4 yrs in storage-what next?

Hi, new to this great forum, and new owner of a gem in the rough. I am still researching the origins, but it was a home-built made in 1957 from a kit, built by the recently deceased father of the guy who sold it to me. A restoration (strip, sand, stain, varnish) was started about 4-5 years ago when things got too busy. It has been stored indoors for the last 4 years. I saw it in the corner at the estate sale, was taken by the nice lines and potential, and now I have a very patient wife, and one less parking space in the garage.

Aside from starting to read voraciously about what I have just undertaken, are there any suggestions for step one? Someone told me to rehydrate the boat by filling it with water to swell the seams and check for leaks, etc, before repainting. That seems quite heavy for the trailer, or am I just nuts? I don't have a marine engineer nearby to inspect it, but so far I don't see/feel any punky areas that might indicate rot.

Brief stats: 13'4" wood, with mahogany veneer deck, possibly based on an Edwin Monk design, structurally sound around the bottom, with a 1961 Evinrude Lark III 40 that was working 4 years ago. It was put in storage with the boat, but by someone who worked at a marina, with fogging oil, etc. I cleaned out the mouse nest in the cover, but haven't started it up yet!

I have attached some pictures (hope it worked) of this boat 'back in the day', and it looked real nice. If anyone can help me identify it, I appreciate it. but right now I am just looking for a good resource to start the process.

Again, reading some of the posts shows me the caliber of great people with advice and opinions. I appreciate any suggestions.

 

Do not fill the boat with water, unless you are interested in watching it burst open. Boats are not design to be bath tubs and most will not tolerate this type of abuse. It is very difficult to determine what she is without more info and dimensions. What does the title say? Its cockpit is too far forward to be a Wasp and I do not think his Sunbeam was that length. Someone here, who is more Monk in tune may know what she is.

 

If you need to "rehydrate the boat" while it's on the trailer, do NOT fill it with water (it will burst as Hunter says). One technique is to wrap one of those perforated soaker garden hoses around the hull below the gunwale, and turn it on low with towels or burlap wrapped tightly around hose and hull (the towel/burlap traps the water from the hose against the hull while the wood absorbs it). But if the boat's on a trailer, it might not need this- trailer boats are rarely in the water long enough to become saturated, and so it may be leak-free as it is. The way to find out is to back it slowly down the launch ramp; small trickles here and there might be due to dry wood but any gushers need full repair.

 

Thanks for the feedback! As I figured, if I throw the question out to the experienced ones on this site, I would get good advice. I've been going over it, and there seems to be no dry rot that I could determine using the highly scientific "stab test". What I have ahead of me is a fair amount of stripping, sanding, staining, and painting ahead of me. Although, while picking at a bubble of the white paint area on the hull, I found (under 4-5 layers of paint) what looks like a mahogany base. I will be in contact with the former owner's family soon and will find out if it ever was all wood, and somebody along the way decided a white coat of paint below the deck was a good idea. More to come on the unfolding mystery boat.