Painting a masterpiece
The restoration of a classic sailing yacht
Getting back to bare wood
Removing the paint from Maybird’s exterior and interior to get back to the bare wood required many hours of hot air guns and scraping. We were able to draft in the owner’s son, David, plus some of his student friends – Nick, Rob and Andy – in fact Nick became the expert at making nails.
John Desty
John Desty’s (john.desty@virgin.net 07879 626154) grandfather set up the Rampart Boatbuilding Company on the River Itchen at the start of the twentieth century. John served his boatbuilding apprenticeship there and ultimately took charge of the business. Although a qualified wooden boatbuilder, John subsequently specialised in painting and we managed to persuade him out of retirement to join the team.
John brought a wealth of knowledge and experience with him and I spent many a happy hour whilst painting the bilges on a weekend yarning with John about Fred Shepherd and Fred Parker. Not surprisingly, the only part of Maybird the owner was allowed to paint were the bilges – supervised by Mr Desty.
