Today at Valentine

[Ozzie]

We like walking around the foreshore at Valentine on East LM . Mainly as it’s a large mooring area and has a large jetty that attracts many boats. Some doing basic maintenance, some cleaning, some dining at the adjacent Bowling Club. We often chat with boat owners about their vessels. Today I struck a boat I’d seen once before, mainly attracted to the restored wooden cabin and teak decks .

Today I was lucky enough to strike the owner just emerging from the companionway and complimented him on his vessel and ongoing restoration. This as some will note is a yawl. The rear mizzenmast is mounted aft of the rudder post, which was my opening comment to him. It’s my favourite sailing trivia question. What’s the difference between a ketch and a yawl?

This he told me was a Cheoy Lee yawl, one of any a handful left in Aus apparently. It’s about 50 years old and he’s been slowly restoring it from the far poorer condition he found it in. After a few questions on the use of the mizzen he told me if he wanted to run on minimum canvas the foresail and mizzen was quite comfortable and gave negligible weather helm. The boat is still a work in progress. Main cabin is restored and varnished and the teak deck after a few minor repairs will be left natural which will be great I think.

I mentioned my association with the Investigator and how many of these were being restored for a second life. Glass and stainless can always we be refurbished with elbow grease but there is something bloody wonderful about wooden boats. If a tree has a life then this must carry its soul onwards. Made our day.

[Andrew]

That's a very nice yacht, TLC and time required to bring her back like that. Definitely something wholesome about wooden boats, just need to keep up the maintenance work and cover them.

Spotted a nice project wooden yacht on fb market place on a property up north here for the wooden boat enthusiast/shipwright/old-salt out there. It's located near Proserpine, Airlie (Strathdickie). 1945 sparkman stevens design modified, north American, 35 footer..was re-ribbed and planked, allot of gear in a seperate sea container, 7k. Definitely not for beginners or the low budgeted, but has potential for a serious woodboat restorer[attachment=1]Screenshot_20230808-17154

[Ozzie]

Nice one Andrew. I always think owning a timber boat is more of a lifestyle than a hobby. They are certainly not a thing you can ignore for a few years and just start up on a whim again. There is a second chap restoring an ex small passenger ferry to ultimately use as liveaboard I’ve spoken to on the jetty as well. I’d assume living on board would be the way to own a timber boat . There is an earlier post on here with vid on a 100 year old timber vessel live on/ charter boat in Montenegro, where I have traveled. If i ever score powerball I'm gong back and making him an offer

[Andrew]

Nice one Andrew. I always think owning a timber boat is more of a lifestyle than a hobby. They are certainly not a thing you can ignore for a few years and just start up on a whim again. There is a second chap restoring an ex small passenger ferry to ultimately use as liveaboard I’ve spoken to on the jetty as well. I’d assume living on board would be the way to own a timber boat . There is an earlier post on here with vid on a 100 year old timber vessel live on/ charter boat in Montenegro, where I have traveled. If i ever score powerball I'm gong back and making him an offer

Gday Ozzie, reckon it's better for anyone thinking wood to start off with small wooden dinghy's and decide from there. In my younger days owned/or maintained quite a few small wooden boats, mostly sailing dingys between 11-16 foot long. You've gotta love filling, sanding, painting and varnishing as much as (or perhaps more so) than sailing. It's also reflected timewise. They really need dry covered storage too (seen a few neglected rotten wood boats) At least fiberglass/aluminium is far more resistant to neglectfull storage.

The dingy's were mostly plywood. Heron's (11'), Frostbite planked clinker (10', nz), Hartley 16', Paper Tiger cat (14'), VJ (11'), Cherub (12'), Fireball (16'). The later 3 were twitchy racing machines from 60's and 70's.. I prefered the more stable Heron, Frostbite, PaperTiger and Hartley for dinghy cruising (later 2 good for snorkell diving from)

Any trailerable wood boat would be ok if dry storage was available, but permanently moored ones would be an order of magnitude more work.

[Ozzie]

True Andrew. There were lots of Herons on the Lake in my younger years. I guess they are still around I just don’t notice. A bit like my ramblings on “built from scratch” control line aircraft. Currently you can get an “off the shelf” drone from Jaycar and be in the air three minutes after arriving home. No sanding involved