Framed

Everything was going along just swimmingly on the Christeen this winter, besides a few delays. In reality and taking a step back from the project, the delays experienced in this project of this size are to be expected.  We have reported previously on delays for the mast and keel delivery but when you are dealing with rare, odd, and custom or special parts such as 80 foot tall trees the size of Cadillacs – it’s best to expect the unexpected.

We received the new keel and went right to work taking additional measurements to make sure everything was going to be exactly how the original keel was. Unfortunately not everything goes to plan, and thus far we had been extremely fortunate in how well the project was going and how few problems and issues we had run into during the repairs. It was going so well we were able to take on additional jobs as resources allowed, taking care of issues that would have needed attention in five years. When the keel was finally fit last week and the frames taken out of the boat began to be put back into place a pattern began to emerge.  Frames weren’t fitting, Houston we have a problem, there were large gaps between the joints, gaps that could not be ignored. 

The gap between the joints in the sections of sawn frames was too large for Josh to close up the boat, and because Christeen is double framed it makes the task a large and time consuming problem to fix.

There were three options:

1.       To make a large shim to butt against the keel and push all the frames outward removing the gaps

2.       To replace only the short frames and leave the long sawn frames

3.       To replace all necessary frames with new lumber, using the longer frames as the shorter frames whenever possible and shimming the gaps 1/8 inch or smaller

The decision was made to move forward with option #3. As stewards of Christeen the WFC is responsible to maintain her in the best possible way we are able with the information and resources on hand. Taking shortcuts today for possible problems tomorrow is not something we are willing to consider. Fortunately we budgeted for the unexpected.

Due to the unexpected we had to move the launch date from April 9^th to Saturday, April 30^th. High tide on the 30^th is at 10:30am and we plan to launch when the water is highest, with a small ceremony preceding the splash. Please join us for a great moment in Oyster Bay History as Christeen is once again re-launched!