Restoring Aslan

[Brucel]

Frank recently posted a classified for the Weekender he built. He gave Aslan to me, I eventually gave her to my son. He took her to Washington state and returned her to me when he had to move to Texas. Long story short, I'm keeping Aslan. I've found when you try to give away a sailboat all the nut jobs show up. One guy offered to take the boat and any other junk off our hands. For a small fee of course. I'm just not ready to scrap a boat my brother built and that I've had so much fun sailing. If I can ever figure out how to post pictures and such I will let you guys see how bad I let Aslan get. After all it's just plywood and fiberglass, how tough can it be?

[Frank Hagan]

Boats are nothing but trouble, I'm telling you!

[Brucel]

Here's the main problem with restoring Aslan. My son discovered some wood rot and attempted to repair the keel. He added wood to each side then glassed it. I think I'm going to have to strip the fiberglass and redo it. I'm not sure he used epoxy resin on the repair. This is my starting point, if I can't repair the repair then restoring all the bright work would be useless.

[Andy B]

At the risk of being incredibly impolite--does that "keel"/ bowsprit have a functional purpose?  I know it leads down into the keel, but I've always thought it really throws the proportions of an otherwise pretty boat really out of whack.  Could you just cut off most of it, fix the bow behind it, and not replace it?

[Brucel]

There is a bow spirit that goes on the top of the bow that anchors the jib sail. Here's what the boat looked like before it went to Washington state.

[Brucel]

[Brucel]

Hmmm, having trouble posting pictures with text. I'm not very good with computers.

[Oyster]

There has never been a wooden boat that you cannot repair any areas of rotten wood.  Of course you never attempt to glass over wood that's not solid. But in small doses you can scarf in pieces in areas that's not critical to the flotation of the boat. Then go back and clean up the surrounding areas and then glass.  Epoxy is the way to go.

 

But of course long before epoxy became mainstream for wooden boats, many small craft were coated with polyester resin. As long as the wood is clean and dry, you can get by with it for a very long time. Of course this crazy myth can be argued by purists of nothing but epoxy products  in new construction. . 

 

Quote

Boats are nothing but trouble, I'm telling you!

 

Well you know boats have the genetic makings, or so we are told and many have feminine names such as many Women., that can be big trouble.  But sometimes its cheaper and easier to divorce yourselves from a boat from they become too much trouble. So take your pick.  Its been a long time since we have seen a Weekender pop up on the web.

[Frank Hagan]

6 hours ago, Oyster said:

Well you know boats have the genetic makings, or so we are told and many have feminine names such as many Women., that can be big trouble.  But sometimes its cheaper and easier to divorce yourselves from a boat from they become too much trouble. So take your pick.  Its been a long time since we have seen a Weekender pop up on the web.

Bruce rescued Aslan from the chainsaw, as I was thinking of cutting her up in small enough pieces to reuse the wood in other projects (which never happened). When I built her in 1999 and 2000, I figured she'd last five years, so I wasn't too fussy about using marine plywood (I just used exterior ply and not "real" boat building materials). I've had a couple of boats since then but had my most fun on the water with her.

[Oyster]

3 minutes ago, Frank Hagan said:

Bruce rescued Aslan from the chainsaw, as I was thinking of cutting her up in small enough pieces to reuse the wood in other projects (which never happened). When I built her in 1999 and 2000, I figured she'd last five years, so I wasn't too fussy about using marine plywood (I just used exterior ply and not "real" boat building materials). I've had a couple of boats since then but had my most fun on the water with her.

In the same manner as the many hundreds, at least of the Bolger boats, people built them, learned a lot from the process and had a lot of enjoyable hours on the water enjoying them.  There was a lot of Weekenders and the larger version Vacationer built to some high standards.  And man you should have seen my first boat, built specifically to get on the water with the small family. Scary looking and thank heavens for a lot of thickened glue and glass. 

[Brucel]

Aslan is the only boat I have actually sailed (as compared to riding) and I loved it. I've had her up on her side for some long stretches and she seemed pretty fast to me. Unfortunately my wife didn't like when Aslan was heeled up on the chine. Since I got it for free I figure I can invest a little time and money in her; the sailboat that is. With my wife I've invested everything.

[Brucel]

Trying to discover what the damages to the bow I accidentally pushed my hand through the deck. Using a hammer I found where the solid wood began and cut out the rotted and delaminated section. I don't think patching that small section of deck will be to much of a problem. The bow under the deck looks like trouble, I might have to do some digging to get to good wood. I'll have to get in touch with my son and find out what he was doing on the front side of the bow before I start ripping wood out.

