Runabout Reflections
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The restoration process begins when the boat is brought into the shop -- many boats are in use by their owners year-round, and need only minor detailing to bring them up to show quality. Other boats have structural flaws which can be repaired or replaced.
And some few boats must be rebuilt from the skeleton up! The goal of the restoration process at Runabout Reflections is to keep as much of the original wood and hardware as possible, replacing only what is structurally damaged beyond repair, and refinishing the original materials into top condition.
Keeping the boat's appearance as close as possible to the original is especially important for owners who wish to enter their boats in the many judged shows held year-round in different lake-front communities across the United States. At these shows, boats are judged for the authenticity of their restorations, as well as more objective quality-assesments of their appearance.
Certain improvements on the original boats are allowed by the judges, including some kinds of engine improvement, and the installation of an improved cold-molded "West System" bottom -- in some shows, a single point (out of 100) may be lost for such changes to the original boat, but because these craft are working boats, the small loss of official points is worth the improvement in the boat for most owners.
When the original planks must be removed because of damage or excessive wear, they can often be stripped, refinished, and put back on the boat. Hull and topside planks must be stained to a specific authentic color (depending on the year, model, and manufacturer of the boat) and then covered with up to 12 coats of varnish. The top coat of varnish is reverently called the "Final Coat," and must attain a mirror-like finish, making the boat truly impressive, and beautiful in the water.
When the original wood of the side hull is too damaged to repair, it is replaced with new planks, which are "book-matched" -- that is, each plank is split lengthwize and the mirror-image sides of the plank are placed on either side of the boat. The two sides of the boat are then the mirror-image of each other, ensuring a visual sense of whole-ness in the craft.
Whenever anything must be replaced on a boat, Runabout Reflections contacts the Mariner's Museum in Newport News, VA, for the original shipping records of the boat, and for information about the materials used in the boat when it was first built. In this way, the authenticity of the craft is ensured.
Still, individual people are often the best sources of information about "old woodies." During a restoration, Roy Domke contacts experts across the country by phone and fax, gathering reliable information about the original materials and designs of the boat he is working on.
The care and detail-work that goes into a restoration project is well-represented by this image. Each screw in every plank on the boat is counter-sunk, and then the holes are filled with wooden plugs --
thousands of them, as you see here, in this view of the port side of one boat.
Then, each plug is knocked flush with the planks, leaving the side of the boat a continuous meshwork of wood, with no chinks or holes.
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