New Keel Piece for Rosie's Bow

The Boat Yard Crew came to work on Monday and low and behold a very generous donation was left for them. A piece of loblolly pine from Paul Ryban. The crew continues forward in the final repairs to the keelson.

Very generous donation from Paul Ryban.

The piece was very heavy and it took a fork lift to move it.

Here we are laying out the pattern in order to rough cut and get rid of any excess material.

Marc Barto chain saws off the excess length. Its getting lighter with each cut.

Our volunteer, Mark Welles, cuts the curved portion of the piece. It takes a series of four passes on each side.

Mark making the first series of cuts while increasing the depth with each pass.

Pounding wedges in order to break the final seem to separate the two sides.

Jenn Kuhn is pounding in the wedges.

Now we can handle the piece with more ease.

Next we cut out the mortise which will fit the forward king post of the centerboard trunk.

Removing Rosie's Deck

While we are trying to salvage as much of the original wood as possible, it looks like most of the deck wood will have to be replaced. Hard to believe this boat, and her sister boat, the Lady Katie, took just three months to build, but will take more than three years to restore.

The deck of the Rosie Parks, before removing any deck boards

Project Manager and Master Shipwright Marc Barto wielding a crow bar to pry up those boards

As you can see, the deck's in pretty bad shape

Boat Yard volunteer Cliff doing all the work, as usual!

Boat Yard volunteer Mike Sweeney peeking out from underneath Rosie.

A few boards down, a lot more left to go!

Mike pitches in

Cliff isn't playing around with these boards.

The old and new rudder together, behind the newly repainted wheelbox

Just a little bit of the old wood from the deck

More bow work on Rosie Parks

Cutting into the bow prepping to add a replacement piece.

Jenn Kuhn, chiseling away the wood around the bolts.

Marc Barto and his man clamp

With the help of the man clamp and jack the shipwrights have supported the bow, removed the wood surrounding the bolts and are ready to pound out the old bolts. 

Parker, Josh and Natalie White, Bronza Parks third and fourth generation family members.

Parker and shipwright apprentice, Jenn Kuhn, are sawing off the tops of sweet nails.

President Langley Shook isn't afraid to get his hands dirty.

More work on Rosie's Keel

Museum volunteer Cliff is cutting sweet nails to fill in where the old iron fastners were once on Rosie's keelson.

Museum volunteers Cliff and Bob

Bracing for keel and worm shoe removal

Pounding wedges to expose the metal holding the worm shoe in place. Next, the shipwrights will cut the metal, thus releasing the shoe

Worm shoe layer  one has been released

Up close view of the centerboard where it comes through the keel

Starboard view of the bow, an area the shipwrights will need to address

Port view of the bow

Project Manager and master shipwright Marc Barto explaining to Museum Chief Curator Pete Lesher how he plans to fix this section of the keel

Shipwright apprentice Jenn Kuhn sawiing up side down to remove more questionable wood. Next she will chisel and plane the area prepping it for the new filler piece.

Filler piece installed

Stern keel piece pre-drilled and awaiting installation

Mack's Smith Island Skiff launched at CBMM (in reverse)