Maintain and repair;
and learning more history
It has been a year since the restoration was officially
completed, though it seems that there hasn’t been a week go by that some marina
artisan hasn’t been on board performing his or her magic, and handing me an
invoice.
After the regatta
(previous blog) I noticed the shrouds and stays were a little loose. Upon closer inspection I saw that the mast
had slipped slightly further down into the boat; perhaps as much as a ½
inch. I called a shipwright friend of
mine and we descended into the main salon, lifted the floor board near the
mast. He stuck his arm to the elbow into
bilge. “Your mast step is broken.” he
said. How could that be I thought, I had
seen the board the mast rests on it was almost 2” of solid oak 12” wide suspended over three stringers
spreading the load more that a foot and a half in each direction. Apparently over the years, fresh water
seeping down the mast, had collected at the bottom where a notch is cut into
the board to take the matching notch protruding from the bottom of the
mast. At this weakened point, with the
stress put on it by the race, the board finally let go; it would have to be
replaced. “Hopefully we can the step out
with out cutting any stringer, but the mast will have to come to see.” He said, he also said his schedule was too
full so he would have to recommend someone.
Soon the
floor boards in the entire forward section of the boat were out, and the boat
was on its way to the yard. For the
second time in less than a year the main mast was pulled out of the boat and
laid on saw horses across the deck. Back in the slip, the old step was cut and
slipped out of it notch in pieces. A new
step was created out of a 2”x12”x30” oak and the notch carefully cut in the
exact location for the bottom of the mast to settle in. Back to the yard, the mast was lifted off the
horses, pivoted vertical, and slid back in with the 1938 silver, Standing
Liberty, half dollar securely in place. Back again to the slip so the oak floor could
be reinstalled. Several of the floor
boards were destroyed in the removal process and new boards had to be cut,
stained to match. When it was all completed one could not tell there had been
any disturbance. I believe that was the
most expensive racing trophy I have ever received.
I believe
I’ve mentioned in earlier blogs entries that in the history of ownership Destiny was owned by a group called LifeSail, an organization that teaches
sailing to under privileged children.
The head of this organization has been an acquaintance of mine for some
time and knew that I had acquired the boat.
He stopped by my office saying he’d found a old set of blue prints for
the boat. Wow, what a find. They were
actually copies of the originals, but clearly show that William Atkin drew the
plans, a slight modification from his original, for Mr. John F. String, in July
of 1937. I have to assume Mr. String
then retained Joel Johnson to build the boat. I am doing further research to
learn how long Mr. String owned the boat, if he did, and where and to whom it
was sold.
