02.12.09
The Restoration of Mercy Jane - a long story
I knew that as soon as I had made contact with the agent selling Mercy Jane, I was hooked and sort of knew it was going to be a big job. It was described as a Robert Clark designed yacht, built in 1939 in Sweden and was further described as a “project”. There wasn’t too much other information other than she was in Milford Haven, on the hard, she’d been stripped out following the demise of the company who had started her restoration, and they wanted £5000 for her.
A couple of days later I was reading Hiscocks “Cruising under Sail” and he was describing being in a port in Brittany where he was joined by John Morris in Mercy Jane. I nearly fell out of bed in amazement at the coincidence of making the enquiry then 2 days later reading about her, I was definately hooked.
At about the same time I was attending a RYA Day Skipper Shore based course in Halifax and had met Graham Crawshaw, he was keen on sailing and enjoyed talking about boats and restorations and all that sort of thing. I also thought that this “project” was too big for one man so I asked him if he was interested in being involved to which he said yes without any hesitation.
The next thing we were driving down to Milford Haven to have a look. We found her sitting in a cradle looking very forlorn, all her paint had been removed so her boards looked weathered, the seams had been raked out so the wind could blow right through her, from the inside it was like looking through a five bar gate. Her interior had been completely removed, every bit, the coachroof and deck remained along with the cockpit, but all were in very poor condition. On the positive side we could see that the hull generally was in good condition with very little damage or rot.
Later on that day we met with the agent and Graham was in good negotiating mode, being a Yorkshireman I thought I’d leave it to him. I cringed a little when he made a bid of £2000, which was accepted immediately. We arranged to make the payment and collect the boat as soon as we could make the necessary arrangements, leaving the yard feeling quite jubilant and excited at the prospect of restoring this historic yacht.
We returned 2 weeks later having arranged the transport with a friend of ours, he had a transport business and also owned a low loader. We arrived at the yard to find a crane already set up awaiting the arrival of the transport, we also were informed that we were to collect the contents of 3 large crates which were in the adjacent building. We were amazed to find that these crates contained all the bronze portholes, bronze winches and a selection of other bronze fittings. There was also all the rigging and various rigging fittings, deck fittings and all the mast fittings, there was also an engine.
Mercy Jane was sat in a newish cradle so lifting her onto the low loader was a relatively easy job and she fitted perfectly. We packed on the crates and the engine and we were off back to Ripponden.
The first 5 or 6 weeks of the restoration were spent building blockwork walls around this shed, but it did provide a secure dry workshop where the restoration could be carried out in relative comfort.
My initial estimate of how long the restoration would take was 2 - 3 years, how wrong can you be, it was to be 11 years later that she re emerged from the shed.
PULLING IT APART
We spent the first 12 months or so taking out corroded structural fittings such as the floors, knees etc.. In fact the floors were in reasonably good condition, having a little surface corrosion, the galvanising had broken down in places so we had them shot blasted and re galvanised, they then looked like new again. The knees were completely corroded having been just painted mild steel but at least were still in one piece so that copies could be made in mild steel. These were fabricated for us by a local friendly metalworker and refitted in place so that all the drilling of holes could be carried out whilst in situ. They were then removed and sent away for galvanising and eventually refitted in position, bolted into place with galvanised bolts. During this pulling apart period we also removed the keel, this was a lengthy and very difficult job to do. The new cradle had been made so that the keel sat on the cross members, quite substantial RSJ’s, but that prevented the keel from being lowered so the first job was to cut through these cross members and remove sections to allow the keel to be lowered. We also had extreme difficulty in removing the keel bolts which despite how hard we hammered them would not move. The had corroded so badly that they had expanded in the surrounding timber, the oak keelson, and would not budge. We did manage to knock out the first bolt at the bow end which allowed the keel, which weighs about 3.5 tons to sag enough for us to reach the next bolt and burn it off. As each bolt was cut through the keel sagged more and more allowing access to get at the remaining bolts. Eventually the keel was free from the boat, supported on large wooden blocks, the hull at this stage was now hanging, supported on large pads that we had fitted for this purpose.
The next operation was a tedious job of drilling out the bolts that were stuck in the keel, this was a long tedious job but was eventually successful leaving the keel ready to receive new keel bolts.
Following a lengthy period of researching what would be the best material for the new keel bolts, we came to the conclusion that we would use galvanised threaded rod with galvanised nuts and washers at each end to make the rod into bolts. The threaded rod was 1″ diameter so it was a very substantial job being 12 No in total.
Whilst the keel was off we had the chance to inspect the keelson carefully and found it was in just about perfect condition.
