Keith 66
Well-known member
Back in the late 80's I rebuilt a Rye sailing tripper boat "Billows" (now lives at Titchmarsh marina). I had known the boat ever since i was a child & always admired her. She was built by HJ Phillips of Rye & planked in tight grained spruce with joggled grown oak frames below the waterline & steamed timbers above.
She had been out of the water for 4 years when we got her. We burnt a huge amount of paint off her & by the time she was relaunched 2 years later was as dry as you can get! There were gaps of 1/8" to 1/4" under some of the frames & it was suggested by some "Those need refastening",
I was concerned how much everything would swell so made sure that all gaps under the frames were cleaned out, Her bilge had been tarred when built & we applied about 5 gallons of boat soup to her, Linseed oil, turpentine & stockholm tar, it all got soaked up.
I did the evomastic trick on the worst gaps on the planks only & we launched her. We had to pump quite a bit for the first tide, second tide she took on about ten gallons. By the end of the week she was dry. We moved her to a mud berth to rig her & finish off little bits. The frames took over a month to swell back up to their original size but did so. That boat had been built in 1938 & had never needed to be refastened all the time i had her.
When i sold her we pulled a few rivets for the survey & need not have bothered.
Thing is if we had refastened the frames when they were dry the heads of the nails would have pulled halfway through the planks causing untold damage. Every year or so she got some more boat soup & When launched would leak for a day or so then her bilge would dry completely.
Used to get a few leaks when sailing hard but that was all. Not many clinker boats built like her now, I still miss her!
She had been out of the water for 4 years when we got her. We burnt a huge amount of paint off her & by the time she was relaunched 2 years later was as dry as you can get! There were gaps of 1/8" to 1/4" under some of the frames & it was suggested by some "Those need refastening",
I was concerned how much everything would swell so made sure that all gaps under the frames were cleaned out, Her bilge had been tarred when built & we applied about 5 gallons of boat soup to her, Linseed oil, turpentine & stockholm tar, it all got soaked up.
I did the evomastic trick on the worst gaps on the planks only & we launched her. We had to pump quite a bit for the first tide, second tide she took on about ten gallons. By the end of the week she was dry. We moved her to a mud berth to rig her & finish off little bits. The frames took over a month to swell back up to their original size but did so. That boat had been built in 1938 & had never needed to be refastened all the time i had her.
When i sold her we pulled a few rivets for the survey & need not have bothered.
Thing is if we had refastened the frames when they were dry the heads of the nails would have pulled halfway through the planks causing untold damage. Every year or so she got some more boat soup & When launched would leak for a day or so then her bilge would dry completely.
Used to get a few leaks when sailing hard but that was all. Not many clinker boats built like her now, I still miss her!