A Year With A Whitehall

I bought my Whitehall Pulling Boat just a year and a few days ago. I've been posting about it i my pirate blog but I decided that it is separate and should have its own blog.

This is just a getting-started post. I'll just recap the current condition of the boat.

When I got it, it looked like the interior had just had a complete refinishing. It was perfect. Not very likely in a boat built in the 1980s. Also, the rigging wasn't quite right. Some of the lines were too short and none of it had been tied long enough to leave knot marks in the rope. Also, the rope that was used was too big. It was very hard to thread through the grommets.

Plus the trailer needed a lot of work.

At this point I've redone the rigging. Everything works now.

The leather on the oars was poorly done. I replaced the leather on one set and fixed the collar on the other. I also discovered that the leathers were not at the same place on the oars.

Most of the interior wood had been refinished but the teak flooring had not been. I took care of that with some teak oil. It looks much better.

On the negative side, I did put some scratches in the seat. A bit chunk was worn out of one of the oars coming back from Maryland. I filled this in with basswood and putty but you can tell the difference.

Since the boat is in the garage for the Winter, I used some wipe-on polyurethane on the scratches. It helped.

The mast and sprit picked up some scratches from normal use. I used some of the finish on these also and the scratches disappeared.

The boat only came with three oarlocks but a set of spoon oars and a set of sweeps. The oars are non-standard - bigger than most - so most oarlocks are too small. I've used a hammer and anvil to open up some iron ones and I got a pair of bronze horn oarlocks. None of these are perfect.

When I got it, it needed painting. I used traditional oil paint and primer. This seems to have worked fairly well but the keel needs painting again after being beached multiple times on sand and gravel.

The boat has a steel swing keel. The leading edge was rusted when I got it. I sanded it down and painted it with Rustolium but it developed more rust. I will have to try something else over the Winter.

The trailer needed a lot of work. I've replaced the wheels, the springs, the pulley, most of the rollers and the hitch. I still need to rewire it.