Dried-out clinker: to salt or not?

FinesseChris

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So the boat (24 ft trad clinker, iroko on oak) has been out of the water for 16 months.... and the sailing club are threatening to launch her at the end of March, come what may.

Leaving aside my views of their plans, what's the consensus on dampening, nay wetting, the bilges to aid take-up?

Then there's adding salt: is it an old wive's tale that adding rock salt helps, or is water just water? And does adding salt lead to it staying in the bilges when she's taken up, attracting more damp from the atmosphere? Advice conflicts (as it does tend to with wooden boats).

In past years she's taken up in a tide or three – but never in 20 years has she been ashore so long.

Grateful for thoughts.
 

Wansworth

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Wooden fishing boats are let to sink and them pumped out,it will need watching and gradually it will take up,obviously not letting the water damage the engine etc
 

Hacker

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If you can wet then this will reduce the likelihood of her sinking when she is relaunched! We routinely fill our wooden punts with a hose and have never had a problem (that we know about). It only really becomes a problem if freshwater sits there for a long while. The other option, if you are there when they launch, is to chuck in loads of sawdust around the boat. The ingress of water pulls it into the joints and it swells thus reducing further inflow.
 

Keith 66

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If she is badly opened up but otherwise in good condition i would go over the bottom & gun some SOFT non drying mastic in the big gaps & a fine bead of the same along the seams then knife it in with a putty knife. It will squeeze out on taking up & cause no damage.
My go to mastic for wooden boats & perfect for this purpose is Evosticks Evomastic. By all means give the boat a head start & put some water in her to help swell the big timbers up. Do not fill it up to the waterline, boats are designed to hold water on the outside not inside. Years ago i had to replank & retimber one side of a lifeboat that had fallen over & stove its entire bilge in when the owner filled her up, Bilge block was a bit loose she got rocking & the bilge keel folded up. Crash! the hole was 15ft long & 4ft wide.
 

Rappey

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Fill it up with salt water (not all the way, as above post) ).. Salt is good for the wood and kills the nasty bacteria supported by freshwater that rots it..
Fresh water inside the hull is why many wooden boats are soft internally but solid externally.
In the days of square riggers the decks were washed with sea water.. stopped them from drying out in the hot sun and cracking..
Nowadays boat owners wash off all that lovely preserving salt with freshwater then wonder why their decks fall apart so soon..
 

debenriver

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Seriously bad idea to fill the hull up with water – fresh or salt. Hulls are designed to keep water out, not to contain water. You may well damage the planking and structures that way.

An entirely different matter when the boat is in the water – then water inside is balanced by water outside.

Wet hessian, sacks, etc. laid in the bilge are useful for a week or so before launching. If possible keep them wet all the time. Short term it doesn't matter if the water is salt or fresh. Personally I'd keep salt water out of the boat as much as possible as it always comes up damp thereafter.

If at all possible either hold her in slings overnight – or have her in a tidal mudberth. Either will help the hull take up.

If this isn't possible – then make sure you have good pumps available and someone to man them for at least 48 hours

Cheers -- George
 

Romeo

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wet cloth in the bilges for a period prior to launch will help, but there will still be a lot more taking up to come once you actually get in the water. My clinker boats do not have machinery or electrics in them, so on occasion I will not pump them out for a few days after launch. which really helps them take up. You may prefer to keep her on a tidal birth for a few days, and make sure she is pumped just before she takes the ground, if the rate of ingress takes a while to slow up.
 

wombat88

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If it can be arranged launch and straight to a mud berth for a few days with pumping as required.

Worked best for us.
 

srm

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When I was in Shetland in the 70's and 80's we would often see, in the spring, just the stem and stern of the local clinker built double enders afloat on a mooring. They were launched and left to take up. After a week or so they were towed to a beach at high water and bailed out as the tide fell. Then the gear (and outboard engine) put on board before floating off on the next tide.
 

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Fill it up with salt water (not all the way, as above post) ).. Salt is good for the wood and kills the nasty bacteria supported by freshwater that rots it..
Fresh water inside the hull is why many wooden boats are soft internally but solid externally.
In the days of square riggers the decks were washed with sea water.. stopped them from drying out in the hot sun and cracking..
Nowadays boat owners wash off all that lovely preserving salt with freshwater then wonder why their decks fall apart so soon..
So thats probably where the adding rock salt to the bilge idea comes from? For a type of boat that collects rainwater. Rock salt just because its cheap presumably, and salt in general so when rain collects in the bilge it won't be ever be fresh water sat there between pump outs. Not so much about launching.
 

