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RITAMinett Motor Boat Works
1914 50' Day Cruiser 200 HP Sterling Petrel Engine |
RITA is an elegant, one-of-a-kind, 50' day cruiser designed and built by H.C. Minett in 1914, a product of the early years of his boatbuilding career. Restoration work involved replacing the bottom in its entirety with new steam bent ribs, floors, stringers, lower portions of planking and transom, keel, stem and fore foot, skeg, shaft log, and rudder. The shaft was reworked, and the 1930's Sterling Petrel Engine was rebuilt.
Photographs are presented highlighting the meticulous process of the restoration of RITA. To follow along, RITA leaves her boathouse home of more than 100 years on Cinderwood Island in Lake Muskoka, arrives at Tom Adams shop in Port Carling where she is lifted from the trailer with a specially made RITA gantry. The engine and ancillary equipment are removed from the boat. Existing structural components to be replaced are removed through carefully planned steps of deconstruction designed to retain the structural integrity of the hull form. For example, the new, steam bent, green white oak ribs are replaced in a staggered sequence of every 4th rib along the length of the boat. New stringers and floors are fabricated from African Mahogany. New keel, stem, fore foot, skeg and shaft log are fabricated and installed. RITA's mahogany, carvel planks are riveted to ribs and screwed to floors. New planking begins with the garboards where the plank is bedded in the rabbet in the keel and progresses until the final plank or shutter plank is installed. The engine was reinstalled and RITA returned to Cinderwood Island.
Photographs are presented highlighting the meticulous process of the restoration of RITA. To follow along, RITA leaves her boathouse home of more than 100 years on Cinderwood Island in Lake Muskoka, arrives at Tom Adams shop in Port Carling where she is lifted from the trailer with a specially made RITA gantry. The engine and ancillary equipment are removed from the boat. Existing structural components to be replaced are removed through carefully planned steps of deconstruction designed to retain the structural integrity of the hull form. For example, the new, steam bent, green white oak ribs are replaced in a staggered sequence of every 4th rib along the length of the boat. New stringers and floors are fabricated from African Mahogany. New keel, stem, fore foot, skeg and shaft log are fabricated and installed. RITA's mahogany, carvel planks are riveted to ribs and screwed to floors. New planking begins with the garboards where the plank is bedded in the rabbet in the keel and progresses until the final plank or shutter plank is installed. The engine was reinstalled and RITA returned to Cinderwood Island.
