My brother has been chasing this guy who has an old trapskiff in a town near his place. Last week he finally managed to talk to him and come to an arrangement and now the boat is his. The age is not determined yet but the last time it was licensed was in 1983. It's been sitting on dry land for decades and in pretty rough shape, but not hopeless.
The Newfoundland trapskiff is 30ft long, 9ft wide and over 4ft deep. They are mostly made by the fishermen themselves and from local timber. Usually a mixture of spruce, fir, and juniper. They could be built over the course of a winter and be ready for spring fishing season. The motor was just transferred from the old boat to the new.
This one has been laid up for so long, and water left inside that she's well rotted. Most of the planking is good but the main timbers need to be replaced. This one was later fiberglassed and it added to the rot. (keeping the water in)
It's got a fine shape to the transom and my brother says it was an easy tow to bring it to its current location. yes it still floats and apparently slips through the water like a dream.
Both me and my brother have been looking for a boat like this to restore and he's found himself a nice one. He'll get the forms from this one so there is a record of the shape for a future build perhaps. There will be more history dug up on this boat and it's builder in time, but for right now just keeping it from deteriorating further is the main task.
No comments:
Post a Comment