Sunk, lost, recovered and rescued

David Moss Boatbuilders has been hard at work on the restoration of a 1912 Rivers Class racing yacht called Severn, built at the well known yard of Crossfields of Arnside for the Royal Mersey YC. Just before World

War One, she sank in the River Mersey and was not recovered until 1927 when she was found to be in pretty good condition. Arnside SC located her in Essex about five years ago, purchased her with help from the Heritage Lottery Fund and brought her back to Arnside. When she came to David Moss she had a small cabin which has now been removed to revert her to her original open layout with deep coamings.

She is planked in pitch pine on an oak backbone with sawn oak frames and steamed oak timbers alternating. These frames had all been doubled several times and fastened with iron boat nails which were no longer holding the planking. The steamed timbers had been fastened with copper nails that had suffered from nail sickness. There were several steel Pozidrive screws fixing the planking that had corroded in the saltwater and were therefore difficult to remove.

Work started with removing pairs of sawn frames in stages and replacing them with laminated oak frames. These were tied across the wood keel with laminated oak floors. All the steamed timbers were replaced, copper nailed and riveted. All the laminated frames were refastened with bronze screws and plugged.

A new keelson was made and fastened through the floors to the wood keel with bronze bolts. A new stern knee was made and bolted in.

The half-tonne iron ballast keel was sand-blasted, coated with epoxy tar and bolted to the new keelson with stainless steel bolts. Most of the planking was sound but a lot of poor repair had to be rectified. The counter was rebuilt using pitch pine from old beams, and the rudder trunk was replaced. Some planks, including the sheer planks and garboards, have been replaced in iroko. The outer stem and forefoot have been replaced in oak bolted through the laminated apron. Future work will include new plywood deck coamings and a new deck-stepped spruce mast. Also at the yard is a 27ft (8.2m) rowing skiff that has lost its shape over the years. The boat has been partially stripped and will be put back to shape then varnished overall.