Classic Pond Yachts

Cymbeline is an A Class yacht of some age, I bought her from the Richard Howard collection at Beale Park, mainly for the A Class Centenary celebrations in 2023 she will be sailing at Gosport, and anywhere else holding some centenary events. She is still set up for Braine steering and is well built. The hull weighs in at 62LB, LOA 78 inches and the beam is 15 inches. Unfortunately there is no entry in the A class register for a yacht called Cymbeline, and no sail number with the boat. The deck is broken, I think either someone has fallen on the deck, or something maybe glass fell on the deck and broke, she has about three broken deck beams on the port side by the hatch, and there is a lot of broken glass inside! I am going to do a full restoration so she looks good for 2023

The transom is sheathed in copper, to stop the stern being damage when being turned with the pole?

The bow has a fairly serious chromed copper fitting, which has seen service, the front is flat.

I was hoping I could repair the deck beams with the deck on, but the deck is in poor shape, the glue had failed, the slightest pressure on the deck and it moved, and creaked, and groaned! The deck has had some repairs done, screws had been fitted along the Stb side, to try and hold the deck down.

I put my hand in through the hatch and gently pushed the deck up, and....... the glue has completely failed, water would pour in. I removed the screws and just lifted the deck off, but it was very tight around the rudder post, it broke!

Pictures above and below show a very nicely built boat, she is Mohogany from the keel to the turn of the bilge, then pine topsides, the hull is really sound, the deck beams forward and aft are fine, the beams midships and the carlines are made lighter, and have been broken on the Port side, but a simple repair, I think I will glue up the splits and double up the beams to make them stronger, the boat is so heavy that if you are holding her by the handle inside, and the boat is being blown around it will break something, the hatch needs to be strong!

I was not sure what the patches on the underside of the deck were for, picture above left, I have just realised the patches are over knots in the timber, I think they have put cloth patches over the knots and varnished them in place, to stop the knots falling out? if so it has worked!!

The deck was a puzzle, when I looked inside using my endoscope, I could see the grain in the deck was going port to Stb, the grain on deck was going fore and aft, I think the boat was too old to have a ply deck, now removed I can see the sub deck was approx 2mm thick solid timber with the grain going across the boat, then veneer stuck on top of the deck, sadly the glue holding the veneer to the timber has gone and the deck very soft, also the deck broke just aft of the rudder post, so it will be replaced.

I have removed the deck hatch carlines as they were not fitted nicely, the hatch frame was screwed to the deck, so the new carlines need to be further apart and fit through the deck, so when the hatch is removed you see full depth deck beams. I opened up the splits in the deck beams and brushed in some epoxy glue, then clamped up and cleaned up the excess epoxy, white rags in bilge to catch any drips while clamping beams.

Wedges to hold split deck beams open while working in epoxy glue.

Beams clamped up, Stb side carlines still to come out, wanted to glue up deck beams first.

The old glue used to bond down the deck, the glue did not go over the deck beams and centerline timber, which has made the job much easier. I will fit the new deck in the same way.

I made up a sanding block, with one side slightly curved, then stuck P80 sandpaper to it with double sided tape, I used this, a file with an edge ground onto the front and an old chisel, to remove the old glue ready for the new deck.

The three midships deck beams around the hatch were all much thinner than the ones fore and aft, the boat is so heavy that these thinner deck beams around the hatch were very vulnerable to damage while the yacht was being handled, also the centerline deck beam stopped at the mast, and the last heavy deck beam aft. I have decided to double up the deck beams to make them stronger ready to alter the deck hatch size, so when the new deck goes back on this area is much stronger, for a boat where the hull weighs in at 62LB the extra weight is tiny. The diagonal props under the deck beam behind the mast are only there to support the beam while I am working on it.

