EPISODE 396 DAMAGED 15 FOOT ROWBOAT…LOVED BY HEMINGWAY, COLERIDGE, STEINBECK…SKEOCH.
alan skeoch
July 2021
This ROWBOAT has seen better days. Someone even set it on fire
Badly damaged. My problem is
I would like to make the best of the hull…oil stain perhaps. I need advice.
step 1) today I belt sanded the burned places. Lots of black charred wood
removed. Quite a mess but the fire only damaged the first quarter inch of the hull.
step 2) wash the hull perhaps using a commercial cleaner.
step 3) HELP? OIL STAIN? SEMI TRANSPARENT STAIN? SOLID COLOUR?
The boat will never touch water again. I would just like to restore it enough to
be a good prop for movie people. Boats like this are not easy to find.
step 4: Putting the boat outside for the winter months…actually spring, summer, fall and winter months
…so it will need a generous amount of whatever seems best.
Why? Why not keep it inside a barn? That’s a good idea but I have stretched
Andrew and Nick’s patience to the breaking point. “You know dad, the boat will
have to sit outside in the weather.” He said it nicely but there was a ‘no debate’ tone
to his voice.
Keep in mind I have already filled the big barn with my sets and prop…and some spilled over
to the stable…then the paint shop and now the machinery barn. Everyone has their limits.
I need your advice … a good (and cheap if possible) all weather wood stain that will cover
up bad spots on the hull. So bad that after spending the day belt sanding and scraping
the charcoal from the surface of the hulll that I looked like a chimney sweeper from
Victorian England. Too big to go down a chimney with a brush. In victorian times
the job was reserved for skinny kids with the rubbery bones from ricketts due to the fact
those little Dickensian street kids rarely sat in the sunshine. I am not skinny nor am I
interested in cleaning chimneys.
All I want to do is create a FAKE boat. Suggest a colour and a stain that will make
my boat look good…in all kinds of weather.
CONVERSATION THAT IS ONLY IN MY MND
“Andrew, this boat is worth storing in your house let alone your machine shed.”
“I know Dad…but we need space for Bob Cats, trucks, tree planters, cement mixers…lots of things.”
“Agree…but still a little space for imagination…my imagination…I see this old rowboat
floating in places of global importance. Great writers have written about this kind of rowboat..
Hemingway, Coleridge, Steinbeck…”
“OK, Dad, we will see what we can do…after you get the charcoal cut way and penetrating oil applied.”
“Andrew, take a look at the possible movie scenes below…all would feature this rowboat.
“Enough, Dad…more than enough. We will rescue the boat for the sake of future generations
and the film industry.”
Hemingway’s story…The Old Man and the Sea…if filmed again would find my
old rowboat ideal
Dunkirk in World War Two…my rowboat fits perfectly…either abandoned or
carrying 5 or 6 men to offshore rescue ships. All that is necessary is imagination
Coleridge must have seen a boat like mine before he wrote his famous poem. “Alone, Alone, all, all alone, Alone on a wide, wide seas….”
Or adrift with the flotsam and jetsam of Steinbeck’s novel, Cannery Row.
Or..Here is the real thing…an abandoned rowboat among the shoreline grasses of Prince Edward Island.