New Guy intro and couple of questions(long post)

  Great forum.

 

  I currently have a project refreshing a 17'  Don Hill boat for a client.  This is my first experience with a commercially-built  traditional wooden dory.   It's quite interesting to see their production techniques.  

 

  I've been a boatbuilder for many years.  I did my first dory just around the corner from 'the famous' AJ, in Wilson, Wyo.  a strip-planked 14', using Eastside lines. I fished that in  Montana and Wyoming.

I went off to Puget Sound and apprenticed with a Norwegian Master Builder, Paul Schweis, learning traditional lapstrake over steamed oak frames and also "normal" traditional wooden boat building and repair.  I worked with much pleasure for about 4 years there, in a yard called Blue Heron Yachts.  We also had a line of glass rowing and sailing hulls we finished.  The Yard did very high-end  rigging, repair and maintence, built high-tech custom yachts (my specialty was interior joinery) and I did many cold molded boats as well. 

I returned to Jackson Hole and to house-carpentry (that paid better, back in the day when people built houses) for a time, then we re-located to the Columbia River Gorge, just near the confluence of the Columbia and the Klickitat Rivers.. 

  I am back in the boatbuilding trade again.   Please excuse me as a Newbie to the Forum.  I have a lot to learn, a lot to re-learn about dories.  I  know boats, inside out, but I have not kept up with the River dory/drift boat scene.

  This Project:  Somewhere along the line, an un-skilled previous owner did some shoddy work.  I was happy, after 'opening it up'  to find that the damage isn't too serious, but it could have been. 

This boat had a UHMW skid-shoe and rub-strips on the chine cap and stem.  It looks like at some point this was removed and very poorly re-installed, using plain Zinc screws.  These were run-in without any caulk or bedding compound.  Many came right out using my fingernails.  Rusty screws and punky plywood, with many missing the framing and the chine log completely. The UHMW (brown color) was too brittle and shattered completely as I removed it.

  So I have reamed out all the rot and filled with WEST compound as appropriate.  With the bid I gave, a total restoration is not an option.  I took the bottom to mostly bare wood and re-coated it with two coats of WEST epoxy.  I am replacing the skid shoe with a 1/4" hydrotek piece, with a Barrier coat of WEST and a second with Carbon additive.  I am re-fastening this with SS wood screws, properly bedded in Dolphinite bedding compound.  On the chines, I am putting a second 'chine cap' of white oak, epoxy coated with SS screws.

  This boat was finished with Dura-Tuff poly-e.. finish.  The finish is quite checked, but I have consulted with the Tech people at FamWood and they say I can re-coat with just a real good scraping and sanding.  I also consulted with the fellow who bought Don Hill's name and patterns to make certain of the finish.

  I plan on taking the gunnels and the other  removable interior parts to bare wood than doing a few coats of WEST, followed by some real varnish.  I shall re-apply a couple of coats of Dura Tuff to the rest of the boat and send it out. 

The owner is quite pleased that we can save this nice old dory for a reasonable price.

  Sorry for the length of this post.  Glad I found this forum. 

  Comments anyone?   Advice?  Some pics on my Picassa page

https://picasaweb.google.com/dhanson928/RobSDonHillBoatRepair?authk...

  Don Hanson

  Northshore boatworks

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on April 27, 2011 at 10:16am

Don, your years of boat repair are evident in your repair description. A common cure to checking in Douglas Fir drift boats is to coat them with epoxy and then varnish or in your clients case use the Dura-Tuff. The epoxy seals the wood and slows or at least controls the checking and the UV finish protects the epoxy. It appears that the gunnels / gunwales are stained so giving them a good UV protective coating will be very helpful. Good catch on preventing the obvious further damage on the bottom. I tore down a drift boat and found sheet rock screws and the rusted remains of plain steel screws. Check out the pictures on my page.

I think you just might have a future in drift boat repair. Some of the best drift boat restoration craftsmen you will find are right down the road at AJ's. Dutch, Kevin and AJ have all highly developed their skills. There may be others that they work with that are just as skilled but I have not had the pleasure of meeting them.

