Days 3 and 4 of the Restoration

Today saw the removal of the  rail, pin rails and bulwarks from the starboard side.  



Sam and Gareth managed  to remove the Lumsden  strake in one piece - rare these days to have a 60 foot plank of Scottish larch!  Doesn't sound much when written down, but Britannia is a large vessel and as said before she was constructed to last, so removing this timber took much sweat and a little ripe language.  She is the largest boat in Gweek boatyard.  How Sam managed the construction on his own in the Eighties is remarkable..but he was a lot younger then!!!

                                                                                          

 Completed removal of the transit rail - sadly only a  third can be saved but it looks like we may have sourced some oak to replace it. 

Need to visit the woodyard and see for ourselves.  Sam is always very particular about choosing the timber very carefully.

Part of the oak transit rail

Day 4

Today was spent patiently removing the covering board along the starboard side.  The covering board which surrounds the stanchions will be completely removed and renewed, the design of which will allow the hood ends of a new deck to be fitted into it.   This is reference to a very old ship-building formula to be found in notes relating to the building of HMS Victory, and it is 

“ When the snape of the plank is more than twice the width of the plank, it should be joggled into the spirketing.”!! 

So there you have it.  Who can argue with that? 

So far the stanchions are looking good..

Next time

Next stage to be done in the next few weeks will be to scaffold the port side and do exactly the same thing – remove rail, pinrail, chain plates, and covering board.