Re-Post : DIY: RE-BUILDING THE PILOT HOUSE ROOF

Seeing as how we are busy with the Beach House and not doing much boating here is another re-post.  From our re-fit. 

One of the most damaged parts of Thunderbird when we purchased her was the pilot house roof.  This roofs interior was very decorative, with beautiful inlays, (visible at the end of this blog) but was originally built with a huge hatch in the centre of it.  This hatch was located right up above the engine hatches, so that with engine hatches and roof hatch removed the engine could be lifted straight out with a crane.  Well, this upper hatch had been leaking for years.  The leaking in fact was starting to show up on the mahogany interior finishes.  So, the roof repair became our top priority

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

 

 

 

 

 



LOW WATER IN THE HARBOUR

We awoke this morning to extremely low water in the harbour.  It's been up and down, but mostly down for the last week or so. It is hard to believe that Lake Winnipeg is affected by tides.  Not as the ocean is affected by the gravitational pull of the moon, but here it is affected by the North and South winds.  This huge lake is divided into two parts, being the north and south basins separated by the narrows.  Strong north winds can really hold back the movement of water through the narrows and make a lot of water build up in the south basin and raise the water level tremendously.  Of course a strong south wind can have the opposite affect pushing the water out of the south basin, faster than it can be replaced by the flow in from the Red river.  This is commonly known as wind tides and can affect water levels as far up river as Selkirk.  Therefore this morning, after very strong south winds overnight, the water levels are exceptionally low.

Some boats have been left high and dry.

Our dock mates will not be going anywhere with out a change in circumstances.  

And our neighbour the "Alexandria Anne" is  sitting with rudders and possibly props in the mud.  

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Without a little more water in the harbour I don't think these Sea-doos will get much use and John and Annette's "Gator" has quite of list to it.  They are obviously sitting in the mud. 

We are still floating free, but just barely.  Our keel touched the rock bottom, one time when we went up the Manigotagan River to see the falls.  We had 2ft showing on our depth sounder at that point.  This morning we are sitting with 2.5 ft under us. So I guess we still have 6 inches of water between our keel and the mud.  

 The ramp to our dock is so steep it's actually feeling dangerous.  And once down the ramp our first dock is sitting in the mud and very crocked.  

It's raining now.  Not that a little rain is going to do any good, but with the change in weather, maybe we will get a shift in the winds.   We are going to need some good strong north winds to fill this harbour back up.  

IT'S ALWAYS SOMETHING.  

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HOW WE FAIRED WITH HURRICANE HARVEY?

We all worried about Hurricane Harvey as it approached Texas.  Where would landfall be?  Would it be anywhere near Paradise Park, McAllen?   They said it might swing east or west.  It might pull back off then come ashore again.  So of course we were concerned about friends and property.  But as time went on we could see it hit landfall far north east of us at Houston and headed north west from there, towards San Antonio, Austin, Waco etc.  But that was still a very large swath of rain showing on those radar screens.  I still thought we might get some water damage, until I received this damage report from our friend Maryellen.  

  

 

They didn't even get any rain.  Which they are kind off desperate for.  Not a drop.   So I guess our properties are all fine.  As usual we won't really know until we get down there in a couple of months though.  

CROSS OUR FINGERS AND HOPE FOR THE BEST.