Renovating the Golden Hind 26, Clementine
James Sumberg
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GH26 ‘Clementine’ – A Mistley Diary No 1: 18 October 2023 I purchased Golden Hind 26 (Sail No 8) (‘Bonnie’,
formerly ‘Clementine of Hamble’, and now she will simply be ‘Clementine’) in
September 2023. She was then transported by road to Mistley in Essex.
When I viewed her in Neyland (Pembrokeshire), she was
looking rather neglected. The condition of the running rigging suggested she
had not been sailed in some time; cockpit varnish was in very poor
condition; and the hull, decks and doghouse had been painted to a poor
standard. But I was looking for a winter project. I previously owned GH 32
‘Right-E-Oh’, so had some sense of what I was in for.
The hull, as well as the cockpit moulding, and decks
from the cockpit aft, are of GPR, while everything forward of the cockpit is
sheathed plywood. There is a lot of teak in and around the cockpit. Clementine came with very little documentation (and
seems to have no had previous presence on the Eventides website). The basic
facts (as I know them at the moment) are as follows:
·
1981 – built by
Terry Erskine
·
Cutter rig with
plank bowsprit
·
Surveys in 1987,
2004, 2013 (only the 2004 survey is available)
·
1987 – Purchased by
third owner. ‘[…] in rather neglected condition, the second owner never
sailed the boat due to illness’
·
1997 –
‘The antifoul was removed to the gelcoat, a
hull survey carried out, no signs of osmosis being found, before the
topsides were painted with Blake’s Polycoat and below the waterline was
treated with 5 coats of Gelshield’
·
2004 – survey found
boat to be structurally sound, but identified: a section of soft foredeck
plywood under the aft end of the bowsprit; and, the metal floors had a
degree of surface rust, requiring chipping and painting [there is no sign
that this was ever done]
·
2013 – purchased;
name changed to ‘Bonnie’; new standing rigging and furling gear after
adjacent boat in yard fell against her
·
2017 – New Beta
25hp installed with new sea intake, new exhaust, modified engine beds The five weeks or so since Clementine arrived in
Mistley have been a period of discovery. Despite signs of a previous repair
there is again rot in the deck under the bowsprit. The beam under the bridge
deck and some of the associated plywood bulkheads are also rotten. All of
this rotten wood has now been removed. Paint has been removed from the hull
(the white section between the two teak streaks is back to gelcoat, while
the dark blue bottom section is back to black Polycoat). And, all of the
teak has been brought back to bare wood.
This is the first of what I hope will be a series of
notes to document the work undertaken to bring the boat back up to standard. I would be very keen to hear from you if you have any
information about Clementine, have undertaken similar repairs, or have one
of the other 14(?) GH 26’s.
GH26 ‘Clementine’ – A Mistley Diary No 2: 27 December 2023 To date the restoration of Clementine has involved work
in five main areas. Deck The deck ply was rotten fore and aft of the Sampson
post. Degradation in this area was noted in a 2004 survey, and there was
evidence of a previous repair (done with what appeared to be very
poor-quality ply).The repair will be made using Robbins 12 mm Elite grade
ply. Access to the rotted deck area required removal of the plank bowsprit,
which was stripped, saturated with Deks 1, and then given 7 coats of
Epiphanes Rapid Clear.
Bulkhead & Bridge-deck beam I first noticed a small area of softness in the ply on
the port side bulkhead just above the bridge deck. Further exploration, and
removal of the sink and cool-box unit, revealed that the rot extended down
almost to where the bulkhead meets the hull. There is evidence of a similar
repair having previously been made on the starboard side.
This exercise also revealed extensive rot in the beam
under the bridge deck. The whole beam has been removed and will be replaced.
There is a useful recent discussion of this repair on the Forum (http://www.eventides.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&p=1779&sid=686e7ad4c11eaedf7270554fe99fcb3d#p1779).
As with the deck, 12mm ply will be used for the bulkhead repair, while
sapele or iroko will be used to replace the beam. Cockpit Photos from 2013 show the teak cockpit seats (locker
covers) as a weathered grey. Sometime after that they were varnished, but by
2023 that varnish had largely failed.
The ply underpinning the teak of two of the four locker
covers was rotten – one completely, and the other only in an area where a
previous repair had been made. This suggests that the black filler between
the teak strips had failed.
The rotten wood was removed, and the gaps between the
teak strips filled from the underside with CT1. 8mm Elite ply was then glued
in using CT1 and finished with Deks 1 and Rapidclear.
The underside of the main hatch also showed some signs
of degradation, but here the rot was primarily in the outer of the two
layers of ply. This outer layer was removed and replaced with 8mm ply as
above.
The teak cockpit seats and hatch were then stripped and
given the Deks 1 and Rapidclear treatment.
The strategy into the future will be to maintain the
Rapidclear coating and consistently use the cockpit cover. Cabin The cabin sole has been stripped, cleaned and coated
with Rapidclear (matte).
Hull paint In 1997 the black sections of Clementine’s hull were
painted with Blake’s Polycoat. By 2023, several additional applications of
paint were evident. Using ‘No Nonsense’ paint stripper from Screwfix and a
carbide hand scraper this was all taken back to the Polycoat, which is now
being flatted-back in preparation for new paint. The white area of the hull,
above the black and between the two teak strips, had only been covered with
one-pack paint. This has been removed to expose the gelcoat, which is in
good condition. It will not be painted.
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