Dublin Bay Sailing Club 21 Footer Restoration

10/09/2026

Maureens coachroof framed out nearly ready for its yellow cedar tongue and groove planking.James Madigan keeps plugging away patiently,largely on his own this past while until other work in the yard begins to quieten down and we can get a team with him again.
Mast,spars,rudder,forehatch,sliding coachroof hatch,cockpit sole and benches and ofcourse the multiple coats of paint and varnish to go before she is on the road to Dun Laoghaire.
Maureen will retain her strong red topside colour,it will be striking.

23/07/2026

https://www.heritageweek.ie/event-listings/the-restoration-of-the-dublin-bay-21-sailing-fleet

An event in the Kilrush boatyard workshop for heritage week,if you are in the area you may find this interesting

Renowned shipwright Steve Morris will talk about the restoration of the Dublin Bay 21 Series fleet at Kilrush Boatyard. The Dublin Bay fleet are the world’s o...

28/06/2026

An interesting line up of talks and walks as part of the Carrigaholt Maritime festival July 10th,11th and 12th,you will see i am to give a talk on the restoration of the DB21 fleet,Criostor McCarthy of Traditional boats of Ireland fame,now living locally full time,speaks on friday evening and Mae Leonard will recount an interesting story of three local families who built boats,put their families aboard amd sailed to America during the great famine.Theres plenty of on the water activity planned,currach regatta saturday,the 3 local st Ayles skiffs and their clubs will race on sunday,Sally o Keeffe will be doing short trips in the bay,theres a swim planned and dinghy sailors from Kilrush will be on the water.
The festival highlight for me has been the series of talks covering a wide range of marine related topics,something there for everyone!

22/04/2026

Maureens first layer of 10mm Brynzeel marine plywood scarphed together in place.Beams will be marked on the underside before removal and routing of v grooves to mimick laid decking,it will then be painted with a two pack system and glued down.Second layer of 10mm will be glued on top,the deck edges routed back and capped with a strip of solid before the whole deck is sheathed with 2 layers of 280 gm twill weave glass cloth set in ampro epoxy resin.

19/02/2026

Here we see James building the rudder trunking box,you can see he has bored through the horn timbers for the rudder stock.This area was traditionally troublesome,on a few of the original hulls metal pipes had been retro fitted inside the box to try and control the leaks.Modern glues mean we can build a watertight trunking box which,with the usual caveats,should give long and trouble free service.
In the second image you can see the two mast beams with hanging knees and the mast partner glued in.

24/11/2025

Maureen's new hull turned over and ready to move into the fitting out berth,build platform in the foreground now clear for boat 7,Inishfallen,to start taking shape.
Hull weight is around 700kg,the simple plywood wheels make a smooth job of turning the hull off the build platform.

17/10/2025

Here we have a strong monocoque new hull for Maureen,16mm yellow cedar strip on laminated khaya frames and iroko centreline with 2x1.5mm utile veneers over the cedar.
After laminating a mahogany nosing onto the stem face and capping the plank edges around the keel face with solid mahogany we will sheath the hull with 2x layers of 280gm twill weave glass cloth set in gurits ampro epoxy resin,spray a high build epoxy primer over all,mark the waterline and turn her over ready to marry onto Maureen's original 2 ton lead ballast casting.

16/10/2025

An interesting study in construction detail here,the two Portrush DB21 keels have well cut dovetail sockets in the keels to accept the mainframe heels,their iron strap floors were fastened to the keel with two 5/8" bronze bolts,the steam bent timbers were not fastened to the keel at all,merely sitting into a shallow cutout,I would guess this was just to locate them.The near keel is almost certainly greenheart,I haven't scraped away at the second Portrush keel to determine what timber it is but I suspect it may be oak.
Hollweys of the Liffey did something different,their keel has no dovetail for the mainframe heels,just a bevelled socket with no apparent fastening,iron strap floors again with just a single bolt through the keel,5/8" again i think,however the steamed timbers are fully socketed into the keel and fastened with a single bronze screw.
All three boats sailed successfully for near enough 80 years,whatever your thoughts on the merits of one method over the other this fact might say enough?

18/09/2025

Here we see Martin Rosenstedt,back with us for a few weeks from Finland,fitting the first few 1.5mm sipo veneers to Maureen's new hull.There will be two veneer layers glued with epoxy,this will then be sheathed with two layers of 280gm twill weave glass cloth also set in epoxy resin.The hull will then be sanded off,painted with a two pack high build epoxy primer,the waterline will be marked with the laser level and she's then ready for rolling over so the fitting out process can begin,one of the first jobs after rollover will be marrying this new hull to Maureen's original 2 tonne lead ballast casting.

22/08/2025

Strip planking proceeding nicely on Maureen's new hull,we will be gluing two 1.5mm mahogany(sipo)veneers diagonally across the completed strip planking before lightly epoxy sheathing the hull(2x280gm twill woven cloth) then she will be ready for rollover.