Photo of boat from ad.
Seller had no idea either. Came with the house he bought. Had let it sit in the yard for about 6 years before finally deciding he wanted it out of there.
Sail, mast, boom, rudder, center board all present and in good shape.(obviously those had been stored inside, thank goodness) Hull obviously needs painting but otherwise complete, solid and water tight (it spent the first night I had it in the lake to verify that) Pretty much all the wood was shot. Front seat in ok shape. Mid seat in ok shape but had notches cut in it to accomodate an alternative seating layout. Rest of wood was gone or completely rotted.
I had no idea what I had taken possession of. A little bit of googling around and I learned I had a Cape Dory 10, a somewhat highly regarded little, vintage boat. Well lucky me. A little estimating was going to lead to a decision as to whether I would take on the project or I would take it to the dump vs the guy who gave it to me. A conversation with a friend who recently restored a much larger boat made me lean toward proceeding. She said if I didnt do it, she would take it. i decided I could bring it back for the amount of money I was willing to invest, but it is definitely going to be done "economically" to give me a boat that looks OK and sails, but I certainly wasnt going to be dropping $600 on fresh mahogany all around. But on the other hand, I was not going to slap some pressure treated plywood down either. At first, wood prices came close to scaring me off and I thought of alternatives. Heavily treated (CPES or tons of varnish?) soft wood, or maybe similarly treated mahogany plywood? A little more research turned up some 1 x 6 mahogany planks for about $3 a foot. Unheard of. Of course that would require pairing up the 1 x 6s to make 1 x 10 seats, but that would look fine.
My plan was to take photos as I go and eventually write up the project for my other boating friends to see (I am primarily a vintage/somewhat newish ski boat person - have been for over 40 years - not including my growing up years with my famiy's boats) But then I decided I would chronical the project here with the primary goal of being able to ask all of you questions as I go and graciously accept comments and suggestions. So, feel free to offer ideas, opinions comments. I will update as I proceed.
So far I have rough sanded the outside of the hull, but then flipped it as I dont want to paint the outside when I will be doing most of the work on the inside. When that is done, I will flip it back. I've removed what what was left of the gunwale wood (not much) sanded the inside and inventoried what wood I need to replace for the seats. As you can see, someone along the way reconfigured the back seats, running planks from back seat to middle seat. I am going back to the original U configuration.
Wish me luck