Posted by James Robinson
on 15/8/2008, 10:38 am
86.170.30.132
Amity arrived in Shetland on Wednesday 25th June and it was the start of a long road for myself and for the boat.
The previous year (2007) I had been diagnosed with Cancer and after an operation and a long period of convalescence I decided to enquire about a trailer/sailer as a means of getting my health back.
On the LOA website I noticed a Lysander ‘Amity’ which had been reduced in price by £300 and the chap was now asking only £500 with 3 sets of sails and a log, an echo sounder and 2 outboards.
I decided to ask my brother to have a look at the boat as he lived nearby in Hart Village, only about 20 miles from Whitley Bay.
Fred had a look at the boat and we decided to go ahead and acquire the boat but had to ask Garry Reed the owner if he could deliver it to Aberdeen in return for a couple of hundred towards the fuel and he agreed.
When I bought Amity the trailer came with it so I had a board made for the number plate and lights and contacted the local marina assoc. for a piece of ground where I could work on it. Once agreement was reached we towed ‘Amity’ to her new home for a refit.
I was very pleased with my new boat and soon I was making plans for the work involved.
The old paint was flaking badly and needed sanding down and repainting so I enlisted the help of my son, Daniel and hired a generator so we could use an electric sander. This is a good way to find any problems with the structure of the boat and we found a lot of wet rot in the bulkhead and after digging it out, quite a lot of it, I glued plywood behind and filled the old holes with Davids P40 chopped strand mat. Excellent, and after some International primer you could hardly tell there had been a problem.
Once I had some paint on the topsides I started work on her interior which is always fun. Especially painting the inside of the deck inside of the bow!!!
I found the topsides just forward of the bulkhead were porous and easily getting saturated with water. After asking a lot of questions at my local chandlers he advised using SP systems primer which has a consistency of water and really soaks into the plywood and I believe really saved me from having to rebuild the starbourd topsides this year. Very good value for money as it helped to save my boat.
Amity is built to standard size and layout and the reputation for the Lysander slouch is real so I decided to do something to allow myself to sit back and enjoy my cuppa. I inserted a reclining board so that I can sit back facing the companionway. I have hinged it at the base so that it can fold away under the cushion but I never fold it, preferring to keep it ready.
When starting to paint the deck I found my scraper was taking some of the wood as well which was very soft on the starboard side-deck.
Once again, using Chopped strand mat over a plywood backing piece and it was soon looking really good. You can only see the backing timber inside and as soon as I paint it you won’t notice it. This is Amity just before her antifouling.
After varnishing the rubbing strake and toe rail I thought we might try putting up the mast. A friend of mine Rab Miller was helping me this time as I had never sailed before and needed some help with the shrouds, etc.
Well, after 20 minutes or so while I was trying to fasten one of the shrouds he says ‘Jim, the mast has fallen off’. The mast post was rotten at the tabernackle so I had to have a new one made. The old one was a piece of 2 x 2 oak which used packing pieces at the tabernackle, so taking the measurements at the tabernackle I decided to replace the old post with a new one 3 inches wide x 4 5/8inches fore and aft. It was a very heavy piece of timber as I also could not get oak but had to use Majio, a wood very similar to mahogany but faster growing. What a beautiful piece of wood. The tabernackle sides and back I was still able to use and sanded them down and attached them to my new mast post.
Once fitted this made a very lovely piece of kit.
I must thank Don Haslam for building Amity so sympathetically to the original plans. I have added a plastic bucket for the chain in the bows simply to help keep the water out of the bilges.
I still have to paint the bilges and put up the mast, may’be this week-end to get the boat ready for it’s maiden voyage in Shetland. I must thank the committee members of the LOA for all their help and advice since I bought Amity. A really friendly bunch of people.
I’ll try to send you more pictures for the next publication when I take Amity for her maiden Shetland sail.
Good sailing,
James Robinson
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