25
The Restoration of Folkboat 520 “Swift”
With the barn and no real distractions, I was able to restore the hull. Eleven timbers
were found to be cracked and these were repaired by steaming and scarfing new
elm sections into place and were then copper fastened. All the bolts - keel and
stem and sternpost - were drifted out; also a large section of oak was scarfed into
the stern post. The boat had been ashore for a number a years protected only by a
flimsy cover and the fresh water had run through it rotting the lower section of this
stern post.
My thoughts now turned to the boat’s deck. She was an English build and
consequently had a high coach roof, great for headroom, bad for looks. I had been
‘Googling’ Folkboat pictures and found a ‘sexy looking’ Nordic style that caught my
eye and, with iPad in hand, I ripped off the deck putting the coach roof to one side.
This rather drastic move revealed rot in all but three of the main deck beams and
both ends of the carlin port and starboard. Most of the half beams were rattling in
their joints. All these were replaced with iroko from the local Jewson’s, who have a
good stock of hard woods. Luckily I only had to repair half the shear plank on the
port side.Moving aft, the transom was soft. This had to come out. With fine and
delicate work with a sledge hammer it took 15 minutes and some ratchet straps to
hold the planks in place producing a hole that was scary.
Replacing the transom in sapele in four planked sections was a tricky, but I was
getting into the job and enjoying every hour. Although my apprenticeship was over
40 years ago, I could hear the lessons and words of advice/rollickings from the real
boatbuilders I was put to work with and who did their time with the old yards such as
Camper and Nicholson, Rampart’s, and Moody’s .
Removing the old coach roof
