Wooden boat repairs

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heimlaga

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Österbotten, Finland
Upon request I will post some pictures of some wooden boat work I have going on.
The boat I am currently working on is a Göteborgseka even called GKSSeka built in Kaskö in 1965. The gunwales had rotted and the rot had spread into the endgrain of both transoms and also into two plank ends further down in the bow. The mast thwart was broken and a futtock in a frame was rotten and the rot had spred into a plank further down.
The customer will do the sanding, oiling and varnishing himself and he helped me fire the steam boiler when he had a suitable a day off.
I am not a fully qualified boatbuilder but this sort of repairs are within my capabilities.
 

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I am using locally grown spruce (same as Norway spruce). The traditional boatbuilding timber the the northern two thirds of both Finland and Sweden and Norway. For transom and frame repairs I used oak as she was originally built that way. Oak is excellent for stems and transoms but it doesn't grow locally and is very expensive. The original gunwales both inner and outer were oak too but it wouldn't make sence to use that much of the costly oak when spruce has been used locally for many centuries.

Here is a link to the original drawings from 1949. This was designed as a cheap yet decent everyman's saiboat. The sailing club of Gothenburg in Sweden ordered the design for the benefit of it's less wealthy members. The design grew popular and new ones are still occasionally built.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/a8kzg4ooptbrigg/AAB868eqgJrqpc2H3YDLbvRDa?dl=0&preview=gkss-0004.jpghttps://www.dropbox.com/sh/a8kzg4ooptbrigg/AAB868eqgJrqpc2H3YDLbvRDa?dl=0&preview=gkss-0007.jpgThe owner likes this boat and wants her rebuilt. I like her enough and found her sound enough to be a project which I can do with good concience. If she hadn't been that well built and shapely I would have turned down the project.
 
Nice not been to Gothenburg, have family in Stockholm and Nykoping.

Clinker and full keel are they kept on moorings??
 
This one is kept moored with the bow towards a small wooden quay and the stern tied to a buoy.

Stockholm is only some 500 kilometres from me. As I belong to the Swedish minority in Finland the ties to Sweden are strong and Stockholm is mentally closer than Helsinki. I haven't been there in 12 years though........ but it is almost 20 years since I was in Helsinki.
 
Very nice work there, it's a tricky job replacing clinker planking but very satisfying when it's all clenched up.
Looks like long scarf joints too.
Looking forward to more.
 
The owner says he will scrape off the rest of the brownish paint from the topsides and varnish them. On the inside there will be some mixture of linseed oil and pine tar. I just scraped as much as I had to scrape to get the job done.
 
Two days before delivery the fin keel proved to be severely iron sick and had to be renewed. I made the new keel bolts from A4 stainless with square heads that fit into notches in the lower edge of the keel. No bungs to lock in moisture this time. A quarter past 11 in the evening on the day of delivery it was ready to go.
 

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Two days before delivery the fin keel proved to be severely iron sick and had to be renewed. I made the new keel bolts from A4 stainless with square heads that fit into notches in the lower edge of the keel. No bungs to lock in moisture this time. A quarter past 11 in the evening on the day of delivery it was ready to go.
No ballast keel??
 
Thanks for the kind comments.

There is no ballast keel. Essentially this is a sailing dinghy but because the design originates in Gothenburg where the tidal range is small and because it is widespread in the Baltic where we have no tides at all there is no practical reason for a centerboard. The boat doesn't have to stay upright at low tide when there is no low tide.
A fixed wooden keel works just as well and the boat can be moored afloat directly to a quay or dock or river bank or a boulder on the beach.

The rig is a very simple marconi sloop. Here is a link to the original drawings for the class:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/a8kzg4ooptbrigg/AAB868eqgJrqpc2H3YDLbvRDa?dl=0The design was intended as a cheap and easy to build common man's sailboat. The design was comissioned and the racing class created by the sailing club in Gothenburg for the benefit of their less wealthy members and for youngsters learning to sail.
 
Another Göteborgseka for which I have made the bow and stern seats as well as plenty of custom stainless steel rig fittings got launched this summer
IMG_4999.JPG

The next boat project is getting started. This 19 foot double ender needs a new keel and new garboards and new stem knee. The boat was built locally soon after the war. It was built by eye without drawings as they all were. I like the shape so much that I will make a set of full size moulds and put in storage in case someone some day wants a nice little motorboat.
IMG_5195.JPG
 
Lovely shape. Bit of a twist to the garboards tho! Good luck.
2 questions ...
What wood is the keel?
How would you fit an engine to a new boat? out board, or bore through timbers for a small inboard?
 

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