Posted By Tom Daniels on November 25, 2009
Welcome to the home page for the classic yacht, Coronet. Coronet was first launched in 1885, and was one of the most elegant sailing yachts of her day. She was designed for crossing the ocean in style, and featured a marble staircase, stained glass doors, mahogany paneled staterooms, and a piano in the main salon.
Since 1995, Coronet has been on the campus of the International Yacht Restoration School, awaiting restoration. Coronet Restoration Partners purchased her in 2006, and restoration has now begun in earnest.
We’ll be following Coronet’s team of shipwrights here as they bring this classic boat back to her former glory. We’ll cover it all, from harvesting the timber to restoring the original interior. If you are a builder, a hobbyist, a historian, or just enamored with classic boats, we think you’ll enjoy watching this beautiful vessel come back to life.
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Posted By Tom Daniels on November 26, 2011
You may recall seeing the large mortises and tenons used to join the rudder post and keel, here they are now assembled.
You can see the diagonal scarf joint that connects this last section of keel to the longer sections forward of it.
The frames and deck beams at the bow of the boat have been installed for some time now, and aside from setting up temporary decking there, not much is happening at this end of the boat.
Still, it’s quite impressive to see. (more…)
Category: Construction & Methods |
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Posted By Tom Daniels on November 22, 2011
If you’d dropped by IYRS over the summer, you would have gotten a taste of what it will eventually be like while on Coronet. Many of the interior cabinetry and bulkheads were mocked up on the shop floor to give a full-scale sense of the boat’s living quarters.
Coronet has been completely lofted and laid out in computer generated drawings.
The crew uses these drawings to accurately map out the exact space available below decks onto painted platforms on the shop floor.
By placing the interior onto this map, the crew can see ahead of time if there will be any problems with fitting the existing woodwork into the restored boat. As you can see, there is much repair and refinishing work to be done yet. (more…)
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Posted By Tom Daniels on August 21, 2011
As the boat is disassembled, the crew works to make sure that every part that can be used again is marked and saved. This is particularly true with the knees, since these big, curved parts are extremely hard to find.
At this stage, it’s more efficient to cut the knee out of the boat with all the parts that it connects to left intact. The piles of knees show a nice cross section of the boat from the planking inwards.
Next, the crew removed the iron drifts and bolts that attached the knees to the surrounding structures. Here they are, stacked up and ready for their next go-round. While they will probably need to be modified slightly to fit the new construction, they should go in pretty much as they are. These parts from the original boat will remain in the restored boat, doing the same job as they did originally.
Over the summer, two IYRS students have joined the crew to help with the disassembly. By the beginning of July, much of the aft section had been removed. (more…)
Category: Construction & Methods |
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Posted By Tom Daniels on August 2, 2011
Over the past few months, the crew has been moving between prepping for future construction and demolition.
Earlier in the year, work focused on laying out and rough cutting futtock stock. As you saw earlier, there is a lot of stock to go through.
The sawn oak timbers are laid out along the side of the boat, and patterns of each futtock are laid on top of them. The object is to find the timber that most closely fits the shape needed for the futtock. This helps to minimize waste, but more importantly, it makes for a stronger timber. A timber that has naturally grown in a curve close to the shape needed for a futtock will be far stronger than one where you have to cut across the grain.
For instance, here’s a crook, a part of a tree with a natural curve to the grain.
Crooks are often used for knees, since the wood makes a natural L-bracket shape.
However, if you were trying to get a rectangular board out of this piece of wood, only part of the board would be particularly strong. The area where the grain parallels the long edge of the board is called “long grain.” The area where the grain runs perpendicular to the long edge is called “short grain.” Short grain is weak, and the part is likely to snap there. (more…)
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Posted By Tom Daniels on April 11, 2011
As you can see, the number of frames installed has been slowly growing.
Riley has been supervising frame construction as usual.
“Good job guys, and HEY IS THAT A MOUSE DOWN THERE??!!” (more…)
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