I admit I was a little anxious when Charlotte Rose came into the workshop. She belongs to a local family with strong boatbuilding connections and I had been recommended for the job by a very experienced boatbuilder. Charlotte Rose is a well built clinker launch of a bout 16ft. I do not know her history in any detail but she appeared to have sat too long in water without sufficient looking after.
The lower four planks on either side need replacing and I had some nice west African mahogany in stock for this.
What made things more challenging was that someone had driven steel bolts through the keel, hog and deadwood, resulting in decay of the whole centreline structure.
I am not clear why these bolt had been added as they were not structurally needed. Just to add to the fun, the lower 1/3rd of the transom was rotten.
So a complete new centreline had to be built and fitted into place. the original was a mix of oak and mahogany the new construction was all iroko.
The original bronze prop shaft tube proved a major struggle to remove intact, but we got there in the end. I don’t have a boring bit big enough to drill a 32mm hole 800mm long so the new deadwood was built in two halves with a half-round groove in each before gluing the two together.