The old glue removed ready for the new deck. I am going to use Robbins Elite ply 1.5mm thick, I will cut out two decks and glue them together to make 3mm, one option suggested to me is to put the deck down on soft bedding and screw it down, so it is easy to get off next time! That would be nice to do, the problem is I am worried about the strength if another boat hits her, and the beam shelf is so thin the screws will have to be on the deck edge, again not strong, and unsightly, I am going to glue it down around the edge, and around the mast, and screw to the deck beams, if the deck has to come of, it is only a case of setting up a router and running around the deck edge, and cut away around the mast, I think this will add a lot of strength to an old boat. Two deck beams glued up, I can then work out how to build the beck beams to form the new hatch and glue them up.

Cutting out and fitting new deck beams, the way the hatch was done was not very nice, you could see the deck beam, edge of the deck, and the coamings fitted on top of the deck. I want to fit the coamings to the deck beams so they come up above deck, then you will just see the coamings when the hatch is open, not the structure.

I want the deck lining to line up with the hatch, so to mark out the positions of the carlines for the hatch, I used the deck lining tool.

Stb carline fitted. I then removed them and cut the hlving joints for the last forward deck beam at the forward edge of the hatch.

Deck beams glued in position and clamped.

Deck beam fitted ready for varnishing before I fit the deck. Also while we have good access I want to give the bilge some more protection, but I don't know what the bilge was originally varnished with, I have sanded back the hull inside as good as I can, and done a test piece forward with Brava Tung oil wood primer, I have used this in the past, and I does not seem fussy about what it goes onto, also it is nice and thin so gets into all the small cracks, gaps etc.

Sanding the inside of the hull ready for Tung oil.

Tung oil applied to first few forward sections, I will leave it to kick off overnight. This product is also good for use as a primer to bare wood prior to Varnishing.

I did not intend to start work on Cymbeline until later this year, she is for the A Class centenary in 2023, but while she is in the garage, I may as well sort the deck. She has the original wooden mast and spars, the cotton sails are past it, but will try to get some vintage sails made, Nigel Brown at Cat sails has made me a couple of sets of vintage style sails, new pages soon, really nice, this boat will keep him quiet! More to come on this boat as work progresses.

If any one recognises this boat or thinks they may be able to help identify her, I would be most grateful!!!

22 Feb 21 - The Tung/Linseed oil mix took a week to go off, but was exactly the product to use, it is so thin it ran into all the small gaps in the hull, it has now gone off really hard, where you could get your fingernail into the small gaps between the keel and the garboard, it is now filled completely and hard. A couple of pictures inside below.

28 Feb 21 - I bought a sheet (8 x 4) of 1.5mm thick Robbins Elite ply, I want to fit the deck in one piece, and we use the Elite ply a lot at Yachting Sports, My plan is to glue two pieces together to make a 3mm deck, the left over is 1.5mm for stock, which will do for most boats.

I cut the full sheet into 3 pieces 400mm wide, offered up the old deck and cut out two ply deck panels alowing 20mm around the edge.

I cut out two panels and sanded up ready to epoxy together, I checked each side to get the best piece for the top of the deck.

The first side has been coated in West epoxy, started to coat the second side, then both sides positioned over each other.

I then laid a 500mm wide piece of Melamine shelving onto the ply, and covered it with lead weights. I wound up with a lot of lead shot from a job, I put it into plastic jiffy bags and covered them in gaffer tape, very handy for this sort of work, and loads of other uses.

I marked the position of the rudder tube from the old deck, and drilled the hole to give me a good location, marked out the deck outline and trimmed it off with the bandsaw, leaving a couple of mm, positioned the deck on the boat and checked the size, then planed it down to size with a hand plane.

I sealed the underside of the deck with epoxy, after it had cured it had gone a bit waxy, probably a bit cold, I scraped the epoxy to remove the wax, west system is really good as a glue, but is prone to wax if used as a coating, one way around it is to apply peel ply to the wet epoxy and peel it off when the epoxy has cured, but I did not have enough to hand for a big A class deck. There are I think other epoxies that don't wax up, I will have to find out, if anyone knows, please let me know!

Epoxy cleaned up ready to fit deck.

