[L16-usa] Noteworthy Luders Restoration

[Sturgis Haskins]

NOTE:  This was sent to the Luders Newsgroup 26 hours ago and rejected
as consuming two many mega-somethings.  I am resubmitting without
photographs which we will forwarded independently..
>     
> As copied from the April 7, 2005 ELLSWORTH AMERICAN, Ellsworth, Maine
> 
> Out with the Old
> 
> L-16 UNDERGOES MARVELOUS TRANSFORMATION
> 
By Aaron Porter, The Ellsworth American, Ellsworth, Maine

> BAR HARBOR - Jim Elk's shop has become the clinic and counseling
> center for sailors afflicted with the recent mania for aging L-16s.
> 
> His Bar Harbor shop has been the site of a number of resurrections
> since the Southwest Harbor Fleet revived racing of the elegant little
> sloops in 2002.  Last week, another restored classic Luders was
> pulled, gleaming from the shop. But ANDVARI is different from the
> others. First of all, she's not going to be staying in the
> neighborhood.  The Reece twins, Nat and Brooke, who summered on Mount
> Desert Island, will keep their restored sloop in Padanaram, Mass.
> Secondly, she's not made of wood.
> 
> "This is the first fiberglass boat I've ever worked on, "Elk said.
> Looking at the boat, his preference for wood is obvious. ANDVARI,
> which arrived from her competitive past in Mississippi was
> less-than-beautiful when she got here. Her yellow hull, originally
> built in Louisiana in 1972, was pocked with blisters from water damage
> where the molded seats were attached to the hull and around the chain
> plates.
> 
> Elk said the hull was brought into the shop in October, and he
> immediately ground the blistered areas to allow them to dry. But there
> was more water in the aging hull.  The void in her keel was filled
> with water. A hole had to be drilled to drain it.
> 
> The deck had been made of balsa wood sandwiched between layers of
> fiberglass. Water had made its way in there, as well. Elk said panels
> of soggy balsa had to be cut out and replaced with new wood and
> fiberglass.  A nonskid that had been molded into the original
> fiberglass deck surface was ground off, and the entire deck was
> puttied, along with the hull, in preparation for finishing.
> 
> Her new deck surface is painted white with a full dose of nonskid for
> traction. IT looks as much like a painted canvas deck as a fiberglass
> deck can. The hull was hand painted with Awl grip to a glossy blue
> finish. However, Elk's real accomplishments can be best seen in the
> custom woodwork that graces the revived fiberglass hull.
> 
> The most notable change is the distinctive rounded trunk cabin that
> sits on every L-16. The fiberglass model sat like dull-panted bubble
> just ahead of the cockpit. IT had no ports nor bulkhead between the
> cockpit and cuddy. Looking at ANDVARI's wooden sisters in Elk's shop,
> it is easy to see that there had to be a change. The classic L-16
> sloops had the same curved cabin only they were made of laminated
> mahogany and were raced with two ports cut into the side. Elk ground
> the fiberglass housetop, and cut mahogany laminates to fit over it.
> Using epoxy, he essentially sheathed the trunk cabin in wood.
> 
> To install a bulkhead in the boat, Elk was able to use one he'd taken
> out of an old wooden Luders as a pattern to make a new one. It marries
> beautifully to the aft end of the cabin he sheathed.
> 
> Working aft, the cockpit was next to see major changes. The thin wood
> coaming that had passed for elegant trim on ANDVARI's previous
> incarnation proved to be inadequate. Again, using the coaming from an
> old Luders as a form, Elk was able to make a jib on which new coamings
> could be laminated. Using three layers of quarter-inch mahogany, he
> created new coamings for ANDVARI.  The boat's original molded seats
> were thrown out and replaced with elegant mahogany bench seating, all
> varnished and well matched to the new coaming and cabin.
> 
> "Basically, it looks like one these wood Luders now," Elk said,
> walking through the few hulls still in his shop, some awaiting
> rebuilds, others resurrection.
> 
> He pointed out the weakness of the original laminated L-126's that
> were made of mahogany veneers glued together with a heat-cured glue.
> The hulls were literally baked in a vacuum bag.  Over the years, the
> hulls stayed very strong unless they got water soaked up into the
> laminates. Specifically, an area of the hull just forward of the fin
> keep shows the frequent failures.
> 
> Elk is very familiar with what has gone wrong with the wood models,
> but the fiberglass hull was new to him.  And white he doesn't relish
> fiberglass work, he said he's proud of the transformation of ANDVARI.
> 
> "I almost got more satisfaction from that one than working on the wood
> ones, just because it was so ugly when it came in, ":he said, looking
> out at the new ANDVARI as she waited for her owners just outside his
> shop.
> 
> SH note: Aaron Porter is the Paper's very prized waterfront reporter.
> He is the great nephew of famed  late photographer Eliot Porter and
> his brother, painter Fairfield Porter. Aaron still summers on the
> family's large island, Great Spruce Head, on Maine's island-dotted
> Penobscot Bay.  The island was the subject of many of the two
> brothers' finest work.
> 
> No less than four Luders are in one of the photos.  A 5th is out of
> view to the rear.
> 
> 
> 
> 
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