 

Keep up the good work and keep us posted on your process. I really like your sophisticated boat lift system!

 

Warmest Regards,

 

Rick Newman

Permalink Reply by Don Hanson on April 27, 2011 at 10:59am

  If I am violating Forum protocols, excuse me.

 

  I find it interesting, while working with this boat,  to note the way the Old Guys found to save money in production costs.  I notice they use no knees anywhere, they have no breast hook nor transom knees either.  They didn't bother rounding over the frames or the limber holes.  They didn't rabbit the outer gunwale to cover up the edge grain of the fir ply like I would have done.   They used galvanized carriage bolts with SS cap screw inside on the gunwale blocks.  I'm finding rust inside the cap nuts.  I would have used another method.

  Whoever Mr. Hill had on the screwgun when this boat was produced...he was a bit overzealous as the screws are sunk a good 1/8-1/16 into the plywood on the sides and bottom.  I think the are galvanized screws.

  I'm surprised some of the labor saving production methods did not seem to affect the longevity of this particular boat, but it's in pretty good shape.  Perhaps it was carefully stored for a while.  The profit margin  building  traditional wooden drift boats has to be very slim.

  A slight spam, if permitted here.  Anyone needing repair of their boats feel free to get in touch with me.  I'll be happy to do your project.  I do things properly.  I can do traditional building and repair as well as real fancy high-tech brunzeel and cored modern  custom or repair.

 

  Don Hanson

Permalink Reply by Jonathan Clarke on April 27, 2011 at 12:48pm
Welcom to the forum.  I'm glad to see you bringing this boat back to life.  From what you can see of the hull sides in the photographs, there's some awfully nice fir plywood in that craft.
Permalink Reply by AJ DeRosa on April 27, 2011 at 4:27pm

Hey DuH,

 

Fatboy here.  Good to hear you are back to building boats.  Remodeling these old boats is a kick in the pants.  You are right on in your observation about this particular boat.  Put it back together with good stuff and you have a floating piece of history.  Your idea about a protected shoe is very good and traditional.  Be sure to give that old girl a new set of chine caps and a good close inspection of the chine joint.  If the bottom was properly attached with bonding goo it could be just fine.  A properly bedded cap seals it all together. 

 

On our restorations we try to stay true to the old builders styles but epoxies and a little cloth in the right places is sometimes prudent

 

For forum guys who just now met Don Hanson let me give you a little info.  Don and I ski patroled together in Jackson Hole in the 80's and early 90's.  He was a fine craftsman in those days as well and helped me begin a restoation of a 1978 Kieth steele in 1988.  When he says he can fix boats you can believe him.  He will do just fine in this game of drift boat building and restoration.

 

Don this group is very happy to give advice in return for images of the project.  That way we all make a deposit in the knowledge bank.

 

Look forward to following your project.  Lots of good stuff in the easily searched archive on this site.

 

Tally ho!!,

 

da FAT

Permalink Reply by Don Hanson on April 28, 2011 at 9:41pm

  Thank you for the compliments, AJ

 

  I really love working the wooden boats.  I'm also impressed at the work I see being done, both here in this forum and with some of the stitch and goo (I heard that term somewhere) boats.  With modern materials you can make some incredible boats..but the old style is just great, too. Some of the pics on this site...I would not want to *use* some of these...too purty!  Climb into one of the 'gold-platers' with gravel on your flip flops?  Sacrilege!

  With this Don Hill re-finish and repair job, I am amazed at how well the boat has held up over the years.  We are really lucky now with all the new epoxy and composite materials.  Proper use of epoxy and some of the new surface finishes, that makes doing a Skookum repair on a damaged or deteriorated traditional wooden boat much less labor intensive.  Boats that would have been written off as 'too expensive to fix' before WEST System and System Three...they can now be returned to serviceable condition, with some careful work.

  Glad to hear you are still around the valley and doing well.  I do miss the Hole and the Montana rivers. I don't anticipate having any days on the rivers around here like a day of the Salmon Fly hatch on the Madison below Quake lake somewhere.

  I still use my Fat Boy rod, whenever I do wet a line, which is not too often...

Don Hanson

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