In previous pictures you will see where I have put blue tape to mark the positions of the deck beams, my plan is to screw the deck down with brass screws into the deck beams, the beam shelf is so narrow that to put screws into the deck shelf, the screws would be on the deck edge which will look bad. I used the deck lining tool to make sure the screws are all in the same position, and just outside the first deck line.

When I fit the deck I am only going to glue it around the deck edge, also around the deck hatch and mast hole. I am going to put the ply down onto a Polysulphide bedding (Boatlife) over the deck beams, to give a future owner a fighting chance of removing the deck without destroying the deck, set a router to 3mm and run it around the deck edge and around the hatch and mast hole and it is off, but hopefully that will not be for a lot of years, unless she is damaged !

Deck ready to fit, next job to refit the keel bolts and handle, I am going to put a couple of sealing coats of varnish on the deck, also sand and put some sealing coats of varnish on the mahogany capping, I will mix some micro balloons into the epoxy to stick the deck down, the varnish will allow me to stick on masking tape, and clean up any epoxy that gets where is should not.

1st March 21 - I started to sand back the capping and realised that there is other stuff I need to sort, the top plank on the port side has sprung, there is no movement and the plank is not damaged but the lower edge of the top plank has moved and cracked the paint, there is a small dent in the capping so I suspect she was in a collision, I don't think it was a bad one, but the shear weight of this boat means any collision will have to potential to cause damage. also the dent in the capping will cause the deck lining tool to wobble while drawing the planks, so it needs sorting. I decided to sand back the hull, and the outside of the capping and repair the crack in the plank, there is also an open seem in the keel timbers, again no movement, but it needs repairing.

Cymbeline up on the bench, started to sand back the hull, Hoping to find an old name painted under the existing name so we could trace her history, no such luck! nothing wrong with being an optimist!!

This is the crack in the paint, the hull is really sound, even here you cant feel any movement when you try to move the planks.

The two pictures above show the paint sanded back to the timber, I don't want to strip all the paint from the hull, it is well adhered and other than the colour having faded, is sound, but I do need to remove the cracked paint from around the planks, very nice pine planks. I did wonder about stripping the paint and varnishing, but the brass fixings have been fitted somewhat randomly, as she was to be painted, so painted she will be.

This is the damage caused by the suspected collision, it is right on a deck beam which may have limited the damage, or just maybe it was more serious and is the cause of the broken deck beams?? I will let in a small piece of Mahogany and fair it in so the deck lining does not have two wobbles in them as the two wheels go clunk clunk, there is another small piece of damage on the Std side which will need the same treatment.

We need to stabalise the planking joint where the crack is, so I have removed the cracked paint and masked up each side of the crack, to both the hull and the keel timbers. I need to run epoxy into the joint, but I don't want to saturate the timber in epoxy, it will make it difficult to fair in, if we wanted to saturate the timber, I would want to remove all the paint and to do the whole hull, but I think on this boat it is unnecessary, and inappropriate.

So having masked up the joints I mixed up a small amount of West system epoxy and brushed it into the cracks, then used a hot air gun to warm up the hull and epoxy, that thins the epoxy and it will run into the crack better, I did this several times until no more epoxy would go in, then leave it until the epoxy starts to go hard in the pot, then remove the masking tape.

These pictures show the cracks after the masking tape has been removed, the epoxy has soaked into the crack, and should hold it solid. The next job is a sand down when the epoxy has cured, then mask up and trowel in epoxy with micro balloons to fill level.

The pictures above show the cracks have been masked up again, then West epoxy has been mixed up with micro balloons to a thin mix, trowel the epoxy into the cracks, I used up the little left over into some hollows in the lead, while sanding the hull I removed the paint from the lead, epoxy is good for fairing lead, I may sheath the lead keel and fin with tissue and epoxy.

The masking tape needs to be removed before the epoxy goes too hard, and then leave to cure, then a sand back and all done, the pictures above and below show where we are up to now, epoxy still soft.