Just before replacing the keel we applied a generous coat of a 2 pack polysulphide material between the top of the keel and the keelson which on tightening the keelbolts squeezed out leaving a perfect cushion between the two.
To complete the job the pockets holding the nuts in the keel were packed with epoxy mortar.
The whole of this operation had taken us around 6 months, but we felt we had carried out a first class job.
THE HULL
We generally split the work up between us, I, Rhys, did the external work, and Graham did the internals, and we more or less stuck to that. As far as work to the hull goes we started by checking, replacing, or tightening ALL the fastenings, this amounted to THOUSANDS. We replaced all the Bronze bolt fastenings, one at a time, this had the effect of pulling up the hull planking tight to the structural internal members, stringers etc. and generally got the shape back to the hull. We removed all the softwood plugs and checked the copper rivets. Some were corroded or broken so we replaced them, some had loosened so we refastened them. In general we replaced virtually all the galvanised and bronze fastenings and a large percentage of the copper rivets. In all cases we replaced like with like, sourcing the best materials we could find.
Whilst carrying out this excercise we came across some cracked or broken ribs, these were steamed oak and we did attempt to replace these or sister them with similar steamed oak ribs. Due to height restrictions in the shed, only about 2 feet above the coachroof we couldn’t slide steam bent ribs into place so we opted for laminated oak ribs built up in situ adjacent to the cracked rib, the laminates were bonded together with epoxy resin and created an extremely strong additional rib which were then copper rivetted into place. This was another very slow process but in the end we felt we had done another good job, I think in all we sistered about 30 ribs.
We also replaced the mast step and connecting timber floors in the area around the mast base with laminated oak replacements, again an extremely strong and durable replacement.
Once we had completed the structural work I made a start with the hull planking. The hull planking was generally in very sound condition, none of the planking needing replacement. We replaced the top strake, only because the top edge had become split where the covering board had been fixed into it. This we replaced with pitch pine which left a clean top edge to work to.
My next task was to caulk the hull, the original caulking had already been removed and from the inside of the boat the gaps looked very large as the hull had dried out with air blowing through the planking. The edges of the boards were scraped clean, back to bare wood, with a specially made 2 handled scraper and primed ready to caulk. On completing the caulking with boat cotton carried out in the traditional manner the edges of the planks were primed and payed out with “Perflex” This is an extremely good product which bonds to the plank edges very effectively, we did a test piece which when bonded with Perflex could be folded up to 360 degrees without debonding.
Whilst I was working on the hull Graham was working on the insides with the fitout. The first job internally was to fit the new bulkheads. Fortunately I had traced the original Robert Clark drawings at Greenwich Maritime Museum so we could locate the original bulkhead positions. We had decided to replace the bulkheads with half inch ply clad in v groove planking, the intention being to provide more stiffness in the hull. We found that most jobs in the boat needed doing 3 times, first time was a rough fit, then 2nd time is a close fit, then 3rd time is the final fit made from the required material. Fitting new bulheads is a tricky job if you can imagine trying to get nearly a full sized sheet of half inch ply inside a boat and fitting it close to the shape of the hull. We did succeed, following lots of wood wrestling, the bulkheads were bonded and screwed into place, giving the hull a lot of stiffness and for the first time we could see some progress inside the boat. After fitting the bulkheads Graham could then continue with the fitting out of the bunks and lockers all to the original design by Robert Clark.
THE DECK AND COACHROOF
When I located the original drawings I also received the original detailed specification so when it was time to replace the deck we could see that Robert Clark had specified “quarter sawn Oregan pine” as the deck planking and after quite a bit of searching managed to locate the identical product at a timber merchant at Trafford Park in Manchester. This was 1inch thick close grained timber, quarter sawn and was identical to that which we had removed and all of it good long lengths, I think we were very lucky.
Following the fitting of the Covering Board in Mahogany I made a start with the decking. We had decided, again to introduce more stiffness and watertightness to the hull, to fix a ply sub deck, this was 9mm ply bonded and screwed to the deck beams then covered in epoxy resin to seal it.
When the old deck had been removed we had laid it out on the shed floor as it had been on the boat, so I could replicate the new deck to match the original exactly. The original deck planking had been secretly fixed and fitted to the curve of the hull so the intention was to copy that exactly which turned out to be an extremely tricky job indeed. The new deck planks were bonded to the sub deck in a bed of perflex then secretly fixed by skew nailing into the deck beam with galvanised nails then using heavy guage galvanised nails fixing each plank to its neighbour by using the nail as a dowel.
