{"id":607,"date":"2013-11-16T16:42:55","date_gmt":"2013-11-16T20:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/?p=607"},"modified":"2013-11-16T16:54:09","modified_gmt":"2013-11-16T20:54:09","slug":"rebuilding-the-dyer-dinghy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/2013\/11\/16\/rebuilding-the-dyer-dinghy\/","title":{"rendered":"Rebuilding the Dyer Dinghy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dyer<\/a>
The newly-rebuilt Dyer on the shore of Little Bay.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dyer<\/a>
The Dyer, as I found her<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The little Dyer (actually a Dyer “Midget” low-sheer) was a restoration project that had been started by someone else when I found it. \u00a0The disassembly portion of the work was complete. \u00a0I had bought a pile of parts with no instructions, leaving me scratching my head over what to do next.<\/p>\n

On our way north this summer, we stopped in at the Dyer factory in Warren, RI, to buy pre-bent pieces of wood that would be fashioned into the new rubrail and clamp. \u00a0These pieces give the dinghy most of its strength; provide a place for attaching the oarlocks and hanging knees (for the thwarts), and generally hold the boat in its proper shape. \u00a0Before departing North Carolina, I had already experimented with trying to bend thin pieces of wood around the fiberglass shell to try to laminate a new rubrail. The thin, unsupported fiberglass hull complained and deformed under the load of trying to bend even 1\/8″ wood around its edge. After those efforts, I decided that it would not be worth the time to try to save the cost of purchasing new, strong, steam-bent pieces of white oak from the factory. \u00a0Otherwise, I would need to build a support for the hull to hold it in the proper shape with enough strength to form the new rubrails around it.<\/p>\n

The stop at the Dyer factory was worth it. \u00a0They provided heaps of information about how to go about the reconstruction of my dinghy, gave a tour of the factory working areas, recounted much about the history of the Dyer dinghies, and answered every question that I could come up with. \u00a0I took a couple of pictures of some of the construction details that I knew I would have trouble with later, but as soon as I was observed to be taking pictures, I was told that they didn’t want me to take any more. \u00a0Dyer doesn’t mind sharing \u00a0most of their secrets, but they probably don’t want someone publishing the details. \u00a0That is more than fair. \u00a0I wasn’t asked to delete the pictures that I had taken, though I had offered to do so, and for that I am thankful, as they did help me work out some details during the rebuild. \u00a0I won’t publish the pictures that they let me take, so all of the pictures here are of my own boat at home. \u00a0Dyer also provided measurements for the placement of all the hardware in the boat, which was particularly helpful, as I had not seen my dinghy before it had been taken to pieces.<\/p>\n

\"Dyer<\/a>
Fitting the new guard at the bow. It doesn’t want to bend like that!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The rebuilding process was not quite as straightforward as I had hoped. \u00a0Fitting the new rubrail (the “guard”, which goes around the outside rim of the hull), and clamp (which goes around the inside of the hull) was more complicated than just putting them in place and hand-peening nearly 100 copper rivets. \u00a0The new pieces of steam-bent white oak still needed a fair amount of coaxing and a bit of shaping to fit the hull.<\/p>\n

\"Dyer<\/a>
“New” transom board made from the old center thwart.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I started by turning the old aft thwart into a new transom by trimming it to size, as the old transom did not come with the boat. \u00a0It had presumably rotted away. \u00a0The new transom piece is a bit thinner than the original, and has some “character” from its former life as a thwart. \u00a0It was bedded in place, but not glued, as the factory told me that gluing can cause problems in the future if the piece ever needs to be replaced again.<\/p>\n

\"Dyer<\/a>
Riveting the new rubrail to the bow<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The next task was to fit the new gunwhale clamp and guard. \u00a0Dyer provides them as a kit, which is comprised of the wood, copper rivets, a couple of wood plugs and screws, and instructions. \u00a0First, I sanded and planed the inside, bottom edge of the forward part of the clamp so that it would fit into place against the compound curve of the hull. \u00a0Dyer had instructed me to do this, but I had to remove a bit more material than I would have guessed. \u00a0The forward part of the clamp was drilled to accept rivets, using the old holes in the hull as a guide. \u00a0The port-side guard was then held in place with “C” clamps and drilled to accept the rivets. \u00a0This sounds easier than it was, as the curve at the very end of the bow was tighter than the bend in the new piece of wood. \u00a0I bent a few of my small, cheap “C” clamps trying to get enough pressure on that piece to get it firmly into place. \u00a0Rivets were placed before fitting the starboard guard, which also resisted a tight fit at the bow. \u00a0No matter how I tried, when I put the starboard guard in place, a small gap would open up where the two pieces butted together at the bow, as pressure from the new wood pieces changed the shape of the hull slightly. \u00a0In the end, after a few attempts, I got the gap down to around 1\/16 of an inch, which I can live with.<\/p>\n

