Rosie Blooms Again - Again

The blog is back. I took a few months off to do other stuff ... just about anything that was non-boat type stuff. Now I am back to working on Rosie. Still working on stripping her down. Hopefully I will work more often and post more often as well. Rosie is a fighter ... she just won't die!

2011 General Assembly

After Lee's and Julia's enrichment presentations I hopped in the car and drove 2.5 hours north to Paul Smith's College for the 2011 WCHA General Assembly. What an experience. I made it there around 1:30, registered and began to wander through the mass of canoes all over the lawn. There is a lake right there at the college, and it was quite a sight to see all the sailing canoes and paddling canoes take it over. Unfortunately there was only 1 dinghy there and it was a Thompson not an Old Town, but that did not stop me from listening, watching, and of course asking a lot of questions.

When I spoke to Mike Cavanaugh before the Assembly he mentioned that he would be hard to miss because of his height. And sure enough within 10 minutes I spotted a very tall man with a name card that read Mike. I introduced myself and we meandered through the canoes talking about the different types, the different restoration styles, and he showed me his boat. It was an Old Town canoe that was his father's. We agreed that the history and the story are some of the most intriguing parts of restoring these old boats. I think it would be tough to do it for a living, without some personal connection to the boat, but there were many there that do just that.

Under one tent people were building, from scratch, a cedar wood canoe. It was great to watch that happening because when you start with the finished product, you fail to realize the parts that make it up. I watched that on and off for a few hours. Under another tent was terrific guy named Al who was helping an Assembly participant canvas his canoe. This was fascinating to me as well as very informative. I learned a lot talking with Al and watching them do their thing. It makes the canvassing a little less scary (but not much).

Then there were the merchants and professionals. There were probably about a dozen or so tables of all kinds of treasures. There were paddles, oars, new and old hardware, varnish, paint, tools, handmade leather belts and other leather goods, lumber, canvas, etc, etc and of course canoes. Many of the canoes were for sale and I was shocked at how much they cost. I understand because the time, love, and effort that goes into them, but I was surprised none the less. I figure with a decent restoration my dinghy could be worth $3,000 to $5,000. At $3,000 I may break even. We will have zero interest in selling her though. Tough to make money in this business I think. The only joke I heard at the assembly was this:
Q  :  How does a canoe builder make a million bucks?
A  :  By starting out with 2.

At one table a man was selling Epifanes varnish at 40% off. So I bought some varnish, thinner, and a brush. I was also drooling at all the tools that were for sale. Mostly old antique wood planes, and shapers. I purchased a clinching iron which I will need to replace my planking. This tool is simply a block of iron that bends the tips of the nails back as they come through the ribs. I also saw a great tool that the canvas project was using. They were vice grip pliers with a wide flat head (meant for sheet metal). The pliers grip the canvas and allow you to roll it and tighten it before you staple. Someone was selling them for 28 so I waited. I just found them at Allerdice for $20 so I was pretty happy.


All-in-all, the trip was worthwhile. I learned a lot and met some interesting people. Now it is back to the actual task of making Rosie float again ...

Networking and the 2011 Assembly

I made a forum post the other day on WCHA.org asking if there were any boat builders/restorers near Saratoga/Albany area. Within an hour, I was given the name Mike Cavanaugh (and the post mentioned he would work for beer … my kind of currency). So I reached out to Mike, and we talked for a while on the phone. He is a really nice guy with a ton of knowledge. He gave me some advice over the phone, like strip the boat before I remove all of the fiberglass residue from the gaps in the planking (so the stripper does not run right through), and the most profound advice was to stop thinking so damn much. I have been obsessing about the boat, what to remove, what can be kept, etc, etc. He basically said there is no right and wrong, only preference, and to stop worrying about it. He also mentioned that he would stop by to check out the boat on Sunday, July 17th, after the Assembly. What a guy. What is the Assembly you ask? The yearly WCHA Assembly is a gathering of all people who love wooden boats and canoes, restoring them, paddling them, or just being around them. It is usually held at a college, and it needs to be near water. There are daily paddling expeditions, workshops, kid's crafts, speakers, and a marketplace. Sounds like an interesting time, and also the perfect place for me to gain some knowledge, and finally relax about the whole thing.

