What a shame! It’s sad to see all those skills slowly draining away. I admire the work you are doing on Dowager. Having spent last winter on my own wooden boat project, you have my sympathies dealing with epoxy and the winter weather! Keep up the amazing work!

Do you clean all your timber before glueing with asatone.?

Just a thought, have you considered using lumber the same thickness of the one you’re replacing ……

When I heard you say the IBTC was closing I took that to mean something totally different! Over here across the pond those letters mean something totally different! Lol. Itty bitty T**ty committee. Yeah I had the reaction that you were doing one of your jokes again. Yeah as a lover of the American version I was heartbroken. Something always works out.

Is there in England no daylight?

Very sorry to hear about the college... regarding everything else, you are not alone in feeling like you're playing Jenga on the deck of a sinking wooden Titanic (wishing the band would play something other than "Nearer, My God to Thee"). all of these old boat projects have their particular problems, with life , money and weather incessantly creating more complications. But from where I sit, as long as you have that place to work on the boat, you are good to go. Moving Dowager would be a huge interruption/chllenge, but not neccesarily show-stopper.

Sad news indeed for the Collage, Staff and Students. All is not as gloomy as first seems. I have friends who make a living as Blacksmiths, Tinsmiths, Copper smiths, Also building Steam Engines and Boilers. Many having apprentices The old Trades never die out completely some are on an upsurge. The major difference today is how one learns the trade/skills. As for Dowager's immediate future, it may be a good idea to have a word with the Liquidator concerned, they may be able , to offr you a time table or best hope they find a new owner that will let you continue as you are. For sure, until anything is finalised, they will happily let you continue with the current agreement, they want your money! let's hope for the best.

It sounds to me like you need a planer/thicknesser

I am lost for words.

Yes, you are quite the comic! Order your materials before they close and store in the boat. Oak and Luan are available in the UK if needed. Lots of boatyards have storage/working places..be selective, though I do not see why you have to move..Wonder why they are closing? Look at the epoxy you are using, plus all those electic tools and you will discover your answer. Rarely will you find old ways of traditional boat building anymore.

What do you think about the IBTC having to close its doors for the final time? Is it a sad indictment of our society or a necessary loss in the name of progress? Were you ever a student there in happier times? Do you have any fond memories of the place? Let me know below.

FWIW, I'd rather try to remove a corroded flathead (slotted) than a corroded Phillips (or anything else, really). It doesn't always work, but if you scrape at that slot gently and patiently with a little scratch awl, like an obsessive archeologist unearthing a trilobite, then, with the absolute perfect-sized screwdriver, carefully back it out while gently tapping the driver with a handle to sort of "shock" it, you are about 17.0056% less likely to strip the screw head than with an old Philips, which will just become a crater instantly, no matter what you do. So far, with my 47-yr-old wood boat with many old bronze screws of both flavors, I'm having more success with the slotted ones.

If I remember right, the first gov't-issued life jackets (military) used cork for bouancy. This often had predictably disastrous results, although they probably worked great in a bathtub at the factory when they were brand new. Whatever you do, do NOT put new cork back on there!!!

Buddy...FILL empty water bottles (ir Beace, Soap, ANY) tie to bottom eyelets and set on ground. Will help keep the Tarp out of your way and save more dry areas.

add candle wax to your scarf wedge slopes. it will make life easy

Where is your Amazon wish list? I'm in the US, retired and on a pension, but would like to help. Others might want to help as well.

One plank replaced, move on to the next one, soon be back afloat......!

Have you got an angle grinder? I think you could have cut / ground the head off those large rivets, then punched them back out in the same way that you did after drilling. I suspect that this would have been faster.

The epoxy 🤔 reminded me of a naughty rhyme about the good ship Venus. You need that left hand seeing to, looks so pale it could be Raynaurds Disease. 😄 A tip for shaping a pencil for marking I got from a Canadian boat builder. You get a HB5 pencil and sharpen in the normal way. You then introduce it to your block plane and plane it down till you have a flat side. You can get in flat against an edge and around coach bolt heads reducing measurement error. I had about two dozen of those carpenter pencils. All gone in the bin now. There's another Canadian has great tutorial s on sharpening chisels and plane irons. Rob Cosman, has a channel on the tube. He's fairly anal about it he admits. I sharpened all the new chisels I bought this year and F me they are sharp. I keep some paper stitches close by. Once you set them up sharp its easy to keep them sharp. And with the hard wood your using sharp is good. Keep going , Ive been told summer is on the way.

