Restoring BO-PEEP II’s Tender
Spring 2022
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No more replacing rotten planks, no more replacing fasteners, no more caulking the seams, and no more corrosion headaches.
By Ron Lane
The original wooden tender for the BO-PEEP II was also built by Defoe Boat and Motor Works of Bay City, Michigan in 1926. This tender needed a few repairs. Satisfied with the performance of the repairs done on BO PEEP II with WEST SYSTEM® Epoxy back 2001, I decided to use WEST SYSTEM in restoring the original tender in 2014.
On the truck to Seattle, BO-PEEP II’s tender had suffered split planks in both bilge turns. The planks were also checked and had long gaps, rendering the tender unseaworthy. I made a uniform cut in each long split to clean out the damaged wood and inserted double overlapping graving pieces (sometimes called a Dutchman) with WEST SYSTEM 105 Resin®/205 Fast Hardener® thickened with 404 High-Density Filler.
The original iron bolt in the oak stem had corroded and rotted the wood causing more small checks in the area. I carefully cut out the bad wood with a drill and chisel. Only a small amount of good wood remained, leaving the mortise in an irregular in shape. I used several small blocks of wood like a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle to fill this void. When the thickened epoxy cured, I shaped the repair and installed a 316L stainless steel bolt.
There were small checks in the planks joining the transom and keel. The keel had minor grounding damage. I simply reefed the checks slightly with my pocketknife and filled them with WEST SYSTEM 105/205 thickened with 404 filler.
The thin varnish on the outside hull was sanded off very easily. I used a furniture touch-up pen to darken all the white epoxy lines in my repairs. Then I applied two coats of 105/207. After this cured, I applied three coats of varnish. On the interior hull, I repainted the bilge its original color and applied several fresh coats of tung oil, which was the original treatment.
I used WEST SYSTEM 105/205 to wet out the wood, then added 404 filler to install graving pieces and fills. I used 105/207 on the exterior hull to seal the wood, and then varnished it.