Capt Popeye

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Many good suggestions posted here; but remember, if put into a Mud Berth or just left afloat on a drying mooring the Boat will need to have its planking 'wetted' so 'taken up' above the Waterline as well otherwise when underway the boat will take on water as when 'underway' especially a Sailing Boat, which will heel apprecially;
these wt days might place sacking or cloth hanging along the boats sides even drapped under the boat, which does 2 things; keeps the sun and Wind off the hull plus helps to keep the planks damp; best of luck with the Boat
 

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Many good suggestions posted here; but remember, if put into a Mud Berth or just left afloat on a drying mooring the Boat will need to have its planking 'wetted' so 'taken up' above the Waterline as well otherwise when underway the boat will take on water as when 'underway' especially a Sailing Boat, which will heel apprecially;
these wt days might place sacking or cloth hanging along the boats sides even drapped under the boat, which does 2 things; keeps the sun and Wind off the hull plus helps to keep the planks damp; best of luck with the Boat
Why it isn't always a problem where the top planks dry out in summer if the boat sits on its mooring for most of the time as most boats do?
 

Rappey

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So thats probably where the adding rock salt to the bilge idea comes from?
If your boat is not next to the sea then i would think this is the 2nd best option.. Fresh water as mentioned above is also suitable but does not have the "kill the algie" effect.
 

srm

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Why it isn't always a problem where the top planks dry out in summer if the boat sits on its mooring for most of the time as most boats do?
It can be, I used to sail an ancient Orkney Yole with a crew of youngsters in the summer. We usually had a water feature along the lee side planking when close hauled in a breeze. Nothing that ocassional use of the bilge pump could not handle. The best bit was that the sailing was part of my job:). Eventually, the Yole went back to its owner to be rebuilt and the College was donated a Drascombe long boat.
 

Capt Popeye

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Why it isn't always a problem where the top planks dry out in summer if the boat sits on its mooring for most of the time as most boats do?

Ahoy there Mr A yes timber craft do dry out above the waterline when left on their moorings; there is an example that appeared in a posting about a Timber built Motor Boat, called JESUS, moored at Waldringfield Suffolk, The boat was owned by a Local Clegy, but over time was not used much, (neglected really) , this boat really dried out , an owner posted on the help pages and asked what could he do about it one good suggestion was to change the hull colour, it was painted BLACK, well a dark colour is the worst colour to paint a Timber hull, especially if its a good few years old; interior photos showed that nearly all the planking interior the seams had dried out significantly, so that Boat really needed caulking inside and outside to save it from becomming a dried out wreck;

Luckily the wave action along the sides of a timber hull keeps mainly the couple of planks above water line damp enough to revent most river /sea water getting into the boat;
 

Redwing228

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Our Finesse 24 had an enforced period ashore during the first lockdown and could not be launched till the middle of July 2020. I stopped her from opening up by spreading old towels and sacking in the bilges and under the furniture - to waterline height. These were kept damp with fresh tap water sprinkled on weekly visits. This method could also be used to re-hydrate a dried out hull.
I rigged some white poly tarps over her sides to keep the sun off her planking. It was a nail-biting period as I don’t think she’d ever been ashore for so long, 1768E66F-8B16-4322-B74E-0FAF00C577F7.jpeg-
It worked - she didn’t open up and was still tight on re-launch.

Bill
 
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Capt Popeye

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Might make a Fred Drift ere.

A relative who was a Boatbuilder for most of his life, remarked to me, many years ago, whilst we were walking around the Dock in Woodbridge , that many of the older Timber hulled boats laid up on the Quayside, for their second or third years , needed far more work on them than when they first arrived at the Quay.

So so true
 

FinesseChris

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Thanks, everyone for helpful and positive feedback. I'm going with the wet towels routine, and sun screens (it can get surprisingly warm in early March).

But for now, frost protection is the priority: Chi Harbour max daytime temp today was 1 degree C!

She lives on a drying bankside mooring. In the past, she has taken up happily over 2 or 3 tides, and pumps have coped – even if the initial ingress of water alarms watching non-wooden-boat owners...

Chris
 

Galwayj

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So the boat (24 ft trad clinker, iroko on oak) has been out of the water for 16 months.... and the sailing club are threatening to launch her at the end of March, come what may.

Leaving aside my views of their plans, what's the consensus on dampening, nay wetting, the bilges to aid take-up?

Then there's adding salt: is it an old wive's tale that adding rock salt helps, or is water just water? And does adding salt lead to it staying in the bilges when she's taken up, attracting more damp from the atmosphere? Advice conflicts (as it does tend to with wooden boats).

In past years she's taken up in a tide or three – but never in 20 years has she been ashore so long.

Grateful for thoughts.
 

Galwayj

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Fill gaps in planks with soap a good old cake of carbolic works well as the planks take up they will squeeze soap out this will help a lot but don't leave her till she stops leaking also salt water helps preserve wood against rot most wooden boats rot from the inside out with the deck usually the first to go fresh water is the enemy so keep her dry or salty in the bilge good luck j
 
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