", the L-shaped piece that supports the bottom of the transom to the keel was found to be useable after a little TLC and this was bolted temporarily to position. It will be secured with silicon-bronze coach-bolts eventually but for now we are using bog standard steel ones to hold it in position so we can mount the transom.

Eventually, after a few dry runs we fitted the transom using Sikaflex sealant on the joint and clamped it in position. We then secured the planks to it using copper nails. A little bit of sanding and the job's done. Result!

Arthur had been whittling away at the big banana-shaped piece of oak and this week arrived at the boat with the new stem ready for its first fitting. This was the first of several fittings and after each time the stem was "fettled" to get a better fit.

The bottom of the stem is secured to the keel with two large coach bolts and for the final fitting the interface was given a large dollup of Sikaflex sealant.

Martin Williams, who used to work at his father's boat yard, Williams & Nixon on Deganwy Dock, came round this week to see how we were getting on and offered the use of some large clamps that had come from the old boatyard. These came in very handy when fitting the stem. They obviously hadn't been used for many years and we couldn't help wondering about which old boat they were last used on!

Gwalch has no deck on, so, as you squeeze the sides together the bow pushes forward. Hence the requirement for the clamps  --  as we wound them in amidships the bow planks lined up with the new stem.





The end of the planks have been renovated using fibreglass. These were then drilled and nailed to the new stem. The final finishing of the stem can now be done in situ.

 

After so long with a gaping hole at the front, Gwalch is now looking like a boat again!

We've finished the ribs  --  that is we've replaced all that we think is necessary. There is one original one left which looks OK so it will stay. Hope we don't regret that later but meanwhile it will give us a useful reference point for the next stage.

The Rudder Support Block has been renewed. This was hand-crafted by Jeremy Byrom out a mahogany gatepost provided by Rod Yates.






The Keelsom, which is the big plank inside the boat, sitting on top of the keel has been replaced using a very big chunk of oak which we planed ourselves. Its held in by the keelbolt securing nuts. Its got a curve to it so bending this thick plank was a gradual process tightening the nuts down, putting a turn on them each day until the thing was in position.

Last year, when this Centenary Project got started and we were arranging to move Kandahar from Gallows Point, Beaumaris to the workshop "tent" I received a letter from a Mrs Rosemary Asher who lives in the Isle of Wight. Mrs Asher's grandson had uncovered some old trophies in her attic and she rembered that her father "had won them at Conwy sailing his One-design boat called Kandahar".

What a coincidence!

I checked our records and, sure enough, her father Clive Preston and his friend Ralph Morgan had been the first owners of Kandahar back in 1930 and their names are on our trophy boards in the Club.

I wrote back to Mrs Asher and told her what we were doing and enclosed a recent photo of Kandahar. I could just imagine her surprise at finding out that the boat had actually survived all these years, let alone was the focus of a restoration project!

I naturally invited her up to see the project and her father's old boat. Last month she and her husband, Andrew, revisited North Wales and joined us at the Club for the "Last Night of the Proms" evening. On the following Monday they visited the Workshop. It felt a bit like having a Royal Visit! Thankfully, they were impressed with the progress (on Gwalch not Kandahar yet) and we look forward to repeat visits and, with a little luck seeing Kandahar back on the water.

CODBLOG14: Top planks.

The Top Planks and the Rubbing Strips all need replacing. This is a big job because they run the full lenght of the boat, they are shaped to fit the lines of the boat and they are made out of 5/8inch mahogany planking.















Getting mahogany anyway is a bit of a challenge -- 21 feet lengths just cannot be done on our budget. We have to scarf-joint two shorter lengths together to make each one. West Epoxy was used to glue the joints together. The joints seem pretty secure and when planed are not too noticeable.











The Rubbing Strips were not too difficult, once sanded down they only required a rounded edge on one side. Because they are fairly thin they are very flexible and bend nicely to the curvature of the hull. The Top Planks however are a a bit chunkier and take a lot more bending to fit to position. Additionally, before fitting and after they were planed we put a feature line down them as all the original boats had. This was done with a router -- not an easy task to keep a straight line --- but I think we'll get away with it!

!

