Are You Scared of Wood ?

[Liam Wald]

Go to your local harbor and walk the docks looking at wooden boats. 85-90% of them will look tired and worn-out. 10-15% of them will look great. Ask the owners of the "great looking" wooden boats how they keep them looking that way.

Shop the wooden boat market and compare the asking/selling prices of the "bristol" offerings compared to the "neglected" offerings.

Go to the boat yard and ask the manager what the average number of days is for an annual haul-out of a wooden boat compared to a fiberglass boat.

Have you ever sanded, prepped, and varnished a 50 foot spruce mast while it's on the boat? Think you can do that in a day? How about a week? How about prepping and varnishing a mahogany trunk house? How about scraping the corosion and then appling red-lead to the inside of the hull?

So now you just found that a frame has started a stress fracture and needs to be sistered. There appears to be electrolisis burn around the trough-hull in the head and it is starting rot on a plank. There is a bleeding fastener on the hull. Should I pull it re-fasten, plug it, and paint, or just have a rust streak with a rotted fastener? The air-ball on the deck has loosened at the bow and water is getting into the wood below. Should I just put some calking where I think that the leak may be or should I do it right. And on, and on, and on.

Don't forget all the other usual engine and systems maintinence (plumbing, wiring, pumps, oil changes, etc.)

[CharlieCobra]

I hear ya Liam. Ya sound as anal as me...

[jkleins]

Okay you got me on the mast

Do you really have bleeding fasteners and corrosion on the inside of the hull that often that you consider it part of your routine maintenance. I am not at all doubting you, my questions throughout this thread have all been to try to tease out the "routine" from the "repair" and it sounds like you are saying that repair "is" routine and you spend a lot of time on it. Others I have talked to have felt differently and that is why I ask.

You sound like someone who would spend a pretty good amount of time taking care of their boat regardless the construction material. That is probably why you get top dollar for your boats

Jim

[Zach]

I was amazed at how many steel fasteners weep rust stains when you paint the inside of wood hull white... Particularly for a boat fastened with monel... with dusty bilges.

There is dry, and then there is slightly damp, wettish... and various levels in between. But then again I have 160+ feet of rub rails to deal with which are now finally encased in enough fiberglass to tie the bulwarks to the topsides without having a seam.

I am delaying rebuilding the upper cabin as there is a water trickle that starts in the rain. It is forward of the nearest window, and bone dry ahead of it towards the door way. Go figure to have a wet spot on a boat that is fiberglassed on its top deck, wrapped around under the eaves and down the cabin sides... to the deck... That it'd weep a foot up the wall in between a door and a window.

When it warms up enough to do glass work outside, I'll be grinding off the glass in that area in attempt to find the void, crack, or what ever it might be...

It is all good fun...

[Stillraining]

For some reason I just trust wood more....

Example...say in an impact situation..You can nail or screw just about anything to wood right then and there water pouring in and everything...where as glass it will require a dry contaminate free condition to rectify an emergency repair to satisfactory conditions anyway.

Iv got one of those 3/8" thick hulls and it is a bit nerve racking wondering just how tough it really is say hitting a log in the dark of night.

[Not Sure]

Originally Posted by Liam Wald

Go to your local harbor and walk the docks looking at wooden boats. 85-90% of them will look tired and worn-out. 10-15% of them will look great. Ask the owners of the "great looking" wooden boats how they keep them looking that way.

Shop the wooden boat market and compare the asking/selling prices of the "bristol" offerings compared to the "neglected" offerings.

Go to the boat yard and ask the manager what the average number of days is for an annual haul-out of a wooden boat compared to a fiberglass boat.

Have you ever sanded, prepped, and varnished a 50 foot spruce mast while it's on the boat? Think you can do that in a day? How about a week? How about prepping and varnishing a mahogany trunk house? How about scraping the corosion and then appling red-lead to the inside of the hull?

So now you just found that a frame has started a stress fracture and needs to be sistered. There appears to be electrolisis burn around the trough-hull in the head and it is starting rot on a plank. There is a bleeding fastener on the hull. Should I pull it re-fasten, plug it, and paint, or just have a rust streak with a rotted fastener? The air-ball on the deck has loosened at the bow and water is getting into the wood below. Should I just put some calking where I think that the leak may be or should I do it right. And on, and on, and on.

Don't forget all the other usual engine and systems maintinence (plumbing, wiring, pumps, oil changes, etc.)

Exactly, and that is just a small fraction of what owning a wood boat entails. The 'kicker' is that when a fiberglass hull boat is neglected, it just sits there neglected. When a wood boat is neglected the seams open up, it takes on water and sinks to the bottom. Blub blub blub, there goes another formerly 'Bristol' high dollar wood boat.

[Hampus]

Not really afraid of wood, just another something to learn about. I can say though that maintenance work increased by approx. 30% when we went from a GRP boat with no more top side wood than the teak deck, to a GRP boat with teak deck, wooden masts, wooden doghouse, wooden rails, wooden toe rail, wooden bowsprit and a wooden steering wheel...

Pictures of repairs of the main mast can be seen on the blog down below. My first real experience with wood since crafts back in school. I had help and guidance from a frien who is a carpenter and boat builder. Next time (hopefully never) I think I feel confident enough to do it entirely on my own.

