Hi,

My lightning is getting a major rebuild. The hull is being done
professionally. I'll be doing the grunt work at the end (that is the
finishing and assembly that does not require the knowledge of a
professional) and installing the rig myself. I did things this way because
I really didn't have the skills to do the boat justice. Also this worked
out to be simpler, because the boat was an abandoned project at Cayuga
Wooden Boatworks.

If you would like more now, please let me know. Otherwise I'll save them up
and write some sort of essay.

Paul

Hi,

Here are the first pictures I have of my woody Lightning. I'll send
more as work progresses.

Paul Marchand

Jeremy,
 
Awhile back I sent some photos via email.   You will also find a letter from me at the bottom of the "old number one" link at the I.L.C.A. website.  Here are some more current photos (more to come soon).  I should be back to pick her up in late March.  Like all restorations, things moved more slowly than planned.  We also changed some plans for the structural repair.  I just wanted to do justice to a nice old boat.  
 
Paul

Hello,

I'm back with an update. I had sent some images to you a few months
ago and haven't seen updates on the website...so now I forgot what it was that
I sent! Hopefully, the winter months will get us both in a better place
to keep up on this sort of thing.

Actually I'm pretty far behind on what I had hoped to do on the boat.
I have made some interesting progress. I bought a thing that looks like
a giant "rotisserie" that is big enough for a lightning. I had to modify
it to fit my boat. It allows a lightning to be turned over with only one
or two people. This should make the restoration easier. I'll then break
down the "rotisserie" and keep it for winter storage and maintenance for
next season.

I'll give you more details if you're interested.

Paul Marchand

Hi,

I've been getting some really cool shots of people's wooden lightnings
forwarded to me.  The guy who is restoring #32 has some great early 
bronze parts -beautiful art deco that seem to be original.

All the old varnish is now removed from "Osprey" and I'm just about 
ready to varnish the inside of my hull.  Since removing my deck I've discovered 
that there was no paint on the inside of the hull since new.  The deck had 
some sort of green primer under the cotton duck (could this be copper 
sulfate?).

Some of the under deck pieces never had any sort of protective coating 
on them at all -just bare mahogany.  There was very old varnish on most 
exposed areas.  There may have been a sort of tan stain applied before the 
varnish.

Some of it was painted on in a sort of wavy pattern to "enhance" the
"boring" areas of straight grain.  This looks like it was done before
assembly.  I've seen this sort of thing on old furniture. I've left a 
few areas of this in my sanding.

This is very forward; and I realize that sailing will probably be more 
fun than updating websites (since my boat isn't floating yet this remark is
partly made in jealousy).   Please see if you could get some of this 
stuff up on the sight for all to see.  I'll try to get permission from those 
guys who have sent me photos of their old wooden lightning's and forward 
them.

We could use encouragement.

Paul Marchand (#280 "Osprey")

You got it, Paul!  Keep the updates coming!!!