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Blake
Boatworks
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P.O. Box 91
Gloucester, North Carolina
(252) 729-8021
blake@blakeboatworks.com
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Weekly Update
Notes from the Field - "Cherokee" Huckins Restoration Project
February 18, 2004 Gray skies, sleet,
snow flurries, and rain. It must be February! Below, Cherokee's deck is slick and wet, with "leaves" of teak
shavings blown in the corner. Bryan and Chris have completed the decking and border. They are now trimming out the covering
boards with an additional 1 5/8 inch of teak glued beneath the 7/8 inch thick covering boards to give a 2.5 inch
reveal around the entire cockpit. Isn't it funny how we stubborn Americans still measure according to inches instead of centimeters?
Completed Teak Cockpit
Cockpit Decking, Starboard and Port View
Above, details of the cockpit decking are shown. Pictured left is the decking near the
starboard hawsehole/scupper and cleat. On the right is the area by the transom
door, port hawsehole, and rear engine hatch.
Howard and Leland Preparing Windows
It's a family affair
these days with the Blakeworks crew - the new painters are father/son team Leland and Howard Day. When they aren't painting they work
as party boat captains and commercial fishermen. Above Howard is
preparing the galley windows for painting.
Howard and Leland are also shown below preparing the galley area. To the right in the pilot house is our other family team, Caroline Brice, her
mother Margaret Willis, and mother-in-law Sharon Hunt. What do these women have in common besides kin? They're all hard
workers and love Arabian horses that they raise, train, and ride like the wind!
Family Teams Sanding, Painting, and Varnishing
Caroline Sanding between Helm and Electrical Panel
Leonard is gluing together the flybridge console which will house the upper station controls, and fiberglassing it. It will soon be
installed high on the flybridge, and work on the aluminum halftower will begin.
Leonard Building Flybridge Console
Console with Lloyd and CBCII in Background
So what's the story behind the CBCII that Lloyd is working on? The CBCII was originally
called Miss Ruth, and was built in 1956 by Carlie Willis of Davis, NC. Her hull is
made of juniper planking over sawn frames, and she only draws 2.8 feet.
Desiged to ferry vehicles out to Core Banks, Miss Ruth ran a little over 33 feet long, but
was lengthened in 1983 to 36.5 feet. She was also widened from 9.2 to 12.8 feet across!
The Core Banks Club bought and renamed Miss Ruth to the CBCII in 1987, using her as a workboat to
haul vehicles, fuel, and supplies to their clubhouse. When the Club's lease with the National Park Service expired
in '99, she was deployed to lug the club's possessions off Cape Lookout. What does the future
hold for this faithful workhorse? New owners Lee McAllister and John Hagan explain that
Lloyd will "convert her to a large houseboat that we will use as a mother ship when we are
hunting in Core Sound and fishing at the hook." The CBCII will once again be called the Miss
Ruth, and be fitted with a V-berth and stateroom for four. So like the Cherokee, she will
cruise bravely into the 21st Century as a spiffier version of her former self. Signing off for now, Barbara "Fish Doctor" Blake
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