New coaming planks are easy to cut and shape. I made a new set about 10 years ago. They look good and have held up well. The difficult part was making the mahogany blocks that tie the coaming planks into the sides of the cabin. Got it done, but it took way more trial and error work than planned. With hind-sight, it seemed that the port and starboard sides of the Ensign mold must not be as precisely symetrical as we had expected.

Those blocks between the coaming planks and the cabin are pretty stout. Perhaps you could reuse your existing cabin-to-coaming blocks. Alternatively perhaps you can buy them from Ensign Spars or buy serviceable coaming-to-cabin blocks from someone on this forum.

Note: Other parts of that Ensign restoration also confirmed that measurements on the starboard side do not necessarily match similar measurements on the port side. After considering the # of Ensigns produced in the early Pearson years, my restoration partner and I decided that the Pearson motto must have been "Close enough. Ship it"

Good luck.

Hi All,

I am looking for thoughts on attempting to repair or replace my coaming boards which came to me cracked and reinforced with a metal plate. I've tolerated this for the last 6 years of owning the ensign. While sailing two years ago the wood block with cleat tore apart from the coaming. I was able to re-glue and screw it back on, but the coaming ended with a few more cracks, not surprisingly. I've reached out to Ensign spars to price the boards without a response so far. I'm a bit worried about removing them and creating more damage. I'm considering just getting her in the water and attempting this job at the end of the season. I'd love to hear if any one attempted and successfully repaired the coaming boards. Any ideas on how to best attempt this? If not, any recommendations on having had the boards made? And if so by who? Maybe there's a salvage available in the northeast I could take from?

Best,

Evan Smith