/Hampus

[sarafina]

Originally Posted by Not Sure

The 'kicker' is that when a fiberglass hull boat is neglected, it just sits there neglected. When a wood boat is neglected the seams open up, it takes on water and sinks to the bottom. Blub blub blub, there goes another formerly 'Bristol' high dollar wood boat.

LMAO...

oh man, excuse me while i dry my eyes... ahhem.. 0k, better now (stifling giggles)

When we went shopping last summer for our little hole in the water I stipulated NO wood hulls... my misspent youth on my grandfather's old chris crafts cured me of any romantic notions about wooden boats... Wood all OVER the inside, hunky dory, love it, be we have not a SPECK, not a sliver outside except for the framing around the companionway hatch.

But when I found out our new baby had NO automatic bilge pump, let along a gummy nasty floatswitch, I was freaked out. The idea of having a boat with out even ONE automatic pump astounded me, and made me think baaad thoughts about her PO. Imagine a boat WITHOUT a bilge pump! Criminal in the world I grew up in, because... as hard as we worked to take good care of the family boats those damn things were just leaks with wood wrapped around them. Like the golden gate bridge it FELT as if you began at one end , worked to the other and started all over. and over. and over...

Our boats always had two electric pumps, one on a float switch. The second one we kept in the cockpit, on a power line, ready to throw into the boat in the neighbouring dock... an rather elderly wooden hull that was prone to springing sudden leaks...

"Hi, the Sally Mae is feeling a bit down this morning, you might want to come check her out. No, no emergency, our spare is keeping it below the sole. Oh yes, that will be fine, just put is back aboard the Stacy when You are done with it."

The equaly elderly gentleman who owned her should have sold, but couldn't bear to part with her. He liked to come down and fish off the stern, in dock, and chat with his neighbours... but that boat leaked like a sieve.

After eight months I am much more sanguine about bilge pumps... I know that the only water I will find in her hull is what we have spilled ourselves... Just yesterday I was working on running wiring and ran into a soggy spot... pooled a bit in an area where it can't drain... from where I have an open hole in the galley counter top, awaiting installation of the new faucet. It's HARD to keep every little drop from slipping thru there... and now I know I need a little drain hole in thru the tabbing so it doesn't happen again.... not sure how to do that it's so close to the hull!

Truly, I love wooden boats... in OTHER people's berths... things of beauty and joys forever, or until that last seam breaks loose...

[CharlieCobra]

Oh Joy doesn't have that issue thanks to the C-Flex.

[Maren]

Does "scared of not putting wood back together again" count?

[MaizieDerrick]

aloha we have owned a wood boat for twenty years now and we love it.. previously weve had steel, fiberglass and but we just dont seem to have the feel for them like our wood boat..our boat is 55 years old and doesnt leak a drop and we haul it out once year and are planning to sail it to the pacific northwest maybe this summer, this will be the last boat i will ever own and to be honest may even outlast me..we look forward to seeing its lumps and bumps and its maintenance is a joy, i realize this is not for everyone but dont knock it till youve tried it.. kind of like having kids.. check out the boat on wooden boat forum.. kauri wood boat 1955..derrick

[S&S]

Originally Posted by Liam Wald

Go to your local harbor and walk the docks looking at wooden boats. 85-90% of them will look tired and worn-out. 10-15% of them will look great. Ask the owners of the "great looking" wooden boats how they keep them looking that way.

Shop the wooden boat market and compare the asking/selling prices of the "bristol" offerings compared to the "neglected" offerings.

Go to the boat yard and ask the manager what the average number of days is for an annual haul-out of a wooden boat compared to a fiberglass boat.

Have you ever sanded, prepped, and varnished a 50 foot spruce mast while it's on the boat? Think you can do that in a day? How about a week? How about prepping and varnishing a mahogany trunk house? How about scraping the corosion and then appling red-lead to the inside of the hull?

So now you just found that a frame has started a stress fracture and needs to be sistered. There appears to be electrolisis burn around the trough-hull in the head and it is starting rot on a plank. There is a bleeding fastener on the hull. Should I pull it re-fasten, plug it, and paint, or just have a rust streak with a rotted fastener? The air-ball on the deck has loosened at the bow and water is getting into the wood below. Should I just put some calking where I think that the leak may be or should I do it right. And on, and on, and on.

Don't forget all the other usual engine and systems maintinence (plumbing, wiring, pumps, oil changes, etc.)

Geez- I think that in your case it was more of a design problem than anything else. If you have a bum boat, sure it'll be a maintenance nightmare. A well constructed one, even if old, is about 30-40 hours a year. Sorry, I find your numbers unbelievable.

[eyschulman]

I love to look at and enjoy well done wooden boats. I know some people who love to work with wood and apply finishes(some hardly ever leave the dock) dock furniture is what I call their boats. since the price of skilled lobor able to do that work is through the ceiling you better be prepared to do it yourself and if your boat has a lot of bright work and you are on my dock I will wave to you as I go out sailing on the best days of the year that you must resurve for your 9th coat of varnish.

[CharlieCobra]

Nah, I only need one day to do the varnish refresh coats. While your on the hook next to me being driven nuts by the wave slap on that plastic fantastic, I'll be snug and cozy in a much quieter boat....

[eyschulman]

But I have owned over 20 boats and some all wood others with bright work-can't fool me with that one day bright work finish coat- well maybe its a small boat? ok maybe you don't tape-after you have washed sanded wiped clean with tack rag strained your varnish and thined if needed then brushed on a coat. Come on admit it you like varnishing more than sailing