2nd March 21 - After loading the update above, I was thinking that where I have sanded back the old paint, something was off, the reason for needing to do this job was a long crack, about 600mm long under the top plank on the port side, the job described above has gone well, the epoxy has filled the crack and feels really solid, but the crack also has some fibers coming out of it, I wondered if it was some caulking, maybe the edge of the plank fibers have broken where the planks opened up, when a sanded the hull back, the paint would not feather edge, I thought it was just old paint, now looking closely, with my glasses on ! I can see the hull has been sheathed with a fabric of some sort, Graham Reeves has suggested bandage and Cascamite glue, something he has seen inside hulls, but not outside.

Apart from the area around the repair there are a couple of small areas where the paint, and fabric have come away, here you can see the cross hatch of the fabric.

Again in the pictures above you can see the fabric through the paint. I don't think this is a big problem, but is something I have will look out for in the future, although you can't make omelets without breaking eggs, so it had to be done. The problem is not being able to feather out the edge of the repair, so I think my best chance it to laminate over the repair with fine cloth and epoxy, cover with peel ply, then carefully sand to blend with the paint. We live and learn!

9 March 21 - I tried a small section of tissue, but the tissue pulled of the boat with the peel ply, but I did notice the area outside the tissue repair, the epoxy had well stuck and did blend out when sanded, so I decided that just coating the repair area with epoxy would work.

I painted epoxy over the repair area, used a heat gun to warm the epoxy so it soaks into the hull, allowed the epoxy to just start to go hard, then mixed up epoxy with micro balloons to a thick mix and troweled it over the repair area, allow to cure.

I then started to sand the hull of the boat, being careful to not break through to the cloth, but as I was not sanding over any more damage, the paint sanded back OK.

The repaired area sanded back and blended in OK, the epoxy has gone really hard and soaked into the edges of the cloth.

I took measurements of the waterline positions from the stem, and the back of the skeg.

Before sitting the boat upside down, I was concerned about the full weight of the boat being on the hull, without the deck fitted, she seems very strong, and the new beefed up deck beams are much stronger, but she was not designed to be upside down! to be safe I made up a timber frame, which fits against the keel timber inside and takes the keel weight while she is upside down.

Cymbeline is so big, as you can see in this picture, that she is making it difficult to work on other models while she is here, so I decided to just get stuck in, and at least get the hull and deck finished. I am hoping to get a local store/workshop to keep some of the boats in, with luck the shed will be ready by the time Cymbeline is ready, she can then go to the workshop for the final jobs.

Before I put the boat upside down I repaired the damage to the capping, apart from unsightly, it would have caused problems with the deck lining, as the tool hit the damage, the deck lines would have wobbles in them, twice, as each wheel goes over the damage. I have another repair to do on the other side.

The pictures below are of general filling and fairing. She had lost the shape of the transom over the years presumably due to sanding and painting, she had also had the transom sheathed in copper, I assume to stop damage with the transom hitting the bank while being turned, thinking about the lack of history, to have gone to the trouble of sheathing the transom would mean she sailed regularly in a lake with hard edges, Gosport, Fleetwood etc?? I have also epoxied the lead keel, but with a boat of this weight, I will have to be super careful with how she is put down.

These two pictures trying to show just how big the lump of lead is, just the hull weighs 62LB that is a 6 inch ruler in the picture.

Building up epoxy and micro balloon filler to get the shape of the transom and keel root back, the leading edge of the keel root is very fine, and has suffered damage over the years, the transom as described above had lost its shape.

Keel root faired in as original.

Transom faired in, sharp edges sanded off with a small blend radius.

The bow had a copper fitting shaped to fit the bow, it had had a number of 'incidents' and was pretty battered, I got it off by cutting and splitting, I assume the front was cut off to accommodate the battering ram! I will not refit it, but also not going to remake a pointy bow, this boat will be free sailed, I want to give any other boats she may come into contact with a fighting chance, so going to leave it blunt and cover with a large bow fender. Here I have just epoxied the area to stabilise the paint/canvas.

