Transom trouble for Fairlight
Fairlight Facts:
Fairlight is a 1938 Classic Sailing Yacht built from pitch pine and Oak
Designer: Laurent Giles
Builder: J Hinks & Son
Design No: 42
Type: Aux Bermudan Cutter
Year: 1938
Length: 39′ 0″
Over the winter Fairlight’s owner George Hayes came to us with a request to look further at some soft timber in her transom which had been picked up on an insurance survey last year.
When we burned off the planking ends to expose fastenings we found a lot of the planks had soft timber in the ends as well, unable to turn a blind eye to it we ended up re-ending the offending 6-7 planks on each side before we could even start on the transom. With the planking finished we could make a start templating and cutting out the old transom, before machining up new mahogany boards and jointing them together to make up a beautiful new transom. Fitted properly this time to the inner faces of the planks and the transom fashion piece and with water ingress points repaired, we hope that it should last a lot better than the previous one!
Once the transom was complete we could make good the exposed timber with a new coat of paint and 6 coats of varnish on the transom. We also revarnished all of her deck brightwork, repaired the keel where the rudder bottom fitting attaches and did some extensive repairs to her engine: replacing the sump, doing a big service, repairing a very pitted heat exchanger and replacing her aquadrive coupling.
“I’ve owned Fairlight for many years and about 30 years ago when in Majorca the transom was replaced by a local repair yard.
When Mylor opened up the transom this winter and I saw the standard of work carried out in Majorca and was amazed that there had not been more problems earlier. Seeing how Mylor Shipwright’s have repaired the transom, I am quite sure it will last for at least another 30 years and probably way beyond.” George Hayes, Owner of Fairlight.
Henry Goldsmith, Marine Team Project Manager:
“This job was a real challenge…the trouble with old wooden boats is you never know what you’re going to find when you start peeling the paint off, and Fairlight is no exception. Fortunately George is of the opinion that a job worth doing is worth doing well, and made sure that we had the time and resources to do as much as we could on Fairlight. As with most boats there’s a long term annual programme of maintenance and refit work, so we always have plenty to do on Fairlight, but, hopefully we won’t have to do another transom on her in the next 50 years.”
George continues:
“During my business life I visited many boat yards and build/repair facilities. There are not many that can match the impressive standard of work carried out at Mylor. This coupled with the beautiful location is what attracted me to Mylor many years ago.”
Fairlight is due to be launched at Mylor in April, look out for her this season on the Carrick Roads.