\"Dyer<\/a>
Almost finished fitting the new clamp and guard!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The remaining pieces of the clamp and guard were trimmed, fit into place, drilled, and riveted following the excellent instructions provided by Dyer. \u00a0I won’t go into all of the details here, because Dyer has already got this covered. \u00a0Fitting the aft sections of the clamp and guard was easy when compared with the frustratingly difficult bow sections. \u00a0The whole process took me probably about 30 hours of work spread over about a week. \u00a0I had to frequently step back to figure out how exactly to proceed with one detail or another, and the fitting process took me a long time, as I don’t have much experience shaping and working with wood.<\/p>\n

\"Dyer<\/a>
Rubrail complete. Cutting new aft thwart; skeg; etc.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once the clamp and guard were in place, the little Dyer had some strength to its form and could be moved around much easier than before. \u00a0Now it was time to cut new pieces for the aft thwart; skeg; and daggerboard case support. \u00a0These were made out of some marine plywood I had left over from another project. \u00a0The aft thwart is lightly glassed in place from below with a small amount of tabbing, as I was shown by Dyer, and has a vertical support in the center to transfer loads to the keel. \u00a0I had coated the underside of the new thwart with epoxy before tabbing it into place, and I had to use a heater to get the epoxy to cure, as the days were too cold for it to work properly. \u00a0This almost caused a disaster, as the thwart warped from the combination of heat and uneven sealing. \u00a0Luckily, I caught the problem before the epoxy was hard. \u00a0I was able to wedge the thwart back into the proper shape. \u00a0Once the epoxy cured, it was fine. \u00a0Had I not caught it, I would have had to cut the piece out; clean up all the surfaces, and start that portion of the project over again.<\/p>\n

\"Dyer<\/a>
New skeg almost complete–ready for glass<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I built the new skeg from two thicknesses of my piece of leftover plywood. \u00a0It was carefully fit to the bottom of the boat. \u00a0Further, I protected the boat with mylar tape where the skeg would sit, and then coated it with epoxy; pushed it in place; and let it cure. \u00a0This provides a perfect fit and a solid base for the skeg. \u00a0Holes were drilled for bolts sent in from the bottom of the skeg. \u00a0The aft-most bolt does not go all the way through the skeg, as I couldn’t find one long enough. \u00a0Instead, I potted a 3 1\/2 inch machine screw in thickened epoxy. \u00a0They are backed up by nuts and big fender washers on the inside to avoid over-stressing the hull if a heavy load ever gets placed on the skeg. \u00a0The boat showed old signs of stress-cracks in the skeg-attachment area, so I decided on this attachment method, which differs from the factory. \u00a0They use screws from the inside of the boat. \u00a0The skeg got 4 layers of 6-ounce fiberglass cloth and epoxy on the bottom to protect it from the wear it will eventually see on beaches. \u00a0I finished it with white Interlux Brightsides polyurethane.<\/p>\n

\"Dyer<\/a>
Fitting all of the hardware. There are hundreds of fasteners in this 7′ 9″ boat!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With the glass-work complete, I moved on to fitting the hardware that attaches the remaining two thwarts into the boat. \u00a0I didn’t have bronze screws, so I bought new stainless fasteners. \u00a0I wanted the strength of bolts for the hanging knees and breast-hooks, so I sunk washers into the new rubrail. \u00a0It would have saved many hours of work to just have sent the bolts in from the outside, but the bronze pieces were all countersunk for screws. \u00a0I wanted the strength of good contact with the shoulder of the countersinking, so I sent the bolts (actually machine screws) through from that side. \u00a0Each fastener had to be cut to length and the threads cleaned up so that it would thread into its mating nut.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Dyer<\/a>
Nuts sunk into the new rubrail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I assembled the whole boat, including the daggerboard case and the piece that ties it to the center thwart, to make sure that everything fit properly. \u00a0Then, I took it all apart. \u00a0The new wood was all given at least three coats of varnish, and all of the plywood pieces were sealed with epoxy in addition to varnish (or paint for the skeg). \u00a0Only then was everything finally fitted with bedding compound.<\/p>\n

\"Dyer<\/a>
Finished, and only 74 pounds! (without flotation foam)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

I am sure that I could have built a simple dinghy for the hours that I put into this project, but now that I have used my “new” Dyer for a week, I feel that it was worth it. \u00a0These dinghies have been in production for more than 50 years for good reason. \u00a0They are wonderful tenders–lightweight; tough; reasonably fast; and relatively stable while providing good carrying capacity. \u00a0The Dyer factory is an outstanding resource, and will provide parts, and answers to any questions you might have if you are ever tempted to do as I did and restore one of their great little dinghies.<\/p>\n