Let me introduce you to a yard that loves working on wooden boats. It's the Monterey Bay Boat Works Company.
Steeped in history this area boasts many, many working woodies as well as pleasure craft.

Lead boatwright is Jim McNeeley. With over 30 years experience working with woodies under his belt you'd never know that he got his start in his long relationship with the ocean because of research and support role while working on an oceanography degree at the U. of Hawaii. Funny how the love of the ocean morphs into so many paths.
Using intricate mortice and tennon methods Jim was able to reconstruct the victim of a collision: a teak bow pulpit.
No stranger to corking and caulking Jim is shown here starting a line of cotton down a seam which had opened up on a local fishing boat.
When conditions permit, Jim saves a couple of corking steps by using a specially made "pizza roller" to initially run the cotton in on the seam.
Another shot of the effectiveness of the roller method of initial insertion of cotton
Here's a close shot of Jim and his roller
The sound of corking hammer against an iron is a familiar and almost constant one at the Monterey Bay Boat Works yard.
The next stip with this particular working boat is to caulk the seam with a mixture O'Henrys roofing tar and portland cement. Jim notes that it has been a tried and true method for the yard and its customers for many generations.
Long time Montery chandlery owner, Jim Womble, retired about 12 years ago but came back to the business to run the yard. Jim is quite familiar with woodies having started out in the boating industry in the '40s inb So. Ca. Jim McNeeley says that his yardmaster Jim Womble has forgotten more than most of us will ever learn. At 39 Cannery Row in Monterey you can reach the yard by calling (831) 375-6921 or EMAIL