This year the Assembly will be held from July 13-17th at Paul Smith's College in Lake Placid … my back yard practically. So I think I am going to go … at least for a day. Mike Cavanaugh mentioned to meet up with him at the Assembly and he would be with Dan Miller as well as a bunch of other "well-known" wcha members, including the great(?) grandson of George Alexander Gray, the founder of Old Town Canoes. I think he will be an absolute wealth of information regarding old Rosie. I will be heading up Friday afternoon for the day, and if it is great, Sarah and I and the girls will return on Saturday for the day. There are supposedly a lot of things for the kids to do. We will see.

I also started to make some equipment connections. I called Old Town to ask them about parts for their vintage boats, and they gave me a phone number. I called that number and got info, a connection, and two other phone numbers. I called those numbers and got more advice and made more connections. I now have a potential source for the old oarlocks and also paddles. The oarlocks are tricky because they were very common before WWII and there were many sizes and getting a set of four to match is hard. The oarlocks come in two pieces, the plate and the horns. I have two plates (three but one is broken), and no horns. So I need to source these parts, but if I cannot find old ones, I know I can get new ones from one of my connections (see all photos below). These oarlocks will be roughly a quarter of the renovation cost is my guess.

Old oarlock:

New version of the oarlock:

I was poking around on the website of one of the connections I made, and noticed that he had restored a 1930 9ft OT dinghy. There were pictures of the dinghy before the renovation as well as a picture from the OT Catalog from 1930. This page in the catalog shows the styles and the cost. In 1930 Rosie would have cost $125 (a lot of money back then). Here is the link to the site with the 9ft dinghy before renovation: http://www.rossbros.com/sport.htm.

The Neighbors on Murray

So Theo ran over to the neighbors the other day up at the River. The property is still new to the dogs so they are exploring ... plus the neighbors have two dogs as well. So I went over and introduced myself. They were all very nice, three families (sisters) sharing the cottage, coming from all over. One of the sisters was the previous owner of our new cottage. Because of this, they were all very familiar with our property and everything on it. We talked about the cottage, and the long drives they all have, and then I asked about Rosie. They remembered the boat. The son of the previous owner, Brian, mentioned his mom wanting to turn it into a planter since it did not float anymore. He remembered when it did and that they had a small engine on it. But it had not been sea worthy in years. They mentioned that the boat was on the property when they bought it in 1977. One of the sisters, Nancy, told me she would look through all their documents and old photos to see if they could find any more information.

Did I ever mention that Sarah's great grandparents owned this piece of land in the 30s and 40s? And that they lived outside of Rochester in the 20s and 30s (where the boat shop was located that Rosie was shipped to)? There is a chance that old Rosie was actually purchased by Sarah's great grandparents and that Rosie never left Murray Island or this piece of property. How amazing would that be? Sarah had a relationship with her grandmother that was very special, and the thought that she once tooled around Eel Bay in beautiful old Rosie when she was a kid is pretty cool and makes this project so much more meaningful.

Meeting the neighbors provided another small piece of the puzzle of the wonderful history of Rosie and I am hoping more will come out.

Current Work

I am in a sort of holding pattern. I have a lot to do and no real direction. I still have to remove all of the fiberglass residue as well as all the caulk between the planking. This is a pretty tedious job. I have to take the heat gun (purchased for $10 on Craigslist) and go over every inch of the hull with a paint scraper. The residue comes off rather easily for the most part but there are places where it proves to be very difficult. I spend a lot of time scraping on those spots. I read a tip on the WCHA website on the best way to remove the caulk from in-between the planking. The tip said to take a hacksaw blade, and wrap one side with duct tape to form a handle. Then take the other side and cut the metal out where the hole is on one side to form a sort of hook. Then you can use the blade to saw out the caulking and pull it out where the ribs meet the planking.  Fun stuff.

Besides these two menial tasks, I am getting lost on what to do. How to decide if an entire plank is junk, or just a piece. How to determine if the flex in the hull is normal for cedar, or if the structural integrity is shot. How to tell if the stem is good and the keelson doesn't need repairing. So what does one do when faced with such problems? Two simple things ...

