The Problem Areas

Ongoing work on my Owens Baroness includes painting the hull, sanding the mahogany brightwork, painting the bottom, repairing the runnels just below the deck, and probably some other stuff I am forgetting, oh yeah getting dowell pins back into the gunwhale and the brightwork to port. All that is underway and under control, but there are problem areas I have not yet addressed.

My biggest worry is the engine which I have still not attempted to start. Lucky for me, since I am not a great mechanic, I have a friend who has offered to come and help me with that.

Another problem I have not yet addressed is the point of the bow. There was some rot there, and it had previously been filled with bondo or wood filler or something, but there are cavities, and it really should be reworked. That would be a huge job requiring massive disassembly to put it ship shape, so I am planning at this point to pump it full of silicone caulk and top that with some latex wood filler.

The decks above the gunwhale on both sides of the cabin are soft, and need to be replaced. That's do-able without too much disassembly, but requires chiselling more dowell pins, buying more plywood, and working precariously on a high narrow space, I expect I can do it in about a day and a half, but it will be a hard day, so I am putting it off.

Three other projects require buying mahogany at $10 per board foot. All the molding just below the gunwhales, approximately 70 feet of it has to be replaced, it fell apart on disassembly, although it looked mostly intact before that. It was obviously original making it over 40 years old, that's pretty good service for thin exterior wood in a damp environment. The back rail risers had been replaced with pine that didn't hold up, and need to be rebuilt with mahogany, that's probably only about a half day's work if I buy a router, and less than that if I pay the lumber yard to mill the mahogany, but it's nagging at my mind every time I grab that rail, so it will probably be the first problem area addressed. Third is the roof, this was built on a mahogany frame that is rotted away almost completely, and is a real two day custom carpentry job barely within my skills (and I'm a good carpenter) with the tools I have on hand, once again, I might get it milled, but it could cost me and I'm about out of money.

The last problem, I almost forgot, is the windows, about half of them are broken out. Luckily, a boat at the yard that is being destroyed has a lot of really big windows, and I think I can get enough glass for free, and cut it myself (or more probably cut myself), and sand the edges round. (Note to self: wear the leather gloves when fooling with the glass)