Restoring Brilliant for a New Generation or Two

(story written for the River Cruiser magazine)

During the time my wife Sally and I sailed our GRP boat around the Northern rivers of the Norfolk Broads, we could understand the attraction of the charm, the sail area and the ease of demasting of the classic broads cruiser and, despite being repeatedly warned off of the idea by wise and experienced yachties, we decided on the adventure that is wooden boat ownership.

Brilliant's Hull Restored for a New Generation

After scouring the Internet for a few months, we drew up a shortlist and went to view several potential candidates. On stepping onto Brilliant, our mind was instantly made up. Above the waterline she was in amazing condition and inside the cabin, it was like stepping back in time. The previous owners, had owned her for 34 years and maintained her to the highest standard. This was a boat that had been showered with love and care and to seal the deal, they showed us a folder full of her history, dating back to 1929 when she was first launched.

The inevitable boat survey came as a bit of a shock. Over her eighty or so years, a good deal of which had been spent in the hire fleet prior to the guardianship of the recent owners, the repeated replacement of damaged hull areas with short planks had undermined the shape and strength of her hull. Furthermore, there was concern about the condition of many of her ribs and it was also clear that the rudder assembly would need repairing. After a very frank and honest debate, and after consulting our good friend Eric Bishop at Cox's Boatyard and my retired father-in-law George McElveen, who also worked at Cox's occasionally, Sally and I decided to take the plunge.

Brilliant was lifted and stored at Cox's Boatyard where George started work in January 2008 by removing some short and soft planks near the rear of the starboard side. At this very early stage George decided that the best thing I could do was to remove all the paintwork, so that we would have a clear view of what was underneath. Although that risked the entire hull drying out, it would ensure that the job was done properly. At this stage, I should mention that George is a total perfectionist who has worked on boats for over 50 years. It was also at this stage that George decided on a strategy of putting in as many 'long planks' as possible, to bring the sweeping shape and the strength back to Brilliant's hull - it was at this time that we started to talk of 'restoration', when before it had simply been a 'repair'.

As the planks were removed on the starboard side, it was clear that many of the ribs were now fragile and in need of replacing. The debate at this juncture was whether to source 'green' oak from which to cut a new frame or to use thin strips of oak epoxyed together to form a laminated rib; George opted for the laminated approach, which proved very strong. Another important decision was whether to be traditional and put filler in the seams or use the more modern Sikaflex. After a poll of wooden boat owners and much debate, George persuaded me that, done carefully, the sikaflex approach would mean a dryer bilge and less maintenance. As the new planks went in, it was fantastic to see Brilliant taking on a new, sleeker shape. As we sanded down the starboard side in preparation for painting, it was a wonderful sight to see George's new planks lying side by side with the larch planks that had been there since 1929. For many months her hull had looked sad and wounded. Now, she was starting to look proud again.

The port side was worse than the starboard. The bottom was a patchwork of short uneven planks and several planks that were very soft. The bow was made up of an array of short planks that George feared would offer little strength in the event of a collision on the water.

Until now, I had only worked weekends on Brilliant, burning off paint, sanding and painting. At this point I took a week's holiday to work with George and learn how to replace planks, so I would know for future years. Not only did I get to learn about scarf joints, using a dummy board, what sealers to use when and where and how to remove old planks without damaging frames, ribs or good planks, but I also learned how very heavy a 17ft plank can be and what a tremendous challenge it is to shape a 17ft plank to fit tightly into a gap that has a three dimensional form, bending both laterally and longitudinally. It was tough work that took an inordinate amount of patience and stamina. After handling these heavy planks all day, I slept like never before.

George also taught me the proper way to sand and varnish a transom to a perfect glassy finish. I must have applied 10 or 12 coats over the period of 3 weeks, rubbing down after each coat had hardened, until George agreed it was ready for the name to be painted on. We were fortunate to happen across Stuart Harpley, a sign-writer trained in the traditional methods. Stuart agreed to paint Brilliant's name on the transom using the traditional method of using gold leaf. It was very impressive to see this age-old craft still in action and to have the transom restored in such an authentic way.

Whilst George patiently replaced planks on the port side, I was busy applying sealer, underseal, anti-foul and undercoat to the completed starboard side. Finally the last plank came out and the last plank went in. With help of Simon Goodyear, another Cox's worker, we soon had Brilliant fully antifouled and painted. We painted the new bilge and returned the floorboards, drawers and various other internal fittings to their rightful places. For the past 6 months, the inside had been lit by daylight streaming through the changing gaps in the hull where George had been working. Now it was reassuringly dark, other than the sun making it's way through the port-hole windows.

In reality TV production, they call this next bit ‘jeopardy'. We had two weeks left before she was scheduled to go in the water for the start of our holiday and we were very much on track. However, on closer inspection of the rudder, it was beyond repair. The shaft had rusted close to breaking point and only moved with a horrible graunching sound. With engineering companies shutting down for their summer break - my show was now in jeopardy. Thankfully Fred Pain at Acro Engineering in Catfield turned us a new shaft using stainless steel and Marine Weld in North Walsham made up the final rudder assembly just in time.

Finally, Brilliant was lifted across Cox's Boatyard car park towards the water. On route her new rudder was fitted. She was then slowly lowered into the water looking as good as new. We had been given all kinds of warnings about 'saw dust being at the ready', 'keeping her on the straps' and the entire 'taking up' process. Not a drop… Brilliant was now under way for many more years of happy sailing and George could now resume his retirement knowing he'd helped preserve Brilliant for at least two more generations.

As for us, we're looking forward to the first of many sailing seasons with this grand old lady of the Broads.

We'd like to say a big 'thank you' to Eric Bishop and the team at Cox's boatyard. They were a pleasure to deal with; always very co-operative and understanding when it came to discussing our concerns and objectives. In particular we'd like to thank George McElveen who undertook the majority of the work with a great deal of passion and attention to detail.