Eleven men put their hearts, souls, some blood, sweat and maybe even a few tears, into working on Dolphin in 2005. Not all of them made it into the pictures below, but their work and service is greatly appreciated:

Bob Rogers, Conrad Becklus, Peter Robinson, Mark Hackshaw, Peter Lewis, Jordan Scharff, Justin Becktold, Mike Marstin, Jose Estevez, Julio Estevez and Sequoia Sun.

2005 was another milestone year for Schooner Dolphin, with much accomplished and also some disappointments. Work continued through January and February as the early winter was fairly mild. As weather permitted, over the winter and spring months, the engine room, and all remaining steel inside the boat, were needle scaled, ground, wire brushed, primed with Ospho, power wire brushed and painted with two coats of marine epoxy coating. Deck beam sleepers were installed for the new aft deck to the transom. Planking continued until all but five strakes of planks are on the boat, well above the waterline everywhere. All planks were fastened, bunged, caulked, seams puttied, planed fair, sanded and made ready for paint.

Over the winter and spring Captain Charles Gruetzner of Oceanics Marine surveyed the hull. His survey confirmed the structural soundness of the steel framing and all of the planking and fastening work that we had done, but uncovered some worm holes and soft spots in many of the old planks on the bottom which we have elected to repair instead of replace. The worm damage and softness was found only in the surface one inch of the 3” thick bottom planks, so repairs could be made without replacing all of the planks.

Even still, cutting out all of the worm holes, split ends, soft spots, dried out and cracked wood, weak areas, cracks and defects was a huge job. 2-4 men worked all summer from June through September with hammer and chisels making holes in the bottom, chasing down every worm-hole, crack, split or soft spot until all that remained was strong solid wood. None of the worm holes, cracks or defects was deeper than 1” in the 3” planks, so this surface damage was filled with a mixture of marine epoxy and very fine sawdust, making an indestructible permanent repair stronger than the plank itself. Probably 40 gallons of marine epoxy and many bags of sawdust were consumed, and then the surface was planed, ground and sanded smooth and fair. Getting this done was a huge accomplishment, as now the 60 year old bottom planks are as strong and solid as the new wood going on above them, but it was a very expensive and time consuming process.

Unfortunately, disappointment was experienced due to a photographic mal-function: none of our prior year’s excellent digital photographers were available during summer of 2005, and your project manager failed in his attempted documentation of all the wonderful cutting and filling of holes in Dolphin’s bottom. Some photographs my eventually be recovered, but so far this huge and important phase of repairing the bottom planks cannot be seen. Of course, with 2 coats of primer and 2 or more coats of bottom paint, no one will ever see or know what was done anyway. Also, I am told that the fish don’t care, so maybe the loss of a few photographs is not such a big deal after all.

The other major milestone reached was finishing the entire hull up through strake 19, with just five more to go to the deck. All of the bottom and hull planks are installed, fastened, caulked, planed fair, puttied, sanded, filled, faired and sanded again, so that by September they were ready for paint. In September and October, the first coats of Red Lead Primer were rolled on to preserve and protect the wood. Dolphin now has a smooth and shining bright orange hull and bottom, ready for bottom paint and top sides finish.

(2005 Photos by Harvie Branscomb and Sequoia Sun)