Dave Page's Tahoe 20 is nearing completion. The Mahogany and Kauri decks are all varnished. As soon as its hard we will mask up and paint the topsides and then fit all the
shiny bits. Then she is of up north to have the V8 fitted.
David’s 8ft Auk 11 is well underway as the hull is all most complete.
We were given a 9ft fiberglass dinghy that had been run over by a car and it is now all fixed ready to re-paint and then sell.
We have just fixed a very nice 8ft clinker Dinghy and it is now For Sale.
Our 25ft sea skiff is all most planked up. She will sleep 4 with full kitchen, shower, toilet - all self-contained with holding tanks. She will be trailable so we can use her like a caravan. She will have a 60hp big foot 4-stroke outboard hung on her transom with 200+lt vented fuel tanks under the seats in aft cockpit. She is all plywood glassed to the waterline then epoxy sealed. The beam is 2.480m and the draft 2ft. It is long, thin and an easily driven hull. The cold molded section is 12mm and the lapstrake ply is 9mm with 20x30mm stringers and frames spaced at 700mm - light but strong.
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We have just picked up this old 11-1/2' clinker sailing dinghy. She was taken of Stewart Island in the 1960s and is built out of what looks like Yellow Pine. All her knees, stem and transom timbers are natural crooks, either tree roots or branches about the right shape then hand sawn and shaped with a draw Knife to fit. She could be a 'veryyyy' old boat looking at the way she is constructed. Built in the USA somewhere and then shipped out to Stewart Island. Her ribs a riveted shear plank and the next two planks were then clenched to the keel. Tthe ribs stop 2ft from the stern and bow - a very interesting boat. The sail is canvas with hand made hemp bolt ropes and the main sheet sail is hand-stitched and she is painted in the standard Navy gray and white.
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I am currently restoring this old 1895 fantail steam/oil launch. She has been a steam/oil boat, a motor boat and then a keeler. She sank in the Frankton arm Lake Wakatipu 27 years ago was then taken to Cromwell for 15 years, then to Alexandra for 10 years and it was thought she was built in the Port Chalmers area. She is 16ft Kauri hull and the ribs and sawn frames in the counter are Kowhai. All the yellow topsides and cabins were put on when she was converted to sail 1940-50s and ply cabins were fitted then. At some stage two planks were replaced and she was then glassed over with polyester. This caused her to sink as the garboard plank on the starboard side buckled and cracked due to uneven moisture levels on the garboard planks.
This is as she was when I picked her up.
Above original hull all the alterations removed.
We have re-ribbed her with oak and with new oak sawn frames. Both garbed planks are new and the 1st and 2nd planks port side were replaced due to a very ruff repair job done on her some time ago. A new Kauri stern was also fitted. The new decks are Kauri. While cleaning out the old strong post notch in stem we found an English penny dated 1895. This is not original as it was well worn and it would have been a new sixpence or shilling when she was built? She is all copper fastened all the old iron keel bolts have been replaced with copper.
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Black staff water tube boiler and a Hasbrouck twin steam engine we have built for her.
She can swing a 17 x 30 prop easily. The new decks have a sub-layer of 6mm ply to strengthen her for trailering her. All the fastenings were removed so we could clean out between the planks and then a flexible sealer was applied between the laps prier to re-riveting the planks back together. This allows the planks to move shrink and expand without leaking every time we want to use her.
She is all most ready to re–launch. We just have to do the pluming and finish painting and seat squabs. I still have some deck fittings to find, bronze fairleads for the bow and cast up a bronze rudder head fitting to take a wooden tiller. All the running gear is done
More info and photos can be found at: www.murtons.co.nz info@murtons.co.nz or Murtons Timbercraft on facebook.
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