My Trawler restoration

So mates, today i start the first day of restoration on the on the spirit of the west. I was thinking of changing the name...but the locals who knows the boat think it is widly held to be badluck to do so. What you guys think?

About 11am to start clean-up of the hull. The last owners left it in a state. Will have pictures later.

GOOD LUCK!!!

If a name change is in the cards ,

I would do it on the Re launch after the first couple of years of work is done,

Are you going to leave all the rigging? Are the tanks empty or do you need to add tons of ballast to make the water line go down. In rebuilding the rose we emptied the water and fuel and all the other crap, about 10 tons worth and the water line rose about 6", looking at yours I would say your about 30 tons shy to getting your ride right. 30 tons of fuel = $$$$

Cripes, that's a REAL trawler, we don't have many of those on TF. Real trawlers have real trawler names, like 'Spirit of the West'.Def don't change it to some twee name like............. never mind, I might get in trouble.

So welcome 'Spirit' I bet you have some tales to tell.

Looking at the background details, wondering*where do you hale from?


-- Edited by Andy G on Tuesday 20th of March 2012 05:24:39 AM

What was the boat used for and what is below deck?* I agree you need tons of ballast as she is riding very high.* Over the years we have added about 5 tons of junk/stuff on the Eagle.****

very salty.* Love the name.* I look forward to seeing your progress.

Spirit Of The West wrote:
So mates, today i start the first day of restoration on the on the spirit of the west. I was thinking of changing the name...but the locals who knows the boat think it is widly held to be badluck to do so. What you guys think?

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I don't believe in that "changing the name is bad luck" stuff.* A boat doesn't care what you call it.* It's* just a collection of wood, metal, and fiberglass.* The whole name thing and ceremony is for the owner, not the boat.

We changed the name of our boat (which had had at least four or five names before we bought it) and our naming ceremony consisted of sanding the old name off the transom and installing the new nameboards we made on the transom and flying bridge sides.

That said, the name we chose has a fair amount of significance to us and it does add "character" to the boat in our minds.

In the US, commercial fishing boats, particularly "back in the day" were often named after people, more often than not a woman.* "Elsie," "Gertrude L. Thebaud," and "Elizabeth Howard," to name some of the more famous ones I'm familiar with.

There can be enough significance to the owners and crews of a boat's name to retain it even if the boat changes hands.* Particularly older boats that have been maintained and preserved down though the years.* Bill Boeing's "Taconite" is a good example.* This yacht has had several owners since Boeing sold it, but the vessel's history is significant enough that everyone who has owned it has retained the name.

If "Spirit of the West" has been the boat's name from the outset, and if it had a fishing career that is of some note (or nostalgia) to the community where you keep the boat--- and to you, too--- then retaining the name makes sense.

If, however, it's just an old boat to you--- a neat design and a vessel you think worth restoring but not because of any specific historical significance--- and you have a name that you prefer to "Spirit of the West," then change it.* Again, the boat's not going to care.

If it was me and the boat had the history it does and is representative of a class of vessels that once represented the fishing industry in my area, I would probably tend to retain the name.* There is a lovely 36' 1940s salmon troller in our marina that the current owner fished in SE Alaska for years and continues to maintain in near-perfect condition even to its original gasoline engine. The boat's name is "Donna."* Were we ever to acquire this boat we would not change the name even though "Donna" is not a particularly appealing or meaningful name to us.* But "Donna" is part of this boat's history and to change the name, I think, would diminish the significance of the boat in our minds a bit, I think.


-- Edited by Marin on Tuesday 20th of March 2012 11:56:31 AM

Looks like she's sitting on bottom to me.

Spirit of the West is a pleasing name.* You may decide to keep it... at least somewhere over a door to the head, or maybe on a wall plaque... or maybe as the kept name on the boat.*
*
I side with Marin regarding boat names... name it whatever pleases you... the boat will be completely happy too!*

That said - - > Best luck during restoration!

Bryan, are you restoring it as a fishing boat or converting it to a recreational vessel consisting mostly of human-occupied spaces?

This vessel was orginally a fishing boat.* I presume the windows in the hull were for added living space when converted.* The owner plans to add a lanteen schooner rig.

The David B was built as a buy boat and towboat for salmon gillnetters in Bristol Bay, AK in the early 1900s. Originally prohibited by regulation from being motor-driven, the gillnetters were sail only. Boats like the David B would tow long strings of them from shore out to the fishing grounds (photo below). The David B has been converted to a charter cruise boat by installing cabins in what used to be the fish hold space and is based in Bellingham.

