01 - Project Corsair: FLBM Launch Restoration -
July 21–24, 2026
Four days at the Finger Lakes Boating Museum marked the official launch of Project Corsair— Cal Coffey '74 and Bill Strobel '76 collaborated on the project and restoration plans of careful deconstruction, bold design decisions, and the first steps toward bringing this historic shell back to life.
Work Date: July 20 - 23, 2026
Work Project 01
Deconstruction Work
Tuesday 7/20: Bill showed up and met the volunteers, Cal showed up and we gave the boat a good going over, then in the afternoon we began disassembly. We removed the stretchers, foot plates, and the seat tracks.
Wednesday Morning 7/21: we continued to remove some stubborn seat track mounting blocks and began removing the seat braces at the bow seat. Each seat has 5 seat braces for a total of 40 seat braces. Each seat brace is unique due to the varying width of the shell and the fact the seat tracks go downhill so each brace is different for width and depth.
Thursday Afternoon 7/22: Cleaned the inside of the boat of miscellaneous junk and dirt. That’s when I noticed the coxswain’s seat was missing. I guess they needed the wood for another project? Then I looked at the rudder bell crank and found this. They took a 4 oz piece of metal and fixed with a 2 lb. chunk of steel. Also notice how they hid their handy work by trimming the patch to the shape of the bell crank and hid how the metal was attached, nice. Cal Is going to weld it and I’ll detail it out. Also the stern hatch is missing; more wood they needed I guess?
Friday Morning 7/23: Cal and Maggie came by the museum; Maggie had a meeting. I had the bow and stern section on the set-up table. I had removed the stern covering to get a better look at the interior bracing and it looks pretty good. There is some hull damage that should be an easy fix.
_JPG.jpg)
_JPG.jpg)
New Design & Parts
Wednesday afternoon 7/21: Cal had brought a very nice piece of aircraft quality Sika Spruce for the seat braces and we decided to start milling it. It was then that we noticed that the seat braces were actually laminated with 3 pieces of 1/8” spruce so after milling the wood Cal decided to rip into 1/8’ strips at his house on his band saw. We then decided to mill the X brace strips. We found some mahogany, planned it to thickness and cut into 50” lengths. The below pictures show just some the damage uncovered once we got the foot stretchers, foot plates, and seat tracks out of the way. Also everywhere you see a cross brace that is 2 pieces of wood, that brace is broke and needs replaced.
Friday Morning 7/23: Cal wanted to work on the bow section splash boards, so we found some mahogany, planned it to thickness and started to go to work. We first made a template out of cardboard. Afterwards Cal wrote me and said after looking at a picture from 1973 we got too much angle in the prow, so we will have to redo it.
Rebuilding
Thursday Morning 7/22/26: showed up and got to work as the mahogany strips milled Wednesday we decided to repair the X brace at the #7 seat. After a few hours of work, the brace was repaired and the first new piece was ready. The new looking wood below is what was made.
Friday Morning 7/23/26: After doing some mock up design of the bow splash guard, we started building the splash guard out of wood and ready it to put in place.
FLBM Teamwork
The restoration of the Corsair is a collaborative journey, deeply supported by the expert craftsmanship and archival resources of the Finger Lakes Boating Museum (FLBM). This partnership brings together alumni oarsmen and professional boat builders to meticulously deconstruct and evaluate every inch of the historic wooden hull. FLBM is the perfect partner given the storage, equipment, resources and restoration skills brought by many at the museum
