A few pics of the past efforts

I thought that people might like to see a few photos of some of the work that has been done before the boat made it's pilgrimage to Fayette. My Dad and I did an amazing amount of work to it before I took on the task of "finishing up".

The Man in the cockpit is Franklin Thatcher Lord, my grandfather and the man responsible for saving Spree(then Gremlin) from a chainsaw and a landfill.



This is Spree being loaded onto a hauler as we were being evicted from the yard where the work started. We found a much cheaper and closer place to store her while we worked on our little project. Remember - it was still a "little" project at this point.

Here is the bastard soft spot that started it all, and then the progression that went to a complete deck removal.

This is after we had peeled off the deck glass, and were still hoping to find "good wood".


As you can see we clearly gave up on finding anything resembling "good wood" and just went to town ripping out the old decks.


I've stuffed myself into the aft locker in an attemt to remove all the fastenings that held the toe rail and portion of the deck into place.. If I had a nickel for every time I stuffed my 6'2" frame into a compartment meant for lifejackets and sails

Canned beer does wonders for easing the tensions on a hot summer afternoon. It also helps wash down the fiberglass dust.

New back deck installed and first section of the P & S decks in place. Placing these pieces of deck got us over a huge hurdle and towards a feeling that making forward progress was possible.




We also had to dismantle the galley in order to get at the underside of the rotten spot from where the fire had melted all the fiberglass. This eventually led to an almost complete dismantling of the entire cabin of the boat.

More deck panels ready for installation. Each deck panel has a top and bottom layer of 24 oz fiberglass that has been put in place with Epoxy resin. Panels are then epoxy fastened as well as mechanically fastened to the hull. The panels are also epoxied to the cabin sides and squeezed together with SS screws. The screws are later ground flush from inside the cabin.
Once the panels are all in place the entire deck will receive another layer of 24 0z. fiberglass. This layer will ideally act to create a uniform structural surface and will give the deck it's final structural integrity.

The beginning of the blog

The photograph above is one of the last pictures we have of Spree in the water and in sailing condition. She is truly a beautiful boat and I can't wait to once again enjoy a stiff wind and a quiet harbor on the coast of Maine. It may just be a little while...

Although this is the beginning of a written account of my project, it is hardly the beginning of the project. Please humor me, and read some historical background about this boat as I think it will give you a much greater sense of the project and it's intrinsic worth. Or,,, perhaps it will further the notion that I'm nuts and that this projects is ridiculous. Either way, humor me and read on.

Spree was born in 1964 as Gremlin. This photo found in a recent addition of Chapmans Piloting is how I came to connect her linneage to my family. In about 1965 my grandfather, Franklin T. Lord heard of a boat that had recently been severely damaged in a fire. The original owner had a galley fire when the knob on the alcohol stove came off. With no fire-boat close by the skipper(a US Navy Admiral) motored the boat to the nearest bridge where a firetruck was waiting. They lowered a hose and he doused the fire. The Admiral collected the insurance money and sold the boat to my grandfather for the salvage rights. My grandfather then proceeded to repair the damage and turned it into the "family boat". For the next 40 years every member of the Lord family learned to sail on this boat and it became a cherished resource for anyone willing to go sailing. My mother tells great stories of weekends cruising in the summer with her girlfriends, there is a story of my Uncle(now a professional sailor) taking the boat out for the first time and running it aground, and I personally remember many many trips and sailing adventures. As my grandfather got older and needed help with the boat, my father would often spend a weekend or two at their house in the spring getting the boat ready for launch. In turn my parents and often times us kids would spend a week crusing the coast of Maine with them.

As my grandparents have gotten older they have passed on Spree to my father and I. They couldn't bear to sell it and we were more than happy to keep her in the family. At least until we realized how much work was needed. Although I still feel that way, I wish I had known the level of work that she truly needed.

Her re-fit started very innocently with an attempt to fix a small soft spot in the deck. We ground back the fiberglass to expose the rotten core material and before we even looked up and cleared the dust from our masks we were standing in the cockpit looking at bulkheads. Clearly she needed new decks. And as we find with every turn, a whole lot more. We have ripped out the majority of the main cabin, and the entire forward cabin as well. The motor

The Columbia 40's forebear was the ketch Paper Tiger, designed by Charles E. Morgan, Jr. He designed the boat around a reltively novel steel pipe backbone. In 1961 Paper Tiger won the Southern Ocean Racing Circuit (SORC) and she did it again in 1962. Morgan then improved on the design and created Sabre, the boat that became the prototype for the Columbia 40. (from www.columbiayachts.com)

We believe that Spree is probably one of the earlier boats to come off the mold. My father (William Riley) and I spent the better part of a year working on the project and it has now been passed on to me to finish. I'm very thankful for all the work we were able to accomplish together. I'm not sure I'd have it in my to start from the beginning alone.

More postings will be coming as progress continues and evolves. If you are a boat person and you have thoughts on how to best proceed or accomplish a certain task, please don't be shy with your advice. I may not always follow it, but I'll always appreciate it.