We recently stopped in to Lakes Region Wooden Boats in Wolfeboro NH, to see what Rob Lawrence and crew have been up to. Presenty he has two bottom jobs going, a Century Resorter, and the New Hampshire Boat Museum’s MISS LAUREN is in for a vanish and bottom paint refresh. Here is more from Rob:
Miss Lauren is a 28′ Hacker Craft owned by the NHBM for the last two or three years, and is used to give narrated tours of the lake. She is the sister boat to the Millie B which operates out of Wolfeboro Bay doing the same. The Miss Lauren operated out of Meredith in the past, but will be running on Lake Winnisquam this year. Typically we work on each every other year, and this year is Miss Lauren’s turn. With each boat we will touch up any dings and dents and other cosmetic issues that invariably happen with all the use that they get. After those are addressed, we will apply a couple coats of varnish and paint any of the bootstripe and bottom as needed. This year we stripped and repainted the bottom as the museum was constantly touching up the flaking bottom paint (not painted by us!), so they asked us to redo from scratch to mitigate that issue. We also stripped and repainted the bootstripe as that had a major crazing issues.
The Cobra does not have a name, but as with all Cobras she is a 1955. She’s a 21 footer with the original Chrysler Hemi motor. She still had the original bottom which was useable, but the owner was not a big fan of having to swell her every time he used her, so he is having us put a new no-soak bottom on. Amazingly there was virtually no rot in the frames, keel, or chines, but unfortunately all but about three or four frames were broken so those are being replaced as well. A small section of the port chine needed repair, but otherwise the chines and keel are in good shape.
Old School is a 1955 Century Resorter. This winter we replaced replaced the entire deck with the exception of the cover boards. The “blonde” part of the deck was uneven with the cover boards due to the framework underneath and was discolored. It was also was not “correct” in that is was bleached and stained mahogany. We replaced it with the correct Alaskan Yellow Cedar and varnishing with no stain just as Century did. Now it is a nice yellow instead of the orange that it was. At the time these pics were taken, we still need to paint the deck seams and apply about two more coats of varnish. We also stripped and redid the port side varnish as that was in very bad shape with alot of the varnish delaminating from the wood, and with some of the wood dangerously close to turning grey.
The Century Sabre is a 1964, and at some point a previous owner had decided to fiberglass over the entire bottom which presumably struggling to keep the boat afloat. This only accelerated the rotting process, and after a few years of repairing rotten areas every year, the current owner bit the bullet and decided to have us replace the bottom and be done with it. After disassembling the bottom we were amazed that she didn’t just come apart and sink. The keel, chines, and frames were either very rotten or very broken, or both. She will get a traditional Century bottom, but with adhesive to make her a “no-soak” bottom, and with provisions to allow water at the transom area to be able to drain to the bilge pump which was not part of the original Century design, which is why they are famous for rot at the bottom of the transom.
If you’d like to know more about LRWB, head over to their website and have a look around, lots of great pictures to see there!
Thanks to Rob for taking the time to show us around, good luck with the upcoming busy season!