[Frank Hagan]

The stem is just 1x12 douglas fir laminated together. I actually had a lumberyard rip 2x12 (or maybe it was 2x10) so they are a bit thicker than the plans called for. 

 

I suspect that rot is fresh rain water getting down into the wood from the top. If it hasn't affected the part outside the hull and is just on the inside portion, you could dig that out and just fill it with marine (waterproof) bondo or thickened epoxy. I still have some silica thickening stuff and lightweight 5 ounce glass I could bring down when we visit for Christmas. 

[Brucel]

That would be great, I'll consider it a Christmas present. I still haven't heard from Steven but I'm afraid he sawed off the front of the bowsprit. In the first pic you can see 5 pieces of new wood laminated together. The original keel wood doesn't seem as rotted as the deck was. The deck was powder from the point to about where the original keel ends then it became de-laminated plywood to the spot where I cut the deck. I'm planning on making Stevensons joiners at the deck cut and fore and aft of the bit. I''ll also have to puzzle piece the deck under the bit because someone I know made the bit impossible to remove or disassemble. 

I also want to rebuild/restore the companion way cover and door. That was a great idea but it's got a lot of de-lamination on the cover. I think I can save the mast I turned with my homemade 12 foot lathe. It's got some cracks in it but I think I can bondo the cracks then refinish or maybe paint it. Going to be a lot of refinishing going on.

[Brucel]

BTW Frank, I may have a new used trailer lined up. Dale in the desert has a boat trailer his neighbor gave to him. It seems to me it was in better shape than the one under Aslan. I'll be going out to the desert after Thanksgiving and will check it out then. Come on out if you want there's plenty of room. Text me if you want dates of when we will be out there.

[Brucel]

The bowsprit is fitted! My son tried to lay in a bed of fiberglass and resin on the bow. It wasn't exactly flat and the bowsprit had a 3/8" gap  at the end.  I had to chisel out the glass/resin back to the wood pieces he laminated in. The 3 middle pieces are now clean wood and ready for paint. I'm planing on using Kilz primer if that's acceptable for marine use; it's above the water line so I think it will be ok. I still have to clean out any punky wood on the back of the bow. If I don't have to remove too much of the bow I may just glass over it inside the forward storage locker. After the bow is finished I'll be able to patch the decking.

[Frank Hagan]

On 11/23/2025 at 10:49 PM, Brucel said:

BTW Frank, I may have a new used trailer lined up. Dale in the desert has a boat trailer his neighbor gave to him. It seems to me it was in better shape than the one under Aslan. I'll be going out to the desert after Thanksgiving and will check it out then. Come on out if you want there's plenty of room. Text me if you want dates of when we will be out there.

 

That trailer was a $50 trailer 25 years ago! I had to buy the boat on top of it too, for another $50, but I sold it for $50. I actually wanted to restore it but ran into some resistance. I think along with the glass and some epoxy fillers I have some of the crushed walnut shells I used as the non-skid.

 

You roll on some epoxy, distribute the crushed walnut shells and let it cure. Then vacuum up the loose walnut shells, leaving only the ones stuck in the epoxy. A quick pass with a ROS sander and it takes the more aggressive peaks off the walnut shells and you have matching non-skid for the replacement deck. That is unless I gave away those crushed walnut shells to another Weekender builder. They come in 50# bags and I bought about 10# off someone who bought a bag. 

[Brucel]

That walnut shell would come in handy as some of the original is peeling off. The forward hatch cover and the decking at the low points before the transom are separating. Probably peeling in some other areas that I haven't found yet. I'll have to switch gears and do some maintenance on our camping trailer, I've got to seal a skylight on the roof before winter really begins. It's about three hours work, stripping silicon, sanding, cleaning, and finally taping the skylight with RV tape. After that I'll start digging into the back side of the bow and see how bad it really is. I'll post pics of what I find on the backside of the bow.

[Brucel]

BTW Frank, I can get crushed walnut shells at gun stores/reloading suppliers. We use it for cleaning and polishing pistol/rifle shells before reloading. And you typically get it in lot smaller quantities than 50 pound bags. Take note anyone getting ready to non-skid their decks.

[Frank Hagan]

On 11/25/2025 at 11:31 PM, Brucel said:

BTW Frank, I can get crushed walnut shells at gun stores/reloading suppliers. We use it for cleaning and polishing pistol/rifle shells before reloading. And you typically get it in lot smaller quantities than 50 pound bags. Take note anyone getting ready to non-skid their decks.

 

I can't find them, but I haven't looked up in the "loft" where some of the other stuff, like the fiberglass, is, so it could still show up. I think you can get it in 1# bags on eBay too, as it is used by hobbyists for "shell blasting" projects.