C.L. Churchill - rebuilding a tug
Everybody loves a tug boat! The C.L. Churchill was donated to the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum by the Shelburne Shipyard and the Griswold family to serve as the tug for the Lois McClure schooner. She had already server as the companion to the McClure during the summer of 2005, but the boat was getting tired and her galvanized fasteners were going bad. It was determined that she would need some significant work to be ready for thier Grand Voyage down to New York city and back again in summmer of 2005.
This was a great project to be involved in. Serving as lead builder the museum supplied me with a great crew of Kerry Batdorf, Gary Fischer, and Peter Rosenfeld. As is often the case, as we opened her up the problems grew and grew. Come spring we had done a near 70% rebuild on Churchill during the winter of 2005. The rebuild included:
- new planking
- new stem
- horn timber
- transom framing
- keelson
- floor timbers
- chine log
- some frames
- shaft log
Churchill has been happily working alongside Lois for the past 3 summers, has attended 2 tug boat round-ups, and is currently (summer '07) on her way back from a trip down the Erie Canal.
- Length: 33 feet
- Beam: 11 1/2 feet
- Draft: 3 feet 11 inches
- Displacement: 20,000 pounds
- Powerplant: 120hp Ford-Lehman 6-cylinder diesel