Before fitting the Top Planks the Deck Beam Shelves need to be positioned as these will be rivetted together with the planks. The original Deck Beam Sheves are useable -- (one had to be repaired using the West adhesive) -- which is a great saving because these also run the whole length of the boat. Also, these give the positions of all the Deck Beams so we know we will get these back in their original positions.

Once the Deck Beam Shelves are clamped in position we can offer up the old Deck Beams to make sure the alignment is correct. Its getting quite exciting now as the boat seems to be taking shape

It was time to fit the Rubbing Strips and Top Planks that we had prepared earlier. Handling was the dangerous bit. Having had one disaster through trying to bend one plank too far, Keith and I were now far more careful handling these 21ft planks!

The Rubbing Strips were fairly easy as they were thinner and formed to the shape of the hull as they were offered up. They are then nailed to the plank below along the whole length.

The Top Planks were a different matter. These are tapered at each end. The old planks had been used as patterns and the finished shape is something like a strip of a banana skin, 21 ft long. Fitting them entailed bending the plank around the horizontal curvature of the boat and also pulling it down at the ends to fit flush with the rubbing strip.

 At the stern of a COD the hull shape turns in at the top (called ”Tumblehome” for some reason!) and this puts yet another axis to which the plank has to bend to fit. Again, we didn’t want to force it so we put clamps and a tourniquet on each side, and gradually tightened them over a few days, persuading them into position before riveting to the ribs and nailing to the transom.

The blanking operation seems to work well. We almost mass-produced them on the pillar drill, dip them in varnish to seal them before tapping them into each hole to cover the rivet head (making sure the grain is in line with the plank). The bit sticking out is chiselled off and then it’s sanded to finish. Finished job looks OK  --  can’t wait to get the varnish on!

 Fortunately, we had many G-Clamps available and these were used to clamp the plank to the ribs in position prior to riveting. We did this very gradually to avoid putting too much stress on the plank. We started at the bow where the plank was trimmed to fit into the new stem and then riveting to each of the ribs commenced.

The intention is to finally finish the top planks as a varnished wood feature rather than painting them. The rivet holes need to be blanked off with matching wooden plugs. The plugs would be made out of scrap cut-offs from the plank and we had to make sure we had the right tools to cut out the blanks and to drill the right sized holes. We had a bit of practice on some scrap wood which seemed to go alright so we cracked off with the riveting.

All the old deck beams, bar one, needed renewing. A visit to our friendly woodyard in Trefnant had procured the necessary timber for them. Going round the yard pulling random pieces of timber worked out cheaper because some were a bit bent but still suitable for our purpose. Class rules dictate that the 3 most important beams (at the mast, the tiller and the mooring post) should be oak but the rest can be made out of lighter wood. As we had oak available we went for that.

These planks were planed back at our "workshop" and marked out for cutting using the old beams as patterns. A day trip to Yates & Co. at Stockport was arranged and the whole lot was loaded onto Ron Cheetham’s Toyota and off we went. Rod has obviously been practicing on the bandsaw because we made short work of the job and by the end of the day we had a complete set of deck beams to go home with.

Our technique for fitting the deck beams started with refitting the old beams back in position. With these in place we know that the shape of the boat remains true. We then fitted each new beam one at a time. The beams fit into the deck beam shelves which are original so the ends of the beams have to have dovetails made to fit the original joints








On the principal beams there are reinforcing "knees" which attach to the ribs. The originals were all looking very dodgy so new ones were cut out of appropriate timber, making sure the grain flowed around the bend of the knee to give the strength. The deck beams and the knees were then finally screwed into place.

Since we put the tent up, the big question has always been "How long will it last?". On a nice calm day we don't even think about it --- but when the wind blows, being inside feels like being at sea in a gale, head-to-wind with everything flapping!

We've put in extra guy ropes, glued patches on, put eyelets in to lash it down and we've managed to keep the thing intact and reasonably watertight. Until now! With the gales over the New Year we lost the battle. The tent roof flapped its last flap! We are now open to the elements.

Fortunately, the gales were not accompanied by too much rain so we we managed to cover all our work-in-progress with borrowed tarpaulins which has given us some time to carry out remedial work.

We had a bit of brainstorming on the repair work and a new roof panel has been ordered. We decided to put extra bracing onto the frame and Keith scrounged some suitable pipework which we've now bolted up. When the new roof is ready we'll get a team together to put it on and hopefully we'll be back in business!