Lead keel with epoxy coating. Once kicked overnight, a light sand over, some spot filling with P38, and get the first coat of undercoat on, then we will be able to see the wood from the trees, but hopefully just a small amount of spot filling. There are some obvious lows in the hull planking, but very minor, you can barely feel them when you run your fingers over the bottom, but to try and sand them out will probably mean stripping the hull back to bare and starting again, due to the canvas sheathing, I don't think it needs to be done.

10 March 21 - First coat of primer on, need to build up a few coats.

She has come up OK, a few small areas need work/filling, but not bad, should start to see faster progress now, the prep takes forever!!!

13 March 21 - Sanded back the primer and applied a coat of gloss/pre coat mixed 50/50. I have decided to paint the hull below the waterline ivory, the topsides a light green and the boot top a dark green. I have masked to the top of the boot top line, I will apply the coat of 50/50, sand back and apply a coat of 75/25 gloss/primer, I will then remove the masking tape and sand back, use the laser to mark out the bottom of the boot top and mask, then apply the topcoats of gloss, sanding between coats. Then re mask to the bottom of the boot top and apply the light green gloss on the topsides, then the paint has a good overlap to stop any water ingress, finally mask up and paint the dark green boot top.

Gloss/pre coat sanded back, a few areas of spot filling, ready for the next coat.

The cradle is not a fantastic piece of carpentry, more akin to a full size boatyard cradle nailed together on site!, but I like it, so I have glued up some loose joints, removed some glue blocks where the glue had failed, I will replace them with epoxy fillets, fit a ply base with some chocks to hold the keel. Coat the cradle with Sadolin, fit some wheels, and cover the foam with green leatherette

15 March 21 - Two full coats of gloss paint on the bottom, I have removed the masking tape and you can see where the first two coats are that go to the top of the waterline. I will let the paint on the bottom go hard for a couple of days before masking up for the green topsides.

A test of the green topside paint, I would be lying if I said the colour is perfect, I am not saying it wont look great, but the owl and the pussy cat in a pea green boat springs to mind!! I will put a couple of coats on before I panic!, the dark green boot top will tone it down.

19 March 2021 - Primer rubbed back and first coat of green applied, I am using a new paint to me, more below.

I wanted to paint the hull light green, copying the full size Yeoman racing yachts, which I always thought looked great, the colour choices with most marine single pack paints is not huge, while looking I came across SML Marine Paints their colour range is huge, I was able to get the two colours I wanted, there is a dark green for the boot top. The paint is single pack Silicon Alkyd paint (never heard of it either) so far very impressed, if it goes as hard as the test piece, it is good paint, and cheaper than the others.

Starting to rub down first coat, the paint has gone off well and rubbing down nicely.

As previously mentioned, I took the first two coats of the cream bottom paint to the top of the boot top, then marked out the bottom of the boot top with the laser, and applied the final two coats of cream paint. I then re-masked to the bottom of the boot top and started painting the topsides green, this picture after rubbing down the first coat of green paint, the boot top clearly visible ready to mask for the dark green boot top, after the final coat of light green.

Hull rubbed down ready for the next coat.

This is the second top coat, it already has a really deep gloss and has covered the white primer completely, I will put a third coat on because I want her to be as good as I can make her, but if I left her as she is she would still look amazing, if this paint goes hard and is tough, I am going to throw all my other tins of paint away !!! (except for the Humbrol tins, they are also great!)

I have allowed the green topside paint to go hard for a few days before masking over it. Now masked up the boot top and started sanding.

25 March 21 - These pictures show the boot top masked up, and started to sand back the paint.

First coat of Dark Green boot top applied. The 'Yeoman' racing yachts were amongst the most competitive racing yachts in the world in their time, they were all green, and looked great! as will Cymbeline in the same colours. 2nd coat tomorrow.

26 March 21 - Second coat of boot top green applied and tape removed, we can see what she looks like now, good if you like green, like what I do!!

Now I have to wait for the paint to go hard, whilst waiting I am giving the cradle a good going over with Sadolin, I have fitted a ply base to beef it up, don't normally use Sadolin on model yachts! but its working on the cradle, painting under the porch out of the rain, and doing the garden table at the same time.

