Shaldon rowing boat gunwale replacement

A local artist approached me with a view to renovating a 14' rowing boat that he had just bought. The wood work was in a sorry state and one gunwale was broken in two.

Once the old varnish was removed and the surface sanded, it was clear that the Iroko that I had in stock wasn't going to match. So I got a plank of Sapele and machined it up to make the inner and outer sections. The inner has a lip on it that hooks over the edge of the GRP and the outer is screwed and glued to the hull and the inner section. The old one was held on with lots of clenched copper nails and was hard to get off. I had to cut it into about thirty pieces to break it free from the hull. 

The knees were plywood and were in surprisingly good condition but the boat would look so much better with solid wood knees. Something for the future perhaps.

 

The new timber wouldn't bend to the bow section of the boat so it was steamed for an hour and then pulled into shape and clamped up for a day in the sun. Once bonded and screwed, it was then sanded smooth and all the wood work was coated up with a product called Rapidcoat. It leaves a "hint of teak" semi-gloss finish but best of all requires no sanding between coats and you can put 2 or 3 coats on each day in warm weather.