Tag Archives: restoration
Western Flyer takes another step in restoration
The first phase of restoring the Western Flyer fishing boat is nearing completion in Port Townsend, Washington, The 76-foot purse seiner was chartered by author John Steinbeck and marine biologist Ed Ricketts for a biological collecting trip to the Sea of Cortez in 1940. The nonprofit Western Flyer Foundation plans to base the boat in Monterey and use it as a floating classroom for scientific studies. On Dec. 4 the cabin, or wheelhouse, of 
the Western Flyer was reattached. >click to read< ,,, From 2013, John Steinbeck boat rusts in Anacortes – Time has been less kind to the Western Flyer. The battered old tub, which has been called one of the most famous boats in American nonfiction, has sunk twice in the past six months and was still underwater off a dock in Anacortes as of two weeks ago. >click to read< For everything in between, >click here< 14:47
Conflicting statements create confusion over future of old Ayr fishing boat
The MVF Watchful has been sitting on an old slipway in Ayr’s South Harbour for around two decades. Previous attempts to have the vessel restored have sunk without a trace. Now campaigners, who are concerned the vessel’s condition is beyond redemption, have been left scratching their heads over differing accounts over its future from a local councillor and South Ayrshire Council. Both accounts from the local authority and the Ayr West Councillor appeared to contradict each other and Ayrshire Live was asked to investigate. >click to read< 09:11
Mark Siino inherits a fishing boat hand-built by his grandfather, and transforms it into a floating classroom.
Mark Siino never met his grandfather, Angelo Siino, but he now spends his days running his hands over a boat his grandfather built. The General Pershing is a 60-foot fishing boat hand-built in the 1920s in Monterey by Angelo, with his brothers Gaetano and Francesco and their father, Erasmo, all Sicilian immigrants. Now, after moving from owner to owner for nearly a century, the boat has retired its fishing permits and come home, and back to the descendants of its original craftsmen. Siino, along with a team of volunteers, has for years been restoring the boat to convert it into a floating environmental and marine science classroom. >click to read< 10:05
Tale of skipjack captain and caper still worthy of praise
This is the story of a gift of Chesapeake waters, no less important than any bounty of seafood. It’s about Art, the late Art Daniels, Jr., that is, legendary Deal Island oyster dredger, captain for more than half a century of the skipjack City of Crisfield. It’s also about the art of the oyster, which appears to be the least glamorous of Chesapeake seafood, no match for the blue crab’s colors, the sportiness of striped bass or the eel’s epic migration from Bay streams to Sargasso Sea. No method of harvesting the Bay was more artful than the wind filling the outsize mainsail of a skipjack as the captain drove her skillfully, >click to read< 09:35
Despite Coronavirus pandemic, work continues on Western Flyer
Charged with leading the restoration efforts of the Western Flyer are of the Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-Op. Between the two are some 56 years of hands-on experience repairing, constructing, renovating and maintaining wooden boats. “This time last year, we were framing. There had been some structural work, some of the deck beams were put in, some of the longitudinal stringers, and some of the prep work for what was going to happen when we reframed, had been already done,” Lee said. Progress on the Western Flyer was chugging right along, Lee said, with consistent crews of eight to 10 staff working at any given time, now the project has been forced to drop down to about half its previous staffing. “With coronavirus we’re down to a crew of four, >click to read< 09:08
A ‘little ship’ of Dunkirk hero is being saved at its original home in Bideford, Devon.
In May 1940 the Jane Hannah MacDonald III (JHM), then known as Jane Hannah, set off from Blakeney in north Norfolk and became one of the little ships of Operation Dynamo. The ships rescued more than 300,000 British and Allied troops from the beaches of Dunkirk after the fall of France to Nazi Germany. The ship had been bought for fishing and leisure fishing trips out of Blakeney, after previously serving as a 35ft lifeboat at Flamborough, Yorkshire. 
It was owned by Bernard Chase and skippered by George Long, a 60-year-old Blakeney fisherman. Helped by Billy ‘Fat Freddie’ Long, the son of George’s brother William, he took the boat from Blakeney to Lowestoft and then on to Ramsgate in Kent, from where it was then requisitioned by the navy and taken across the choppy waters of the Channel on the night of June 5, 1940. >click to read< 09:30
A renowned boatbuilder reimagines a piece of Maine history.