6 April 21 - I could not resist taking her outside to see how the hull looks in her new colours.

And a picture of her when I started, hopefully you agree with me that she looks great??

24 April - I have been looking at how I am finishing the top of the topsides, Cymbeline has a timber capping, it has a few holes in where fittings have been moved over the years, also the damage where I have scarfed in new timber to repair. What I don't like is she will have a mahogany capping around the edge, the varnished ply deck, which is a different colour, and I want to fit a varnished trim over the join where the deck fits, that will be 3 different pieces of different varnished timber next to each other. I have decided to take the light green topside paint up and over the mahogany capping, the deck will then fit inside, with a varnished trim over the join where the deck fits, more work but it will look better. There is a chance that if I don't like the varnished deck, I may do a cream lined deck, then the varnished tril will rerally highlight the shape of the hull.

I have put some filler to fill the joint between the capping and the hull, sanded it back, and applied a coat of primer, I then sanded back the primer, spot filled and applied a second coat of primer. The transom which is tiny will look a bit larger, which I think will make her look nicer.

Next job is to mask up the waterline, rub down the topsides and capping and start building up the light green, some say I should have done this in the first place and it would have saved a lot of work, I would not disagree!!! But sometimes you need to see how it looks first.

04 Feb 23 - I picked up Cymbeline from storage unit to start/finish restoration, here she is now.

She has been in storage for a couple of years, I picked her up last week and I am absolutely blown away with how well she has lasted, she looks fantastic, the hull has moved slightly, but somehow she looks better, older ? the planks has moved a little, but there is not a single crack in the paintwork, the SML 2Luster" paint is amazing I will be using it again, it has gone as hard as nails !!

This is GOOD paint !

Ready to start work. I will start with the deck first.

The deck was old and looked like it was past it, it was made from a piece of timber, cut out to about 1/16 thick with a layer of veneer glued to the top. Then the deck lining had been grooved. I was going to fit a new deck, I altered my lining tool to make a groove, but I was not sure I could do as good a job. The deck had to be removed as it was lifting, and some deck beams had broken and needed repair.

6 Feb 23 - The original deck seemed to be to old to use, also it broke when I removed it. But the old deck looked good, so I have decided to try and repair it. I glassed the deck back together where it broke, pictures attached.

The picture above is of the deck with lead weights on holding the deck onto the GRP laminate while it goes off, the laminate was laid onto the parcel tape on the MDF base, once the laminate went of, I lifted the deck off the parcel tape and unpeeled the peel ply, see below.

The next job to refinish the deck, Cymbeline had been sat around in the damp somewhere, and like the rest of her the deck had suffered. I am going to try to strip the deck ready to re-stain and varnish. Pictures below of the deck varnish being stripped.

The next job is to sand off the deck, there is another piece of damaged deck on the bow, I will cut away the damaged section and scarf in a new piece of ply.

You can see where the edge of the deck has been sanded ready to apply final deck paint, I should have done this earlier, but I did not! Picture below of the deck sanding being started, this will take a while I do not want to lose the deck lining. My plan is to re-stain the whole deck, and then stain the king plank a darker colour. You can see the dark line across the deck where is was repaired. I hope I can get the deck finish good enough to be able to refit the deck.

12 Feb 23 - More deck work, now it has been glued together, I have sanded the deck to remove old varnish, deck looking better, more confident now that I can save it and refit.

I have now sanded back the deck, still some marks on the deck, but I don't want to sand any more deck. picture below of where the damage section has been removed, the deck trimmed back ready for new section.

Picture of as new piece of ply being trimmed ready to glue on.

Here is the deck being glued on, used a section of nylon and lead weights to make it a good fit.

Deck being trimmed to fit into boat, more work to do. It does not matter about colour for now, this section of deck will be stained to make the king plank a different colour.

Deck being planed to fit hull, you can see where the repair has been done, I will varnish the deck first, and then try to stain to hid. At the end of the day the boat is old, not new, and I want that to stay, signs of damage are part of the history.

