The Restoration of the "Miss Fairfax."October - December 2017Pictures will open in a new window or tab. |
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May 1968 This boat is not the "Miss Fairfax," but is a Pocock Eight. |
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This Pocock Eight, formerly used by the T. C. Williams Crew is in the ERG room of the Alexandria Boat House. I suspect this boat has had many additioinal coats of varnish over the years. |
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Dave Foulis, seat #4 in 1968, inspects his old position. The "canvas" that was "won by" hasn't held up very well. The splash guard had collasped, likely a racking accident. |
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The cockpit was very dirty and had many broken pieces but cleaning and repairs were most of what was required. |
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Much of the old varnish just peeled off in long strips, due to the gauze laid down over the ceder when the original varnish was applied. The "Miss Fairfax" name was painted on top of the original finish and its image is still visible. The remaining finish was removed by various means before repairs to the wood were made. |
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We were rather surprised when we uncovered the boat the morning after a bit of weather. A large dead branch had fallen out of a tree and nearly cut her in half. |
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Lots of glue and epoxy were used to fix the many splits and fractures in the hull. We used a heat gun to get the epoxy to wick into the cracks. |
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Dave and I are discussing how we can support the boat and still get varnish on the top edges of the gunnel. We put up sevearl canopies and covered it all with tarps before we started to apply the varnish. |
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Examples of some wood repairs. |
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Light colored material in the inside is 1/32 inch thick plywood, used to support severly fractured ceder. |
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Before and after the deck covering was applied. The decks were covered with heat shrink fabric intended for large scale model aircraft. |
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The hull is complete. Now on to the riggers, shoes and seats. |