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I am in Connecticut and would be happy to help.

Thanks for all the kind words. I just returned from a long weekend up on Lake George and we really enjoyed using the boat. If anyone has any interest in a 16ft Penn Yan in similar condition, I would consider selling her now that the Grady is done. Chris - I am happy to hear your boat is working well...

Thank you both. It was more of a project than I anticipated, but I learned a lot, enjoyed it, and really appreciated the construction of these boats. Anreas - That is a very good question. I am new to these shows and do not know the judge's criteria and did not ask, so I cannot say if the award was ...

After 2 years, and lots of help from everyone on this forum and from other wood boat owners, I finished up the restoration of my 1961 Grady-White. I received a ton of help from my friend and cabinet maker Jerry Bobela who worked with me to do ribs, transom repair and keel replacement. Here are some ...

The boat is a 17 ft 4" Grady White. I used 2 quarts each of the primer and top coat. I just finished the project after nearly 2 years on and off. I'll try to post some photos in the next day or so. Best of luck with yours!

I used 2 coats of the Pre-Kote and 2 coats of Brightside with terrific results.

I do not know if this is helpful relative to your questions on the inner keel, but I just replaced the outer keel on my Grady White so I will share what I saw there. When I laid the blank keel board on the bottom of the upside down boat, it sat flat on the boat from the transom until a few feet from...

Glad everything worked out. It is always nice when the flip is finished and the boat is back in a stable position with no damage to the boat (or the flippers). You may want to consider sliding the tires toward the centerline of the boat so that they do not stick out beyond the width of the boat. It ...

I recommend stacking the tires 2 high in all locations. You can then leave the steering wheel on, and it is a lot easier on the back painting with the boat sitting a little higher than at the single tire height. Also, it is helpful to be able to get under the boat when inserting new carriage bolts t...

I also had some splintering of the plywood surface around many of the fastener holes from removing the screws and the head of the screw lifting the top of the plywood. After removing any loose splinters, and then filling both the hole and any surrounding damage with Smith's Fill-It, everything came ...

Photo of my 16ft Penn Yan taken at the Essex Ct show last July.

Thank you both for your replies and tips. I have a good respirator. Rebecca Wittman wrote in her book that good cross ventilation is necessary if you wish to see the varnish dry. It sounds like this is not too big of a concern. Here is a photo of the hull. I need to bottom paint, flip her back and s...

I am getting ready to start varnishing all topside brightwork on the Grady White I am restoring. I've read in a couple of places that it is important to have adequate ventilation, even cross ventilation, for optimal varnishing conditions. It is also important to keep the varnish, substrate and ambie...

Yes Peter to both questions. I went to a saw mill and bought boards right after they were cut from the logs. I tried to find the boards with the straightest grain. We roughed out the ribs and then let them air dry on a rack for a few weeks. The wood was so green when we cut it that the saw blade got...

Yes Peter - I think you have it right. In your description the grrain should be vertical with the 6" X 1 1/8" board laying flat. Once you cut the boards into the 3/4" ribs, You want to pick out the pieces that have as few of the grain lines breaking through the 1 1/8" wide surfac...