Pictures below of the original deck back where it belongs, lets see if we can get away with the new varnish.

Picture below of deck after a clean up with white spirit, time to try a coat of varnish.

First coat of varnish, 50% white spirit, being applied.

The varnish has evened up the colour of the deck OK, next job a sand back and 2nd coat tomorrow.

After the 2nd coat of varnish, it will be time to mask up the deck and stain the king plank to a darker cover, then more varnish. Fitting the deck getting closer, still more to do first!!

13 Feb 23 - Sanded the first coat of varnish and applied second coat, pictures below.

The next job will be to sand the deck, mask up and stain king plank. Also sanded the edge of the deck and applied green paint around the edge were the deck will fit.

Pictures of the deck being touched in, also below of the boat and the deck. Going to the pub while the paint and varnish goes of! work tomorrow, start again on Wednesday. I am running out of time for getting her ready for the 100 anniversary of the A class nationals in August. Starting to look at the deck fittings, getting a chrome kit in to re-chrome them all, also the sails to think about. The boat is looking really good. It is sad that her history has been lost, I think she was possibly built between the wars, late 1930's, she was built with a Braine gear, and has the rudder to go with that system, also she has a small Jib, that rig was developed for the Braine gear, jibs got bigger as the wind vane systems developed, which meant the mains got smaller, and the rigs moved aft. Very sad that people allow all the history to be lost. The vane gears started to take over after the war, wind vanes changed A class yacht design completely. Cymbeline was not built for a Vane gear system.

When I bought Cymbeline the deck was in poor shape, also she had some broken deck beams and the deck was lifting off the hull, the old deck broke as I was removing it, the deck had been well fitted when she was built, but I think it started lifting some time ago, the deck had been lifted and glue put under the deck and nailed into position, this made lifting the deck very hard in places, and it gave up just behind the rudder post, it broke where it had been glued to the deck beam behind the rudder post. I was not to worried then as I thought I would replace the deck. I saved the old deck and used it as a template to make a new deck, see above. But after a couple of years thinking about it, I kept looking at the old deck, I was coming to the opinion that I did not want the boat to look like she was built last week, I want her to look restored, rather than new, so I decided to try and save the old deck, warts and all.

As I varnished the sanded deck one thing I was not happy with was that the deck was showing some marks that were in the deck from previous sanding and scraping, I tried to sand out the marks, but did not want to sand off the old deck lining. You can see the problem in the picture below.

The picture shows the marks showing through the gloss varnish. I decided to use an eggshell varnish and see how that looks.

20 Feb 23 - Here is the deck after two coats of satin varnish, it is now nearly impossible to see and of old damage, I am very happy with the look of the satin varnish, it does look in keeping with the boat. The original finish to the deck was a brown stain/paint I am going to see what she looks like in dark green to match the waterline.

Masking the deck ready for painting king plank.

Deck varnish looking a lot better, you can see deck repair, it is obvious but looks old, I think when the deck is fitted it will look OK. Picture of the first coat of paint.

Paint actually came out fine with a single coat. After the tape removed it looks OK, needs a rub down the deck and apply final coats of varnish. I then have an alteration to the deck hatch, the deck then ready to fit down.

The king plank is painted using the boot top paint colour, the final coats of varnish will go over the king plank as well.

22 Feb 23 - A good day, deck dry fitted, starting to get a better idea of how she is going to look

Drilling out holes ready for screws, this is not a final fit of the deck. I few of the jobs still to go, Open up the deck hatch to the new size, I am making the hatch bigger so I can fit some radio gear in the future, any radio gear fitted will be in a box, to look like a cabin, above deck so there will be no alterations to the deck etc, I will run sheets from the existing deck fittings, and removable. She is currently weighing in at 61lb, for an oldie like me that will mean two persons to launch her, radio will make it possible for me to sail her on my own once in the water. I am also going to have to counter sink the holes for the deck fixing screws, originally every other hole was a pin, but they had been swapped to screws over time, when I have done the countersinking, I will seal with varnish, also varnish around the bigger hatch edges, then apply another couple of coats of varnish to make sure the varnish will last, if not forever, at least for the rest of my time with her.

