Huon Pine Timber - Cleaning the Bilge

[Kokonut]

Hi all,

Just seeking advice on how one would go about cleaning the bilge on a timber boat.

I have read somewhere that I can mix Vinegar and Baking Soda (and a lot of elbow grease) and to scrub the wood with a hard bristle brush. Is this correct?

I understand that fresh water is poison for the wood (due to it's propensity to promote rot), and to use salt water when I can. How fastidious should I be with this guideline?

Should I hose some salt water in the hull (inside) and bilge area periodically to give it give it some protection against rot.

I will use the boat on the river, and so the river's salinity levels are somewhat diluted where I am, further upstream from the coast. Is there an alternative? Table salt and river water? Is there a recipe for the right mixture?

Are there commercial products safe to use on wood?

Thank you in advance.

[Steve Bean]

You can simply throw some salt in the bilge so that any water that gets in there will be salty. Boatbuilders used to build in salt boxes or place bags of salt where fresh water such as rain could be expected to leak in.
Also, you might like to read Dave Carnell's article: "Chemotherapy for Rot."

[Wotname]

Hmm... I am not a Huon pine expert but the accepted wisdom is that it is very impervious to most forms of rot.

I know the following to be true.

It was used to make water troughs for stock back in the day and they lasted for many decades.
Some of the reclaimed Huon pine has been collected from trees submerged for decades in hydro dams and it hasn't been affected by the water.

Of course the framing timbers might not be Huon pine so some care could be needed there.

[Sailmonkey]

I know nothing about Huon pine specifically, but isn’t a stiff bristle brush a no-no with most woods? The bristles remove the cellulose from between the grains.

[roland stockham]

Not as simple a question as it sounds. 'cleaning the bilge' can be anything from a quick rinse to removing 20yrs of gunk and how you approach it will vary. Can you give us more details on what you are facing. Is there lots of oil, deisel, was it painted etc.

[coastalexplorer]

Having experience with maritime museums. Sacks of rock salt were placed in boats that were originally fastened with Trunnels. (For those who are uninformed... wooden pegs/dowels. usually made from Black Locust with saw cuts in each end to accept wood wedges)


The problem is caused when over time; ship repairs were carried out using square galvanized iron or steel ship spikes. The galvanized coating gets eaten away by electrolysis. and then the rock salt accelerates the rust which causes 'Nail Sickness' that rots the wood.


Most current reconstructions are either returning to using Trunnel fastening or using bronze fasteners.


In the case I worked on... uninformed volunteers read the history/folk lore.
Placed sacks of rock salt between the planking and the ceiling and caused a bigger problem than the one we were trying to solve.

[Cadence]

My father was adamant about a clean bilge. I can recall crawling around with the nozzle of a steam genie in the bilge of an Elco Cruisette after he bought her. White paint came next.

[Frank 101]

Forum.woodenboat.com has some information on bilge cleaning. People there talk about using detergent and scotchbrite, a low pressure hose, or even a proprietary brand product for doing the job. If you need to replace timbers there are two places in Strahan in Tassie which have stockpiles. One place has quite a few logs stacked by the side of the road.

[capt.rob]

This is not for cleaning but preserving a wood boat.For what it's worth I was told years ago by an old wooden boatright. He said to keep some antifreeze in the bildge water of a wooden boat and the wood will never rot.

[Kokonut]

Absolutely grateful for the knowledge shared!

The common thread among most of the answers has been to use salt, either in a bag of some sort or to simply sprinkle it on the wood. With this sprinkle of information on hand, I was better directed what to look for using the all knowing Google God.

If you get a moment, do read this super article "Chemotherapy for Rot" (thank you Steve Bean).

The article covers precisely what most of you have all alluded to regarding the role of salt and surprisingly "Anti-Freeze" (thanks capt.rob) has in either killing rot spores or preserving wood.

I will keep my hard bristle brush in the laundry where it belongs.

The wood that I would like to clean is bare wood, no paint ... well, it's painted with a coat of oil at the moment. What originally turned out to be a casual cleaning exercise is turning out to be healthy massage for the timber.

Oh, the above article also gives you a recipe for your own home-brewed borate wood preservatives.


Looks like ebay sells rock salts for around AUD10 for 10kgs. I'll fill some small cloth bags that I will place where water tends to accumulate in the bilge or trickles from rain. I guess a bottle of "Anti-freeze" will also be on the shopping list.

[desdestiny]

If your boat is huon pine - you are very lucky
fresh water will not rot huon pine - see https://www.australianwoodwork.com.a...bout-huon-pine

When they flooded the dam, they felled trees and left them to float in fresh water until they needed the timber for harvest.
The Huon pine trees felled for the dam were 1000 years old.

Trees that fall naturally into creeks last for hundreds of years. For many years the trees fallen naturally were the only trees which could be harvested.

Des

[desdestiny]

The website https://www.australianwoodwork.com.a...bout-huon-pine

also states
"The retrieval of stumps left over from old logging is another source of salvage timber and led to the discovery of tons of ancient buried Huon pine logs, some dated at 38,000 years old and still intact despite being buried in the damp earth all that time."

A wooden boat builder told me Huon Pine was/is the best boat building timber in the world.

[capt.rob]

I have found the easiest, cheapest way to buy salt for something like this is to just go get a bag of water softiner salt. it's cheap and the larger size chunks are slower to desolve keeping everything in a nice brine bath longer. depending on leakage once the water achieves "brine" statis or 100% saturation the salt will stop desolving until salinity drops then it will disolve some more. keeping the bildge pickeled.

[Jim Cate]

A wooden boat builder told me Huon Pine was/is the best boat building timber in the world.

I doubt if he was a Kiwi... they all say that Kauri is the best. And of course, one must define the usage. Planking is one case, frames, spars, and so on have different requirements for the timbers.

But yeah, lots of folks, especially those from the Huon valley, think very highly of HP.

Jim

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

I doubt if he was a Kiwi... they all say that Kauri is the best. And of course, one must define the usage. Planking is one case, frames, spars, and so on have different requirements for the timbers.

But yeah, lots of folks, especially those from the Huon valley, think very highly of HP.

Jim

The Kiwis do love their Kauri pine and their Kauri pine is (was?) better than other South Pacific Kauri pines or so the Kiwis tell us. . Of course not to be mistaken with the West Australian Kauri which is hardwood and completely different timber (as in chalk and cheese).

But they never had Huon pine to compare it with so I take their claim with a pinch of salt.

Back in the day (early 19th century), a ship builder (forgotten his name ATM) relocated from the USA to Hobart just so he could get stocks of Huon pine. When he arrived in Hobart he realised that Hobart had very limited stocks of Huon pine and certainly not enough for his proposed enterprise. He found the largest stocks were located in upper reaches of Macquarie harbour but there wasn't a "proper" settlement there (and no transport to Hobart). As his luck would have it, the government was looking for a replacement superintendent for the convict station on Sarah Island (in Macquarie harbour) so he applied and got the job. Now he had a source of the worlds finest boat building timber and a free labour force both at his fingertips - over a few years he built a shipload of vessels at Sarah Island. Fascinating history of a private/government arrangement. By the way, the previous superintendent was removed for being too sadistic and corrupt even for the standards of convict treatment of that era. The USA shipbuilder was finally sacked for being too kind and making too much private money from convict labour - go figure