What made the job tricky was trying to induce some bend into the plank whilst maintaining the perflex bed and the spacing of each plank without it wanting to spring up to release the tension created by bending it.
The deck was completed with Mahogany King Plank and Queen Planks then caulked and joints filled with Perflex.
COCKPIT
The existing cockpit was constructed from Mahogany but was in very poor condition and had several large holes in it where various mechanical bits and pieces had been removed in the past. Any water that got into the cockpit would have gone straight into the bilges then to be pumped out by hand. What we wanted was a self draining cockpit and lockers constructed so that any water that might get in there would all drain away to the outside of the hull.
The old cockpit was removed, it didn’t take much effort, which then left a large hole ready to accept a newly constructed cockpit.
Whilst the area under the cockpit was accessible we decided to sort out the engine supports and any mechanical work required before the new cockpit was installed. This involved building new engine beds and installing an “Aquadrive” which would counteract any misalignment between the engine/gearbox and the prop shaft.
The new cockpit was constructed basically from a large plywood box designed so that its base would be higher than the surrounding water level. The box was then lined with glass mat saturated in epoxy with the outlets set into the wet glass mat so we had created a fibreglass lined plywood box. The bottom of the box was finished with a smooth filler to leave a self cleaning base. Once the box was fixed in position and outlets piped up to seacocks the inside of the box was lined in mahogany with mahogany seats.
The difficult bit was then creating a curved back to the seats which we deliberated on for some time. Eventually we came up with the conclusion that we could laminate our own mahogany plywood using thinly machined mahogany planks bonded together with epoxy and pressed into shape in a ‘male’ and ‘female’ mould. This worked out very well and produced a very accurately shaped and attractive mahogany back to the cockpit seating. The insides of the cockpit lockers were made so that the bases were just slightly higher than the cockpit base, lined out in glass mat and epoxy so that they would be self draining.
At this point we had what was beginning to look like a boat, Graham was continuing internally building bunks, lockers, hanging doors and a thousand other things that go together to create a fully fitted boat. We had managed to create 4 bunks, and build in a fridge, a Taylors parafin stove and oven, a hot water storage cylinder, chain locker and a complete teak sole. All cupboard fronts are in Mahogany as are bookshelves and the chart table.
At this stage we had also fitted the engine, a Volvo Penta MD2B, after a complete overhaul, and had it running. I had painted the hull to a high gloss white finish and varnished all external mahogany, all portlights were fixed so she was generally watertight as far as rain was concerned.
THE BIG MOVE
We decided that we had gone far enough now so that she could be moved to a boatyard to have the final fix carried out, this would be the electrics, instruments, and plumbing. We had also decided at this stage to have a new mast and boom made as the old mast was beyond economical repair so arrangements were made to have her shifted by the same transport company to a boatyard near Fleetwood - David Moss at Skippool Creek. This was a big occasion, we even got interviewed by BBC Leeds, and it all went without a hitch, it had taken us 11 years to get to this point, there were times when we thought we’d never get there.
THE MAST
I contacted Greenwich Maritime Museum again to see if they any details of the mast and boom, which they had. This allowed us to have a mast made to the exact details originally designed for Mercy Jane.
David Moss provided a quote and manufactured with great care a beautiful mast and boom complete with spreaders and all new stainless fittings. It is a hollow mast made from Spruce and David Moss went to great lengths to get the cross sectional dimensions accurate to the details we had received, the inside of the mast being as accurately finished as the outside. It was then finished with 10 coats of varnish and new bronze winches.
David Moss carried out the final fix so that we had all electrical systems installed including up to date modern navigation systems with wind, depth and speed instruments, we had radar installed including VHF and masthead lighting, we also had running hot and cold water to both the galley and the heads. We had renovated the original Baby Blake toilet and this was installed back in its original position in the forward heads.
THE BIG DAY
The time had come for the launch, this would be the first time she had been in the water for about 25 years but we were confident that everything would be alright on the day. We double checked everything on the boat and thought about all the seacocks, and would water come in through the stuffing box, or the deadwood, or any of the countless openings that had been made hopefully watertight.
We needn’t have worried, we didn’t need the spare pump just in case, she was lifted into the water, with friends and family watching, she sat there looking very serene, we checked below and very little water was finding its way in, we shook hands and looked at our boat which was floating perfectly in the creek. We’d done it.
Following some celebration, next day the mast was lifted in, it was quite a moment as it was lowered into position and seated on a Gold Sovereign that I had saved all this time for this occasion. Then followed the rigging and by the evening we had a fully rigged boat capable of sailing the oceans.
Rhys
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