PNW - Skookum 53 Re-Fit

[MichaelC]

Hey, Bill welcome to the site to you and your partner. I am just beginning construction of a 34' hard chine gaff cutter, up in Maple Falls, 26 miles out of Bellingham. There is a lot of boat building activity up here in the PNW. Since it rains 8 months out of the year, we spend a lot of time working on boats .... [actually 8 may be a slight distortion ... sometimes it only rains 7 ....]. You have probably already discovered the marine hardware store on commercial in Anacortes. There is a used marine store in Bellingham, and one in Port Townsend. You can walk onto the ferry from Whidbey Island, since PT is a small place, but lots of marine stuff there. Also in B'ham are a couple of commercial marine stores: Redden and Lummi Fisheries, both on Roeder Ave on the waterfront. I don't do engines, but I do search and buy traditional stuff. If you need any info in that regard, feel free to email me.

[billr]

Micheal,
Thanks for the email. I'll keep you in mind. We head for the boat next week for another 2 months of work, boatwork that is. Good luck with yours.
I am familiar with some of the Bellingham stores.

A couple of years ago, a big mail-order place for fiberglass, fiberglass supply or something like that, moved from Oregon to the business park by the Skagit County Airport (east of Burlington). You can do a walk-in purchase from them. Its worth the drive because they can answer all kind of questions, and you can look at the materials first hand.

If you are working with wood, you ought to check out the Rot Doctor on the web. They carry the Clear Penetrating Epoxy System made by Smith & Co. Its best product out there if you want to get rid of rot problems. I've used it on many boats, and the house, over the last 30 years.

[billr]

Hi Brad,
Probably the bolts are corroding. I have no corrosion on my chain plates, except where the original owner had an eyebolt put in at the bottom of the chain plate, one on either side. Both those bolts have some corrosion but not too much yet. Not sure what the use was. It would an excellent place to attach a ground wire for lighting protection if you had a thunder storm coming. But, I suspect he clipped his dinghy there when he was loading and un-loading. One is kind of mashed over, so it may not have been that great of a idea.
I'm heading for the boat next week, so I'll take a more detailed look at the other chain plates. If I find anything interesting, I'll let you know.
Bill

[billr]

Stillraining,
Still in La Connor?

Bill

[Jock]

Hi Bill.

Hope you are well. We are back in civilisation. Busy with a new build 40 meter Sunseeker in the UK. Crescent is still in Phuket. We did two months full time on her but now back at the grindstone. We are considering putting Crescent on the market as we don't seem to get any time to work on her. It will be heartbreaking after all the time and money we have invested in her. Let me know if you know of anyone looking for a 53.
Regards
Jock

[FatBear]

I live in Scappoose, Oregon. Two Skookum 53s nearby: one, Pamela, is a pilothouse schooner. The other, Toketee, is a center cockpit ketch with a hard dodger and windshield.

Can anyone tell me how well these boats sail? My wife and I are looking for a cruising boat (US west coast, Caribbean, Europe/Med.) and she wants safety. I'd like to get there someday, too, so will such a heavy cruiser really go anywhere unless the wind is blowing hard?

Thanks.

[61A]

G'day all,

I am also looking at a 53' Skookum (ex AK salmon troller). The owner mostly uses the iron gennie, but has raised the cloth couple of times and reports that it sails quite well.

Does anyone out there own a staysail schooner rig? If so, what is your opinion on the sailing qualities of your vessel? Is it easy to trim, tack, reef, etc? How does it handle a stong blow?

I look forward to any feedback you might offer.

Cheers,

TJ

[FatBear]

Here is a photo of Pamela, a schooner rigged Skookum 53'. I don't know if she is a "staysail schooner". Can you define it for me? Anyway, I thought it was cool that they have a roller-furling topsail.

http://cblog.myflotsam.com/index.php...-schooner.html

--FatBear

[61A]

Fatbear,

A staysail schooner has a main staysail between the masts in lieu of a foresail. Just guessing here, but from the photo it looks like the Pamela has a hanked main staysail. The boat I am looking at has a roller furled main staysail.

Nice photo.

Cheers,

TJ

[captain58sailin]

Hi just got back from Africa, my relief showed up a month late, oh well. I have roller furling all the way around, including a staysail between then masts and a gennie. I will be repowering this month, I got an Isuzu 6bd1 turbo, and I'll be putting it on the bench and test running it before pulling the Detroit out and putting the suzie, I expect that I will have to find a new adapter plate to marry up the 506 twin disc. This is my last big project before taking Rose back to Sitka, so we can start killing fish.