This summer, not long after Rockport Marine owner Taylor Allen presided over the launch of the William Underwood, a 78-year-old sardine carrier he spent 12 years painstakingly restoring, a landlubbing interviewer suggested to him that chatting with wooden-boat fanatics can feel like talking to collectors of ancient Egyptian pottery — the experts’ aesthetic is often lost on those outside the subculture. “I think the word you’re looking for is cult,” Allen offered. Photos, >click to read< 15:40
Saving Sylvia II: The story of restoring a historic wooden boat from NC
An old wooden boat built in 1934 is less than three months away from being fully restored and tying up in the water on Shem Creek.,, “These fishing villages, like Mount Pleasant used to be, are slowly disappearing and dying. And the boats are dying with them,” he said. A short while later, Graham was skimming through a magazine called Wooden Boat. He flipped to the last page of the publication titled “Save a Classic” to browse the wooden boats for sale and laid eyes on Sylvia II, a core fishing sound boat in Morehead City, N.C. Photo’s, >click to read< 09:24
Work ramps up on Western Flyer
Sitting in the pilot house of the Western Flyer, the fishing boat that John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts took down to the Sea of Cortez, shipwright Pete Rust is surrounded by history. He also is surrounded by a quandary. “The difficult thing I’m doing right now is trying to figure out how to remove the house from the boat without damaging it and without losing the original shape,” said Rust, a member of the Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-op, which is restoring the historic boat. The goal is to take the house off the boat and frame it on the floor to rebuild and restore it. But Rust has to figure out how to do that without the structure collapsing in on itself. >click to read<11:05
Sweden’s oldest fishing boat restored
Bessie was built in 1909 just outside Malmö for a herring fisherman, Anders Matsson, with the registration code MÖ 347 (today it is HG 52). Her restoration is the largest project to date from the Ravanis’ yard and the finished boat has been turning heads wherever she sails. “If you remain faithful to the original lines and construction, show respect for the skilled workers who built her and use timber of the same high quality as was used then, then it is very much the same boat,” said Martin. All that is left of the original Bessie is nine planks and two small frames in the bow. >click to read<20:41
Restoring history – 36-foot U.S. Coast Guard Motor Lifeboat CG36391
When Glen Cathers’ wife Naomi asked him what he would choose if he could have anything in the world, he replied, “I want a motor lifeboat.” “Let’s do it,” she said. A month later, they found CG36391 in Astoria, a 36-foot lifeboat built in 1934. It was “in major disrepair,” hardly recognizable. “I could see that bull nose on it, I knew right then what it was. It was the real deal.” They purchased it and began what would become a seven-year process of restoration. “It’s new from the waterline up,” he said of the boat as it floated tied up to the visitor dock at The Dalles Marina. It contains parts from 11 different boats. “Piece by piece, I collected all the parts we needed,” he said. The restoration was completed in 2012. Today the boat looks as it did in 1939. “A little more varnish maybe,” Cathers chuckled. “That was the first thing the crews did, get rid of the varnish.” Read the story here 11:46
Fundraiser! Restoration of the F/V Easy Lady
The F/V Easy Lady has been a part of Shem Creek for decades. She is a wooden crab boat with lots of history. She is the only remaining wooden crab boat in the Creek. Follow the story of the Easy Lady. Be a part of the craftsmens hands as she is returned to her beautiful scantlings by friends with genuine concern. Join the craftsmen, crew, and Captain in sending the Easy Lady back to Shem Creek as a powerful, working symbol of why the Creek should be preserved. The Easy Lady has a long way to go. With work already in progress, and by working together, she will become the lady we all want her to be. Click here to donate F/V Easy Lady on face book 16:34
The Easy Lady restoration almost complete – Lowcountry treasure ready to return to her berth
The Easy Lady has belonged solely to Cpt. Kenneth Ezell for 10 years. But after a public appeal went out to help the captain restore this commercial crabbing boat and save her from sinking, she’s almost as a good as new from keel to chine. More importantly, Ezell, who is forever grateful, considers himself only as her caretaker now. “She now belongs to Mount Pleasant and her citizens,” he said. The Easy Lady is now part of the whole of Mount Pleasant, he explained. He considers her the crown jewel of his career, which is about to take another turn. Read the article here F/V Easy Lady on face book 11:12
Last West Coast lumber schooner nears final steps to 13-year restoration
Exactly 120 years ago a Danish man living near Eureka built the schooner C.A. Thayer, one of hundreds of ships used to fuel the growth of California’s cities by delivering lumber from the vast forests of the Northwest. After being out of use for nearly 60 years the Thayer — the last of its kind — is now making a comeback to prepare it for sailing again on the San Francisco Bay. In the next to last phase of its $14 million-plus restoration, the Thayer was towed Thursday from its national maritime park dock in San Francisco to an Alameda ship yard for installation of,,, Read the rest here 10:06
The Easy Lady – Restoring the wooden boat from keel to chine and one plank above
More often than not, the sentimental and historical value of something is more than the sum of its parts. Such is the case of The Easy Lady, a well-known commercial fishing boat in Shem Creek. She’s owned by Captain Kenneth Ezell who considers her the crown jewel of his career. The Easy Lady has a hydraulic pot hauler and is designed to catch 100 bushels of crabs a day to be delivered to local picking houses. The ship can also be converted to a shrimp boat in under 45 minutes. There is nothing else like it on Shem Creek. Read the rest here 16:32
The George W. Collier, a 115-year-old oyster fishing skipjack finally getting new life
For a decade, the skipjack George W. Collier lay at the end of a long road in Cape Charles, literally and figuratively. The 72-foot-long boat was built in Maryland in 1900 and was once used as an oyster fishing vessel, able to easily navigate shallow waters. But when engine-powered boats replaced skipjacks, the George W. Collier was left on a mud bank. Fewer than 30 of the traditional boats remain today. On Thursday, the skipjack was finally sent to a shipyard, on its way to being restored in its birthplace on Deal Island in Maryland. 8 photos, Read the rest here 11:25
Schooner Ernestina Morrissey departs New Bedford for restoration at Boothbay Harbor Shipyard in Maine
The small flags atop the Ernestina-Morrissey’s masts whipped in the wind, as the schooner made its way out of the harbor, tugged by the Jaguar early Sunday morning. “It’s a good omen that it’s one of the most beautiful day of spring that she leaves the harbor to be restored,” Anne Louro said. “It’s a great new chapter for a boat who has had many chapters.” The restoration is expected to cost about $6 million, Pires-Hester said, and the funds are coming from a variety of sources. Read the rest here 11:40
