The boat was sitting in our yard at the time. Because of the weight of the centre hatch, the entire roof was sagging slightly and therefore the water was laying on it and not running off. Dan tried to figure out ways to straighten, reinforce and strengthen it, all to no avail and we had to face the inevitable, the roof had to come off. In researching this project we found out from a couple of diesel mechanics that her engine was in good shape but if it ever died, it could be stripped down, and would be able to be removed out one of the side doors. But it didn't look like that was ever going to be necessary. So the decision was made to rebuild the roof without a hatch.
This is a picture of Thunderbird without her fly bridge.
That fall, we started the process of deconstruction. First we removed the fly bridge, arranged for it to be painted as it was still the original bare aluminium, and we ordered the huge decal for her name to go on that fly bridge.
Then we started removing all the interior ceiling woodwork. As we removed each piece, we numbered them in the hopes of salvaging as much as possible and putting this puzzle back together again. We took the large hatch down into our basement to salvage what we could of the decorative inlays that were on it. When we got to the main cross bracing beams we found a few that were undamaged so Dan carefully removed them and took them, some pictures of the original roof shape and many many measurements to a custom carpentry shop to have them reproduced. She ended up totally open to the sky. Then we tarped her down for the winter and hopefully we would solve this problem in the spring.
Armed with our new beautifully shaped structural beams we started the re-building process that next spring. Our new carpenter JCK Millworks did a fabulous job. Everything went together perfectly. Then came the process of many thin layers of plywood kerffed and glued into place onto those beams to form the curve of the roof, as the original had looked, only with out the hatch. Layer after layer kerffed, glued and screwed. Another old expertise brought back into use. Dan learned to kerf boards to bend them around corners when we built our Motorhome many years ago. So the roof started to take shape and it was stronger than the original. It still needed to be fibre glassed, but that would be done when we got the boat back out to Gimli. For now it was time to turn our attention to the interior.
We had a huge pile of interior pieces that needed to be sorted and hopefully put back into place. So, we started on the outside edges and worked our way in to the centre board by board. We had managed to strip the inlays off of the badly damaged hatch and were able to glue them onto a thin layer of plywood in the centre, where the hatch used to be. Then we were only missing about 2 or 3 inches that we were able to fill in with some decorative trim boards.
When Thunderbird was returned to the storage hangars in Gimli, we arranged for the roofs (pilot house and galley) to be re-fibre glassed and repainted. And we have no more leaking.
These are the lovely inlays the Dick Watt added to her ceilings.
And in our travels down around southern ports, we have since been able to find a decorative brass item to compliment our beautiful ceiling inlays and I am very pleased with the results.
THIS WAS A MAJOR STEP FORWARD IN OUR REFIT
