But then it would no longer be a real Benchseat Hornet any longer would it ?
I think that ship has sailed.... The original deck is gone.
Any solution will be to save the hull driveline as much as possible.
Boats are different than cars.....If you look to the ACBS restoration rules they can replace pretty much 100% of a wooden boat and as long as the correct proceedures are followed the resulting restoration keeps the boats provinance. Others say that 25% original material must remain. Running gear/driveline may also be changed without hurting provinance. A complete hull certainly exceeds these criteria.
Now, some of the really nice restorations "Miss Canada IV" for example are original to each screw as far as hardware goes...but there's no getting past the wood issues. In this case a re-popped deck on that original hull certainly qualifies as an original boat. So does the cut/splice as long as the dimensions are the same as the original.
My solution as akin to a "resto mod" for a car... Original hull = original frame. after that, it's all good.
Scot, if you find a donor boat and decide to go that way...talk to me about the un-used hull.
Sean Conroy,
1964 Formula Jr. (hull #2) project
1972 Greavette Sunflash III
1981 Kavalk Mistral project
"A man can accomplish anything... as long as he doesn't care who gets the credit."