Coronet1885

Posted By Tom Daniels on December 23, 2012

Here’s a collection of photos from throughout the restoration. We’ll start with some old pics just to remind us of where the project started.

Ok, that’s going back quite a bit. Maybe not that much.

Here we go. This is the day that Coronet arrived at the IYRS campus. She’s just now coming off of the barge. One of the first tasks once she was in the building was to assess the condition of her structure.

This required taking off planking to see how the frames were doing. Most of them were not doing well.

The interior had been carefully removed, catalogued, and stored earlier. The deck was pretty much gone, so it was removed.

You can see a deck beam here, bracketed by two lodging knees. Any parts that could be saved, were marked and stored.

The same went for any of the mechanicals or hardware.

The team had access to a a half-model of Coronet. In the old days, the patterns for frames and other major parts didn’t come from a naval architect’s drawings, they came from the half hull. The half hull was made by the ship’s designer, and then measured as accurately as possible. These measurements were then scaled up to create the full-sized patterns used to build the boat.

Here, Eric and Chris are measuring the model using instruments that will give them measurements in the thousandths of inch range. These, along with measurements of the actual hull, were used by the project’s naval architect to create the drawings that are now used for the restoration.

Those early measurements eventually led to patterns that give us this:

While many of Cornet’s new floors are bronze, all of her original floors were of the “long arm / short arm” variety.

One of the problems facing the team was that the massive stock for these types of floors is nearly impossible to find. The bronze floors will last longer, be less expensive, and be stronger than the original floors. Nevertheless, wherever feasible, the traditional floors are incorporated into the boat.

Bob, Coronet’s owner, is an avid woodworker.

The team in Newport has built the forms for the skylights and steam bent wood for them.

Bob has worked with Jeff (the project director) to construct the mahogany skylights and companionways.

He also carved Coronet’s name into the transom.

You don’t normally get owners who enjoy getting into the building aspect of the boats that they own!

More recent pics coming soon.

Category: Construction & Methods, General
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