This is what she will look like !!! I am away for a few days, then we have some work being done in my workshop, so a week or so to get back on Cymbeline.

2 April 23 - Finally found time to get started again, making deck hatch coamings.

Deck masked out ready to trim deck to new opening size, I will still use the old hatch, but I don't want the coamings screwed to the deck.

Deck hatch positioned and marked out ready to cut deck to new size.

Deck being cut back with vibro saw to new size.

Deck cut to size ready to start cutting out new coamings.

Forward section of Sapele coaming cut to size.

Port and Stbd sections cut to size.

Here the aft section has been cut out, the sections have been cut to allow them to joint together so they look traditional.

Jointed coaming being dry fitted, forward section.

Port coaming.

The aft section sits on top of the aft deck beam, this is the problem with changing my mind and using the original deck.

Here all the coamings dry fitted in position, now final sanding and gluing them in position.

Original hatch on new dry fitted coamings.

Hatch in position on new coamings

First coat of varnish.

First coat of varnish applied.

More to follow, getting close to final fit of the deck, I want two more coats of varnish on the deck first.

19 April 23 - It was beginning to feel like it was not going to happen, but the deck is back on, she looks great, pictures to follow.

Now the deck opening size had been a altered, the deck was going to need another few coats of varnish. When I dry fitted the deck not all the screws went flush to deck level, so here I am opening the counterbores to allow the screws to go flush.

There were a few of the original deck screws that had broken, so the new screws would not screw in when they hit the broken screw. I went around and drilled out the broken screws, this also opened up the hole, so I had to glue in timber ready to re drill fixing holes.

There were also 3 screws that did not screw into the deck shelf they just touched the edge, I cut out and glued in some fillets to help take the screws.

Then sand and varnish the deck, another 3 coats, then the deck is ready to fit.

Final coats of varnish done !!

Final coat of varnish on the deck hatch coamings.

Ready to fit the deck, but how, I did not want to glue it down, it was not glued down originally, it had been glued down when some of the repairs had been done. The deck fittings will help to hold the deck in place, the brass deck screws will also hold the edge down. I decided to use a product called 'Butyl' I have used it in the marine industry in the past and it works. It does not glue, but does stick, if the deck ever has to come off, just unscrew the screws and peel of the deck.

The 'Butyl' is quite thin but much too big for Cymbeline, To make small sections I cut a 50mm length of the 3/4 inch wide strip, cut it in half and rolled it out, a bit like plasticine, then stick it into position.

I did not need to put it over all the deck beams, I put some around the rudder tube, also over the fixing holes for the deck fittings, around the deck hatch coamings and around the mast hole.

The bedding will flatten out when the deck goes onto it, if you push down the deck it will bed down, it does not glue the deck permanently, but it does help the screws hold the deck down. Also does a good job of stopping water getting past.

This is what is used to bed down the deck, seems to have worked well, the deck material is quite thin, I was worried about the deck between the screws being raised up by the bedding. I tried a small sample section and found that when the deck was pushed down and the bedding squashed out, it then seemed to hold the deck in place. I tried it and that seems to have worked well, the deck is quite flat as it runs along the deck.

Here the deck is screwed down, looks fairly level. I am glad I used the original deck, a lot more work in some ways, but she looks her age.

The next jobs are to make some 1/2 round to go over the screw heads, not quite sure how to fit it yet. Also got some Chrome stripper coming for the old deck gear, and some chrome plating kit, well it Nickle plating really, but will look great. You can see in the picture above I tried some Chrome plate paint, gave it a go, but not good enough. Just got to talk the wife into letting me use here shed!!! Chemicals will be a bit much for my garage.

Pictures above and below of the half round being cut of a length of Oak dowel, first coat of varnish below. Made a simple jig to locate the cut off section of dowel, so it would not try to twist/rotate when being sawn.

Classic Pond Yachts

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