Advice on wood hull and epoxy coating

[roland stockham]

This is possible but definitely would not recommend it for the following;
1 You effectively create a double hull but is double the weight so is going to badly effect the performance.
2 A wooden boat is a very complex piece of engineering consisting of a hull, deck, keel and mast. The framing is largley responsible for handling loads transmited between the rig and keel not the hull (but they do work together). Re-sheathing the hull, especially if you stop at the waterline, stiffens and strengthens the hull skin but not he structure and my put the whole thing out of balance. The extra weight also stiffens the boat in the sense that she will heel less which increases the rig loads, especially in gusts.
3 If the planking has gone but the framing is sound it would be better to re-plank (and probably not much more expensive) but if the structure has gone re-sheathing will not make her sea-worthy.
4 If the planking has gone chances are you will not get a good bond between the wood and epoxy so will get water penetration and rot.

In some cases this is done because the boat has been left ashore and dries so much the planks are left with gaps to large to caulk. If the planking is still sound a better option than glassing would be to refasten (the shrinkage breaks the fastenings) and add splines between each plank. If you still can't get her watertight and really need to reinforce the hull go for the old arctic ice prep' method by covering with tarred canvas (or white lead, linseed and putty) and adding a second layer of diagonal planks over it that are about 1/2 the wight of the original hull planks. This will work with the hull and last it is the way they built wartime minesweepers and some of those are still around! Needless to say this is not an amateur job!!!!

Glassing over wood to fix hull problems is like adding a new layer to a glass hull to fix osmosis - you just seal in the problem and that can make it worse and kill the boat.

This all assumes a planked construction if its plywood it's a different ball game and can be a good idea.

[roland stockham]

Just an after-though one good reason I go for wooden boats is that I am allergic to fiberglass, If I even change a skin fitting I come out is a rash from hands to elbows!!!! And sawdust smells so much better than styrene...