1930 Schooner MISTRESS

Photographs and the dates in which I took them, prove that Skip's and my memory are incorrect on how long it took to restore her hull.In fact, it took just one year to do all the work we have already mentioned.I guess it just felt like two years.Anyway back to our story, he continued on the starboard side for some time.Skip was good and hooked by her charm, wanting to do every inch of her over well enough so she would sail for another 70 years.I believe he only took five or six days off for each year he worked on MISTRESS, saying the only thing that was certain was that if you did not work on her every day, nothing would be done.Those days he did take off were court ordered by the Admiral, insisting he needed time to rest.Of course, he spent most of those days sailing with others and talking about what he was up to with his MISTRESS.  Although Skip was working at another boat yard, each evening he would come home and work on MISTRESS until the sun went down.Later, in her fairing days, he would mud her after dark under bright lights and fair her with a long board during the daylight hours.On Saturday’s and Sunday’s, he was with her full time.Only food on the table, set out according to his schedule could drag him away from her.
 

In April of 2001, Skip brought in 700 board feet of Vertical Grain Atlantic White Cedar, which he would use to cold mold the deck and build the bulwarks.It would be some time before this material would be used, however; he purchased it when the opportunity arrived and stored it all in the woodshed for later use.

Skip actually hand selected each of these boards from 12,000 boards. It took a while to pick through and inspect each of the boards, but there you have it. The best of 12,000 boards narrowed down to 700 board feet.

 By August 2001, he had restored the hull inside and out.She was quite multi-colored by this time because Skip would paint over repairs to help protect it from the Florida climate.Soon, good friends would arrive to help us put up the Quonset Hut Skip was building to protect her from the elements so he could begin work on the deck.

August 2001

Once Skip restored the hull he wanted to move on to the deck and house, therefore MISTRESS needed a better cover.Each day for a week, Skip built two of these frames by putting wood blocks down in the ground and then bending them into shape. After that, he fastened the little blocks between to hold each frame together.We asked friends to come over that Saturday for a barn raising of sorts and before they arrived, Skip had the frame completed and ready for the new canvas top.As before, good friends showed up.

Inside of 30 minutes, everyone was under a cool bright canvas cover enjoying a cold drink.We were so pleased about the amount of light coming through and we expected it would be a tremendous help keeping all the leaves off of MISTRESS.

In this photo, you can see her original house.It is about an inch or two lower than it is now and the camber is now slightly higher in the center.Note the winches at the forward end of the house.Many, if not all of her winches were made by the night crew at the Milwaukee Electric Plant, men skilled at metal work and who had been sailing on MISTRESS for 30 years.Once Skip started working topside, he would remove the entire deck and all frames except the original foredeck frames.

The canvas proved to be a bad investment.Inside of three weeks, the expensive canvas top blackened with mildew so bad it barely survived until its replacement, a new plastic tarp.Each tarp was 60’ by 30’.By the time MISTRESS launched, we would go through six tarps and this initial canvas top.In 2005, the building would need several frames sistered after a strong westerly wind crushed them.For a temporary building it served us well in this project and lasted longer than we had hoped it would take to rebuild her, but that’s how rebuilds go.

Next, Skip moved onto the engine room where he put in all new frames.Skip speaking, “There is no sheer clamp or bilge stringer here.I asked Skip how hard was it to work on her, at this time.He said, “It was when the whole interior was gone that it got bad.I took a couple of head first falls all the way to the floor timbers”.

Skip - “You can see the house is still there.That’s when the house was balanced there on a bunch of nothing.Finally, I took it down and brought it out to the river for a good proper burning party.

 Then, Skip made from yellow pine her new starboard 46 foot sheer clamp and shelf.It started as a 24 foot long, 2 x 12. He ripped it into two 24 foot 2 x 6’s.Then, he scarfed it together to make a 46 foot 2 x 6.It would be fastened into place with lots of clamps and bolts.

Skip’s friend Rick came over to help Skip put the shelf in place.Here you can see the three inboard pieces, which make up the shelf and the outboard piece, which is the clamp.The bilge stringer is also new and in place.Later, when Skip would cut the cove stripe every other bolt holding the sheer clamp and shelf in place would have to removed and reset a quarter inch. As he began to cut into her and came across the bolts, he was very unhappy. Skip says it was a real pain in the, well … you get the idea.

Tim and I flew up to New York to go to the world’s largest college fair, in late September 2001.This is what MISTRESS looked like when we left.

When we returned two days later, he had painted every inch of her hull interior with red lead.Skip says he had to lie fully extended with a putty knife in hand in order to reach the stem.I asked if he put the paintbrush on the end of the putty knife to reach there.He said, “No I just took the deck off.”

He then went on to making up these five beams.Most were laminated from White Ash, the others were made from Kauri.Ash is tough and strong, but it is also heavy.Kauri is still pretty, strong, however, it is much lighter.Skip was able to get long pieces of the Ash and he likes the strength of it so he says it was an easy decision for him.

By this point in our story, the floor timbers have been either, repaired or replaced.Watching Skip walk across these deck beams, which were not all yet fastened down appeared to me to be effortless and without concern.The lazarette, cockpit, and engine room hatchways were being framed up in this picture.The cockpit is much smaller than her original design to ward off against large amounts of water being held on deck.This new design would be much better for ocean sailing.The engine room hatch moved to port a bit to allow for more room for the companionway hatch not yet in place.Additionally, the red lead paint is now painted over with Fleet White Awlgrip.Each of the deck beams was laminated and then cut to fit, then removed so Skip could put a quarter round on the lower edges, knowing he would hit his head on it someday, and then all was varnished prior to being fastened into place.

There is very little of the interior left now and Skip has finally made himself a temporary cabin sole to stop himself from falling to the floor timbers.You can see a few sticks holding the house in place, the continuation of the Awlgrip paint, and can see the only deck beams left from her original build just above and around the fore hatch.The shop vac in this picture did not last the whole six and a half years.It gave it’s all and lasted about four years. It would be replaced with a dustless Fein Vacuum which did wonders to keep her clean.

MISTRESS would end up with several layers of paint prior to any new construction below.  She would recieve two coats of red lead, 2 coats of Awlgrip primer, and then 2 final coast of Fleet White Awlgrip.