Your play-by-play router skit was very well done. I think you missed your calling. The 'Bama Boy' accent is hilarious.

Your epoxy resin is crystallising due to the cold. It can easily be reconstituted by warming up the can. Put the can next to a heater, place it in a pot of boiled water, or at a pinch, carefully warm up the can with your heat gun. It will return to a clear liquid state. Then, try to store it in a warm place. Keep up the good work!

It’s not a “scuttle” scuttles are used for keeping coal in. It’s called a scupper😉

you could use some help,, friends?

Ive got to hand it to you, well done for working in extreme weather conditions. if you need a hand dont call me. well done, carry on. by the way, i like your cheat of putting "outside" on the plank, i find i need to do the same on my underwear

Loving the content. The skill in changing your hand size is to be commend

I like the liberal use of the Anglo Saxon swear words - Dowager must have heard plenty of them over the many decades of her existence - seems fitting to me that she hears them now as she is resurrected from her grave.

With the goggles on and the head covering, you look like the guy on mad Max with the h Helicopter😅😅

Moments of joy, hours of toil. Never seen boat work in extreme conditions. Great stuff. Maybe a worklight may help? Thank you.

You get the Brass Balls Award for working in those conditions.

Good effort! Consider wrapping a few turns of oakum or cotton caulking under the heads of those carriage bolts to seal them. Also, as already mentioned, a forstner bit is more efficient than the router for drilling the right size countersinks for the bolts.

Dedication keep it going 👏

great video once again, im wondering if you can use some kind of support a pole or a long 2x4 to support the tarp so its not on top of you when you are working

Will you be taking time off for Christmas?

Loving the videos. Your dedication is to be admired, in terrible conditions.

I feel your pain mate. Lol

I admire your determination and really enjoy your commentary. Seems like a couple of forstner bits and/or router bits of the correct size would save you hrs messing about routing the plank holes with undersized bits.

I really got a good laugh at the doll hand!!! Terrible conditions, feel your pain and frustration because I’ve been there too, well done, well done!

IRON MAN

Fair play, looks like you've replanked half the boat thats a great effort to have got all that done this year! You're gona be a master carpenter by the time you finish

Little by little you'll get there. Keep Going; Every step forward is a success.

I have no idea how you work in those conditions

Great a project mate.

These repairs look really good. Good to see you using the read lead and calico between the inner and outer hull. If the original lasted 100 Years, then I don't think there is any point in trying to "improve" on the original design. Polyurethane sealant (as used on Ship Happens), might be a better material but equally it could seal moisture in the planking and lead to rot. Only time will tell. The scaprhing is also a good touch. Are the joints a bit tight - I don't know, its been out the water for ages and the original joints don't seem to have shrunk much - I suspect there isn't as much shrink / swell in the hardwood planking, compared to a softwood.

Can't wait to see her in the spring when you can take down the tarp. Following with eager interest, any little ship that can be brought back to life is good news.

Nice work, man! Your getting the hang of it! Every fukup is a learning experience and plays into developing more efficient, foolproof ways of doing it next time. A lot of the nuances of wooden boat building and repair have been covered over by the sands of time and us mad lads taking on these restoration projects have to dig up the old ways and fuse them with modern tools, materials and techniques to get these vessels back on the water. its a lot of work, but well worth it. And fun.

I'm glad I have a mute button for the commentary, it's a bit obnoxious.

NO one can fault your commitment.

Measure twice, cut thrice 😂 keep up the good work. I can’t wait to see it on the water again.

You really need to invest in a cutoff saw! Oh man the way you're doing that is going to take you forever! It just will make your diagonal cuts go quicker.

Loving the journey. Really fascinating stuff.