To preserve or not to preserve .. that is the question.

[Dave-Fethiye]

I am about to replace some hull planking on a boat I recently bought.
The hull planking is made of pine wood and is only 4 years old and some ( a small area ) has already rotted. This may have been due to damage - I am not sure.

I am just pondering on wether I should paint on some wood preserver before screwing in the planks and then caulking with cotton and sanding and then priming them and then anti fouling them.

Another question - if I am permitted - before antifouling coat should just put on one layer of primer or two ? Pewople here use a grey anti rust primer - the same stuff they use for metal - I dont know why because this is for wooden boats !

Anyway - your advice will be very welcome.

Below are some pics of my boat

thanks.
Dave.

[Alan Wheeler]

If it is screw fixing ONLY, then yes by all means. If you are glueing by anychance, then no. The glue will not hold well to the preservative.
There is a possibility that the undercoat is for both metal and timber. International have a grey highbuild primer that is for below waterline use and can be used on Timber and Metal. It is a primer/undercoat for anti-foul paint to be directly applied to.

[Dave-Fethiye]

Thats a good point.

I have been asking about using screws or nails and it seems that silicon bronze screws are the thing to use.

Along with these screws do you think I should be glueing the replacement planks in ?

If I use a proper marine glue ( the type that expands a bit as it sets ) probably there will not be any room for cotton caulking. So does that dispense with that job ? Is this a good idea ?

What do you think ?

[Kuapa'a]

Aloha Dave,

Kudos to you if you decide to tackle a wood boat restoration using traditional methods. My $0.02 worth... Assuming she's been out of the water for a while and the planking is good and dry: 1) when using a caulking iron and oakum (raw cotton), be careful not to pack it too tight. Otherwise you risk springing a plank as they swell when she goes back into the water. 2) Wet down / soak the hull as much as possible prior to launch, (a lawn sprinkler works well, as does flooding the bilges). This will give the the planks a chance to swell and prevent your launching from becoming becoming a sinking.

All the very best to you; enjoy yourself.

John K.

[Dave-Fethiye]

Thanks for that advice.

[BBill]

Prime the seams for caulking and the bottom with red lead. Thinned to saturate. Red lead is mineral based, a preservative against fungus/worms and a surface primer for caulking.

bb

[Dave-Fethiye]

Today I bought some wood preserver, it isn't called "Red Lead" I don't think they have that here in Turkey.

This wood preserver was a reddish brown so maybe a similar concoction. I have to put two coats on, the 2nd one 12 hours after the first, so I'll do the second coat tomorrow.

I scoured out some rooten wood from one the frames with my electric drill and soaked that with wood presever as well. I am going to screww in an extra piece of preserved wood to give additional strenth to one of the frames.

I am feeling much more confident about the boat now that I have decided to do the work myself.

Dave

[Dave-Fethiye]

I have that a lot of people use CPES™ (Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer) for dealing with rot.

I guess that this would be better that the preserver that I used. Perhaps I should put it on now anyway ?

Dave

[chris_gee]

I thought pine tended to rot easily unless treated. lead paint should be available as it is standard though unpopular now as the paint flakes can give lead poisoning so keep it off yourself.
CPES wont kill rot spores, but can seal the wood and fill the wood to a limited degree of penetration. I doubt that is so good an idea as you are dependent on the wood swellling to seal the boat. I suspect you need preservative on all surfaces.
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[Dave-Fethiye]

Thats a good point - I DO need to allow the wood to expand - and if CPES prevents wood expanding, then it would NOT be the correct product in my case - I guess ?

[Boracay]

If I understand posts in this forum correctly Dave has purchased a wood power boat recently constructed cheaply almost entirely of the local pine.

The boat is put of the water and has dried out.

There is some dry rot which he needs to fix and there are other issues that need to be addressed.

Cheap labour is available.

My suggestion is to saturate every part of the boat with epoxy. Buy gallons of the stuff, get lots of gloves and make sure every bit of wood is well coated.

Get lots of cottom fibres to make epoxy glue and some microballons to use as filler.

Do not use anything containing solvent.

If all goes well you could end up with a strong dry durable boat.

Of course advice must be obtained from the WEST company before any decision is made.

I cannot see any other way in which a boat built cheaply of pine could be made servicable.