She is still powered by her big, direct reversing (I think that's the term) Washington (I think) diesel, the kind that goes "potato, potato, potato" when it's running and that you have to stop and restart in the other direction for reverse. I've been down in the engine room when the engine's been running and it's pretty cool, with exposed pushrods and rocker arms, fly-ball governor spinining around, the whole bit.

They told me that one of the goals of the conversion was to retain the boat's orignal exterior appearance, something it looks to me like they succeeded very well in doing.


-- Edited by Marin on Tuesday 20th of March 2012 02:05:19 PM

markpierce wrote:
This vessel was orginally a fishing boat.* I presume the windows in the hull were for added living space when converted.* The owner plans to add a lanteen schooner rig.

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*Mark that is a beautiful boat. Can you share the name of the marina in which she is moored?

Craig, it is at K dock of the Vallejo (CA) Municipal Marina.* Same home as Mahalo Moi and Carquinez Coot.


-- Edited by markpierce on Tuesday 20th of March 2012 04:34:27 PM

markpierce wrote:
Craig, it is at K dock of the Vallejo (CA) Municipal Marina.* Same home as Mahalo Moi and Carquinez Coot.



-- Edited by markpierce on Tuesday 20th of March 2012 04:34:27 PM

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*Thank you for that Mark. I love a salty look on a boat.

The boat could be sitting on the bottom. At extreme low tide, -3 ft the Eagle sits/touches the bottom. *Some northern areas of tide swings of 20+ ft.* In the Puget sound we have tides swings of 14+ ft.
*
OH! I would not chnage the name.

The tide range in England-Scotland-Wales-Ireland is huge, and the bottoms of bays often have a very gentle slope to them far out to sea. In some bays like Morcambe Bay for example, the waves whack into the bulkheads along the shoreline at high tide and when it's out at low tide you can't see the water even with binoculars. So it's very common for boats of all types to float at high tide and sit totally dry at low tide.

There was a type of boat built in Scotland for the local coastal trade called a "puffer." (see first photo) They were called this because of the sound their steam engines made when they were underway. These boats served the local communities all around the north coast of Scotland and even across to northern Ireland. Many of these communities had no wharf or docks. So the puffers were built with flat bottoms and the practice was to run in next to the community at high tide and then when the tide went out leaving the boat siting high and dry, horse-drawn or later tractor-drawn wagons would come out alongside the boat and the cargo was unloaded onto them. When the tide came back in, the puffer re-floated, got up steam, and left for its next port of call.

So boats being aground in the harbors and bays in the northern waters of Great Britain are no big deal and in fact is the norm. The second photo is not the result of a tsunami or other disaster, it's what happens every day. A lot of smaller sailboats in the UK are built with twin keels that serve as a stand to hold the boat upright when the tide goes out.

On one of our canal vacations to England my wife and I were driving along the west coast of northern England and stopped in a coastal town for lunch.* The tide was out--- the water was not even visible on the horizon--- so after lunch we drove the Land Rover down onto the bed of the bay and spent about an hour driving around among all the local fishing and recreational boats and looking them over.* People were out working on their boats and we talked to a few of them--- some of them had driven out to their boats in their cars---- and then we'd drive on to the next boat.* We probably covered a mile or more doing this.* The scene was exactly like the one shown in the second photo only in our case the bottom was not soft mud.

PS--- Note the exposed helm station and wheel on the puffer.* The helmsman stood out in the weather on these boats because it was believed that--- like the early open cockpit airplanes--- the helmsman couldn't get a proper sense of the wind and waves and boat's movement if he was "cooped up" in a wheelhouse.* They did have canvas panels that could be rigged around the helmstation in really bad weather.* After WWII some of the steam puffers were converted to diesel and the helm stations were enclosed in small pilothouses.



-- Edited by Marin on Wednesday 21st of March 2012 02:19:00 PM

I would find it a bit frustrating if I wanted to go sailing or power boating at a certain time of day but couldn't because the tide was out. i grew up on a river in Conn that was like that. On the other hand, if that's what I had to deal with, I'd still go boating.

I've read a lot of books about boating in the UK, from the puffers up through modern times, and living with the tides was just something everyone does who keeps their boat in un-dredged tidal waters The tides become an automatic factor your planning and, from what I've gathered from the books as well as talking to a lot of salt water boaters over there over the years it just becomes second nature to deal with. It certainly saves on haulout costs.