1950 Thompson

This one came all the way from Louisiana and has been in the same family its entire life so it’s a real honor to restore it for yet another generation. Overall it’s in good shape – a couple of broken ribs in the middle and a few more in the stern where it appears it suffered a collision or drop. Some minor planking damage in the bow as well. Two of the “broken” ribs in the midsection were actually cut and hidden by the floor rack trim rails. I didn’t find these until the trim rails were removed. These caused lumps in the planking so they came out along with the broken one. Thompson apparently used a lot of steel fasteners: all the bolts, staples for the canvas, nails for the ribs into the inwales, and more nails for the plank ends into the stems. The bolts all had to be cut and driven out. The small nails holding the plank ends to the stems have mostly dissolved so what’s left will get backed up with bronze.  Other than the cut ribs and steel, no real shocking surprises in breaking her down! Outwales, outside stems, and keel all came off without breakage.

And here’s why you don’t use steel in boats:

These were identical bolts when this boat was built over 60 years ago.