The manufacture of the Peanut class dinghy was, from what I can gather, a job creation scheme that took place in Norway in the early 1960’s. You can read a bit more about it but for me, Puffin the Peanut was a great re-finishing project.
Owned by Richard since about 1964 Puffin had, by the time that I met her, been languishing un-used (in a garage) for a number of years. A quick inspection established that there was basically nothing wrong with her and that all that was really needed was a good varnish job.
Puffin’s hull, hot molded from 5 x 1mm veneers was glued up using (I guessed by the dark coloration) Resorcinol and seems to have fared at least as well as most glued laminate work done in Scandinavia at that period. Across the whole hull I found only one tiny area where the external laminate was separating from the underlying veneer. A small amount of epoxy resin injected into the void and squeezed back out soon cured that one. Other than that the only remedial work was to replace the scratched plastic rubbing strip with a light (6mm) rebated oak strip.
The thwarts were taken out and set aside to assist with re-finishing and I set to, carefully, with a heat gun.
Stripped and sanded back, the original veneers start to show through
The super lightwheight rubbing strip needs a fair number of clamps to stay in contact with the deck edge.
And once a few build coats of varnish are applied the hull starts to show her true colours.
I stopped when I got to the seventh coat but would probably of liked to add a couple more. Nevertheless, Richard was delighted with the result and saw Puffin, I think, in better condition than her had ever seen her before.
The oars, stripped, oiled and re-leathered looked, I think, fitting. She was then ready for transport back to Port Appin and her next lease of life.