[billr]

Hi Jock,
Just got back to the grind here in Arizona. We spent 2 months working on Skookum John in Washington, but had a fair amount of rain and fair amount of computer work to do, so didn't make the progress on the boat that we had hoped for this year. I can sympathize with you on the frustration. Fortunately for me, I don't have anywhere near the challenge that you do.
The new build in the UK sounds interesting. I kind of wonder what kind of mix of thread types you end up with. Skookum John has a mix of US, UK, and metric for both fasteners and piping. The Gardner diesel is responsible for a lot of that.
Ted Mattson in Sitka sold the Skookumchuck in Sept. Its going to Oregon to be fished. Ted had chartered it for many years. Now, he is looking at getting a farm.
I'll pass on the status of Crescent.
Have you heard anything from John C. and the Seahorse?
Bill
By the way, you were going to tell us what you found for the construction on Crescent when you removed the forward fish hold. I'm still very interested in what is between the hull and the bottom of the fish hold bins.

[billr]

Hi Brad,
I did take a close look at my chain plates. I have very small amount of streaking below them on the gel coat. But in my case, I think its related to a mild amount of surface oxidation that the bronze seems to get. Either that or its related to the green crud that seems to grow on everything here in Washington. If you are getting a lot of rust from yours, I'd replace the bolts.

Good luck with the re-power.

Bill

[NotQuiteLost]

Looked at a 53' Skookum ketch with fish holds before buying my current boat. I really liked the look of it, and the space inside was tremendous. The tankage was sweet, and everything had been really well-maintained.

Glad to see so many owners getting together to pool intellectual resources. Right on!

[captain58sailin]

Hi Bill,
I have seen the streaking rust on the hull from the chain plates, I don't know if it is from the bolts or the plates themselves, I haven't had time to remove one and see. I have a concern about pit corrosion, something I learned about in surveyor's school. For now the repower is my primary project. Thanks for the info. on the bronze chain plates. We have another 53 Skookum here in Homer, name of Inua, and she has the bronze chain plates as well, I have not spoken to them regarding that, they are out of town a lot and so am I. It looks like I will have to send my twin disc transmission down to Harbor Marine in Everett, to have the case swapped out, the 471 detroit and the Isuzu take a different sized housings, one is a #2 and the other is a #3, I want to rebuild the transmission anyway to make sure every thing is as bullet proof as possible, it will also be a good time to get in and scrub out the bilges and repack the prop shaft. It is pretty tight in the engine compartment with all the machinery and my fat butt. Hell I might even break out the white gel coat. I'll be taking photos to chronicle the event. Personally I wouldn't know what to do with a boat that doesn't have a fish hold.

[Jock]

Hi Bill. Happy new year to you and all "Skookums" out there. We are now back in Thailand with the new 40 meter and at the moment doing some cruising with the owners onboard.
After I got back from the UK it only took one look at Crescent to realise that it will be a big mistake to sell her. She is going to be a brand new boat at the end of the day and should hopefully take us around the world as many times as we wish. I have decided to keep Crescent a working boat and we are going to be using the ex fish-hold as a toy and dive gear hold. The toys will be for playing and the dive gear will be for salvage work. Putting in a small metal lathe with milling machine as well for those small repairs on the run. I am not too concerned about weight as we are not planning to take part in any sailing races.

This information is about a year late and I apologise for that. When I stripped out the insulation from the fish hold I found that the foam used back then is in fact very tasty to termites. We had two massive colonies living in the foam insulation. Between the floor and hull you will find three L shaped stringers on either side of the hull running fore & aft. The foam was then cut to fit between these stringers and then spot glued into place. Once the foam was in place the whole insulated area was then laminated over again. I found an average thickness of about 5mm but up to 10mm in places. This acted as a double hull and made the fish hold area immensely strong. Apart from the termites the insulation was still in great condition with very little water ingress or shrinking. It took me ages to get everything cut and ground out. I have now gone with only two fore & aft stringers and a bullet proof collision bulkhead between the forward accommodation and anchor/rope locker.
I have also removed all the chainplates and I am planning to replace them all with new. The plates were not at all in terrible condition and if I had to I could use most of them again without too much concern. I see there is some talk going on about corrosion on the chainplates. I also think that this is only a bit of surface oxidisation and nothing too serious. If anyone is looking at getting new Skookum chainplates I have the contact for the company who originally did most of the moulding and still have the moulds to cast new.
There are a couple of updated pics on our website. (S/Y Crescent :: Come sail with us!) We are hoping to go in the water in May or June of this year. Crescent will then live on a mooring for a while until we can afford the next step of the rebuild.
Best regards
Jock