First you visit your local library (which had absolutely nothing I was looking for). Luckily we are part of a larger network of libraries and I was able to put on request 4 books about building and restoring wooden canoes, and one about the history of Old Town Canoe company. They have arrived and I now have enough reading to keep me busy for a long time. In addition to these 5 books, Sarah also gave me the wooden runabout restoration bible, which is meant for old wooden boats with engines, but there is a lot of useful info in there as well. Finally, I also received my "membership packet" for the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association which included even more reading. I hope these answer some questions.

Second you go find a professional. So I asked Dan Miller of Dragonfly Canoes in Cape Vincent if I could stop by his shop when we were up at the River the weekend of the 24th. Unfortunately he was away that weekend. But I did do the next best thing ... I went to the Antique Boat Museum. I was able to see many different wooden canoes, but unfortunately there were no dinghies on display. So I asked questions (as I am prone to do) and finally the woman at the reception desk told me to shut up and follow her. She took me to the ABM restoration guru who was hard at work restoring a huge beautiful wood boat (see pic below). We talked for about 20 minutes, and I asked him some questions about my project. He was helpful but clearly very busy so I still have not received the info I am searching for. 

I think best chance at getting answers may be to strap old Rosie to the roof of the van and drive her up to the River to have Dan Miller go over it with me (I hope he offers this service). It would be money well spent, and I would really know how to proceed with the project. I just need to find a weekend he will be around.

Until then I scrape.

Rosie's Birthday

Sarah stared at the keelson for 10 minutes the other day. “Are you sure there are 6 digits in the serial number?”  she asked. “Yes, there has to be since it was made in the 1930s. All boats in that decade are in the 100,000s.” I said with certainty. “Well there isn’t room for 6 here” she said as she proceeded to show me the impossibility using her fingers. She was right. That meant that the serial number had to be **352. The first number appeared to be 9. Sarah could make it out even though it was greatly faded, plus it made sense with the Old Town numbering system. So I sent the inquiry for 9*352 into WCHA and within 24 hours they responded ... they found her build record. Her serial number is 99352. So we finally have Rosie’s birthday as well as her original specs and who she was sold to. This is very exciting, and leads us to wonder more and more about her life from her birth to our discovery of her in 2011.

Here is the information we got from the build record:

On Sept 21, 1928 she was conceived by an order sent from the Rochester Boat Corp in Charlotte, NY. She was born (shipped) on Dec 3, 1928. She was an AA grade dinghy (the highest grade possible), which means she came with mahogany gunwales, and mahogany seats.  She is 10' 2" long, had white cedar planking, and her canvas was originally painted white. Unfortunately the Rochester Boat Corp is no longer in business, but I hope to learn more about her first destination.

Here is her build record:

Should Canvas be this tough to remove?

Rosie sat on the saw horses, keel up, and ready to be undressed. I carefully began the process of pulling the canvas off. It was tricky business because it stuck in some places. I needed a good putty knife to "unstick" the canvas from around the hull. As each piece of canvas came off, remnants seemed to be left behind. I also noticed that some wood fibers seemed to be coming off with the pieces of canvas. I thought little about it and continued the work. Mistake # 2 (see previous post for #1). I removed all the canvas from the entire boat, and was ready to assess the damage to the planking. The planking that I could see seemed to be in perfect shape, with a few small exceptions. But I was concerned about all these remnants of canvas left on the hull … so I posted again on WCHA.org. The answer I got was somewhat shocking to me.

I did not remove canvas … I removed fiberglass. That’s right, the boat I was sure was canvas, was actually fiberglass (pretty stupid in retrospect). Apparently I got lucky because the fiberglass job was a poor one. A good fiberglassing would adhere completely to the wood and prove every difficult to remove. So Rosie's original canvas, which I think was called Yale Blue from the remnants I found under the gunwales, had been removed and replaced with a bright red fiberglass. I was very surprised. So what to do about all those remnants (fiberglass residue)? Get a heat gun, and heat each and every one and scrape them off. That was the answer I got. If I had used the heat gun from the beginning to remove the fiberglass, I would not have had the residue and I would not have had the wood fibers pulled up. So now I have to go over every inch of the hull with a heat gun and a scraper and make her smooth again. I hope this is the last mistake I make, but I am sure it will not be.

Old Town Color Chart



Hull with Fiberglass residue: