Category Archives: Restoration

September 2022 – Progress

I’ve been full time for over six months on Wyruna, with some time off for various reasons – including COVID, some holidays etc. It has been great, but of course the detail work involving a few thousand copper nails, lots of plank refurbishment has felt like wading through molasses from time to time. But we have made some fantastic progress, and while there is plenty more to do, it is coming together in the right shape.

In the last week, we have reached the point where the external frame put in place by Ferdi that was used to bend the boat back into shape, and then support it as we replaced the internal structures, came off. This was to allow us to put the final refurbished planks back on, room for the beam shelves and ultimately deck beams.

The boat also has sufficient strength/integrity to hold itself together, with some cross bracing to ensure it doesn’t follow its natural tendency to flatten out. So far, it has been holding well. The plan should see us having the upper beam shelves in shortly. I am learning not to put a time frame on things!

Some things to note in this picture. The battens joining the stem mark the top of the shear strake, and are a little higher towards the bow than the original shear line. There is one plank to go on each side at this point, before the shear strake. We have used this to set the height of the lower deck beam, to enable these planks to be fastened next. Lots of work to get to this point it feels! Some may notice some glue that has not been cleared (hood ends on the port side in particular). The topside planks have been glued down to each other. They are very narrow, and aren’t considered to swell considerably once in place, and it will ensure a fair finish once complete.

Separately, you can see the work being completed on Vanessa (to the port of Wyruna), which is undergoing a refastening of most of the copper nails, and some rib replacements. Vanessa is a 1922 built William Fife 8 metre racing yacht, and an interesting contrast to Wyruna’s slightly older design and more ‘auxilliary’ lines.

Port Bow

While we have used as much of the original kauri planking as possible, some will require replacing. There is one ‘new’ plank end in this picture, from timber helpfully supplied by the previous owner. Kauri of the right width and thickness has been difficult to source for the wider planks. Floorboards are now rarer (in the necessary dimensions), as they are either too thin when wide enough, or not wide enough when thick enough. By some good luck, I have purchased some desktops that were from some cabinets out of the State Library of Victoria, that should provide for sufficient timber for the planks to be replaced in kauri. The planks requiring replacing are predominantly where the props supporting the boat were punched through in a wind storm that really started the sorry demise of Wyruna. There are 8 replacement sections all up, (not including the shear strakes), generally less than 4 metres long. Out of the original kauri, we will retain about 85% (by metre). The lower planks (garboard plus two above) were hardwood, and will be replaced by new timber, as these have degraded materially and are also more vital structurally. Only one on each side remains on the boat in the picture above.

How the boat looks internally, with the braces removed and most of the planking now complete. The temporary cross braces can be seen here. Before setting final beam shelves and deck beams, we will measure for accuracy.

Standing in the bow.

Standing on the transom, looking forward. Feels like good progress. When contrasted with this…

Image from a similar position, from about March 2020. Still a lot of removal required at this point, obviously!

Internal view of the bow area. Still a lot of clean up work, but the structure is emerging. This is before we took the final old timber out, being the upper beam shelf. Spent a lot of time here in the past few months.

December 2020 – Steamed Ribs

The next stage of the restoration is to replace all the ribs, as the existing frames are in poor shape, both from being over 100 years old, and nearly 40 years in an Altona backyard.

The originals were hardwood, with a guess being spotted gum or similar. They are laminated in pairs, with about 50 on each side. Replacement will involve 200 ribs to be steamed, and bent into shape. Some will be simple, with some short relatively straight sections that will present limited issues. Others have compound bends, with some tight bends into the lower bilge.

This part of the program will be done in three phases, with every third rib taken out, replaced and temporarily fastened. Then the next third, and so on. Once all the ribs are replaced, we will work on taking the planks off one at a time, for cleaning and repairing where required. Hopefully I can start to make more of a personal contribution at this point.

Showing old and new ribs together. New timber is similar thickness, but slightly wider, which should aid alternate placing of fasteners, and minimise splitting down the grain over time. Stringer can be seen at the bottom, which remains in sound condition. Splitting can be seen in the planking here, and these will be carefully checked when removed in the next major phase.

New rib in centre of photo. Also shows a keelson, which I learnt recently is not a common feature on smaller timber boats – more of a larger boat feature. Can also see several of the timber floors, which are in okay condition for the most part.

Keel bolts visible here also appear to be in good condition, and are likely the ones believed to have replaced the originals, during the 1950’s. This part of Wyruna was nearly six inches deep in leaf litter, rotten timber etc, and we are lucky not further damage was done to some of these timbers.

The visible chain is part of the tensioning system to put the shape back into the vessel, and is connected to the framing, to fix it in place.

View forward, showing several new ribs, original floors, keelson, and apron in the distance. Some of the lower planks are not kauri, and can be seen in the bottom of the picture here. Note the garboard plank is out to enable rib replacement, and cleaning. Condition of the stringers also clear here, which once cleaned up will be good for reuse.

Strap in this shot is fastened to the new stem.

Again, accumulated debris in this area of the boat was quite deep – and it is lucky that some of these timbers were not more badly damaged.

External view of new and old ribs, near the bow. Multiple small holes seen here are likely nail holes for the original copper sheathing, long since removed. I recently discovered these will all need to be wood/dowel filled prior to finishing the hull, which will provide a distraction from life for some time. There are many hundreds, down each side of Wyruna!

Planking does clean up quite well, but does show its age in some of these pictures.

On the right, green spotted gum as delivered. On the left, after machining to size, ready for steaming. Once to this point, it is sorted for grain direction etc, depending on where on Wyruna it might work best. The timber is reportedly going in quite well, with limited breakage at tight bends and is wonderfully strong once fastened. Hopefully we can get another 100 years out of this set!