The days are warm and clear, the nights cool and crisp with a hint of wood smoke. Roadside signs advertising crabs have disappeared and been replaced by signs advertising shrink wrap, and oysters reappear on local menus. There can be no doubt: Autumn has returned to the Chesapeake. Our boatshops are gearing up for the fall lay-up season, but first come the Annapolis Boat Shows. Meg Roney of Mathews Brothers in Denton, MD, sent us an update: “We completed the Eastport 32 in mid-August and have been completing repairs on the road at owner’s docks and here at the shop. On the road, we’ve replaced port lights in a Robbins 40, troubleshooting minor repairs such as battery connections, Honda outboard service, and replacing navigational lights. Here at the shop, we’re putting final touches on a 1950s-era 14-foot Wolverine outboard runabout refit and upgrades to a couple of brokerage boats. We’re gearing up for fall which entails hauling customers’ boats from their docks, boat shows, and our Annual Fall Festival — see mathewsboats.com for details! We will bring the Patriot 29 II up from Florida in time to get spruced up for the Annapolis Powerboat Show; this will include fresh varnish and general maintenance. We will also be taking her down for the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show in the end of October, so she can be seen at both shows before returning to her home in Palm Beach.” [gallery type="rectangular" ids="6254,6255,6256,6259,6258,6257"] Dave Hannam with Classic Watercraft Restoration in Annapolis reports it has been a great month in the woodshop. Dave just completed the sea trial on the fully restored 1990 Hackercraft 22-foot Gin Mill and delivered her to the happy owner who has been cruising each weekend out on the Bay. What’s in the shop now are two Lymans. The 23-foot 1967 Sportsman Della Louise is currently receiving coating repairs to the top deck, and the rare 13-foot 1927 runabout is in for transom repairs. Dave is looking forward to moving the little Garwood Speedster 16-foot replica back into the shop for a big push to complete the build and get her onto the Rhode River, so he can “drive it like he stole it.” Boatyard Manager Michael Gorman of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, MD, reports the dovetail (also known as a drake tail or a ducktail) Martha is getting work done this fall on her topsides and engine. Martha will be receiving new 42-foot, one-piece topside planks, frames, and bronze fastenings. Once she’s hauled out, her Oldsmobile 455 cubic inch V-8 will be removed and sent out for overhaul, sandblasting, and fresh paint. After she is put back together, Martha will be receiving new paint top to bottom, zincs, and any cotton caulking needing replacement. The Hooper Island dovetail was built in 1934 in Wingate, MD, by Bronza Parks and donated to the museum’s collections in 1983 by Mr. and Mrs. David W. Glass. Now, she is part of CBMM’s floating fleet of Chesapeake workboats and can be seen dockside or out on the Miles River in St. Michaels. Susan Campbell of Campbell’s Boat Yards in Oxford, MD, sent us this report: “We have Nostalgia, a 35-foot 1961 Chris Craft, tucked in our Jack’s Point shop for restoration over this coming winter. We will remedy some lingering rot and leak issues as well as paint and varnish. She will be complete, shining, and ready to be shown at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum Classic Boat Show in June, 2015.” [gallery type="rectangular" link="file" ids="6251,6249,6248,6252,6253" orderby="rand"] Buster Phipps of Phipps Boat Works in Tracys Landing, MD, has completed work on his crab skiff. “This is a 17-foot crab skiff. We built her last winter out of plywood and then glassed it completely and faired, sanded, and painted it with AWLGRIP paint. We built it to go crabbing with a trotline. Hopefully, it will be around for years,” he explains. “We were going to build more this summer, but we got so busy with repairs in the shop that we never got to it.” Patrick Callahan from Worton Creek Marina in Chestertown, MD, reports that work is progressing well on the refit of the 46-foot Post Yacht reported last month. In addition to the continuing “remanufacturing” of a Bertram 31, the crew has taken on the new project of replacing the transom on a 23-foot Sea Craft outboard center console. At Chesapeake Light Craft (CLC) in Annapolis, the boat kit experts have installed a new, state-of-the-art CNC (Computer Numerical Control) router system to handle increased demand for precision-cut boat parts and kits. With a catalog of more than 100 different boat kits — kayaks, canoes, rowing, and sailing craft from eight to 20 feet in length — the upgrade will enhance the company’s efficiency and versatility. The machine was built for CLC by C.R. Onsrud, a 100-year-old company near Charlotte, NC. The new six-foot by 21-foot CNC machine is CLC’s fourth since 1997. “Sales are up 57 percent since we bought our last machine in 2009,” says CLC president John C. Harris. “We had the accelerator to the floor on the old machine, and we still had to add extra shifts and even subcontractors to keep up. We think we’ve got our equipment better matched to our volume now.” The machine weighs in at 16,000 pounds, nearly four times the weight of its predecessor, and required a crane and two forklifts to unload at CLC’s Annapolis factory. Essentially a giant robot, the autonomous CNC machine wields a variety of cutting tools to cut plywood parts from CLC’s enormous library of CAD/CAM (Computer Aided Design/Computer Aided Manufacturing) files. Joe Reid of Mast and Mallet in Mayo, MD, is working on a 1955 Chris Craft Holiday runabout. Her double-planked mahogany hull had a hole in the outer planking below the waterline. Once that’s repaired, Joe will rout out and replace the seam compound in her bottom and freshen up her varnish. Joe is also working on a 23-foot 1964 Chris Craft Sea Skiff. She needs a few minor hull repairs, new rub rails and new paint. George Hazzard of Wooden Boat Restoration in Millington, MD, tells us that his crew is replacing cap rails and spindles on a Chesapeake Buy Boat named Bessie L. They are at the first stage of getting rid of all the bad wood in the aft railings around the boat’s stern. They are also re-wiring and re-installing the motor on a 1947 Chris Craft 17 Deluxe Runabout. The re-varnishing of the windshield frame, decks, and transom on a 1959 23-foot Chris Craft Sea Skiff is going well and is nearly complete. Edwin Fernandez, the lead fiberglass and paint repair person at Zimmerman Marine in Herrington Harbor in Tracys Landing, MD, explains an unusual repair job that he’s working on: “This is a 54-foot Ocean Convertible Sportfisherman named Rotten Kids that was damaged while in storage. The boat was in dry indoor storage (not at Zimmerman’s), and someone backed a big forklift into it, knocking it off the stands and causing it to fall on its port side, causing exterior and structural damage. There was considerable internal bulkhead sacrificial deflection that led to delamination of tabbing and structural tabbing that requires a complete cosmetic and gel coat repair. This is an insurance repair and will probably be a three- to four-month project.”