Wooden hull stranded ashore due to coronavirus

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My beautiful 30footer centreboarder spends the winter ashore on its cradle as leaving her on a mud berth would see the centreboard case jammed with mud. Usually this works fine but with a shutdown of my club’s facilities due to Coronavirus I can not get her refloated any time soon and it is quite possible she will not get launched until next spring. I am obviously concerned about the effect this will have on the hull as it dries out,particularly if we have another hot summer. Alan Fuller at Robertsons boatyard in Woodbridge suggests laying sacking in the bilges and wetting with sea water. This sounds like a sensible idea but I wonder if anyone has any other suggestions?
 

dombuckley

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Wind dries timber out, as much as heat: get a tarpaulin around her, like a skirt from sheerline down to the ground. It should be tied off tight, so that it does not flap against the hull, and put several buckets or deep trays filled with water sitting on the hard-standing underneath.

A variation on this would be to make a tarpaulin "bath". Get a large stout tarpaulin around the outside, with the centreline of the tarp along the keel, and the sides tied up to deck level. it will need a bit of jiggery-pokery with the cradle, probably including a very short lift with a crane. Not only will this protect against wind damage, but a relatively small amount of sea water poured inside the tarp will provide enough moisture to keep the planking tight.
 

Kukri

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I have known Alan for thirty odd years. He was Whisstocks’ last apprentice. He knows his stuff.

I kept Mirelle at Robbies for a couple of decades. Which side of the yard are you? The sprat shed side is better. Your problem is, as Dom says, both the sun and the wind.

What is she planked with? Teak and iroko don’t move much; pitch pine is the very devil and oak can be as bad.

A very old trick was to use whitewash - indeed there is an old photo of a trading schooner laid up at Lime Kiln Quay with her tarred topsides whitewashed to keep them cooler.
 
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25931

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My beautiful 30footer centreboarder spends the winter ashore on its cradle as leaving her on a mud berth would see the centreboard case jammed with mud. Usually this works fine but with a shutdown of my club’s facilities due to Coronavirus I can not get her refloated any time soon and it is quite possible she will not get launched until next spring. I am obviously concerned about the effect this will have on the hull as it dries out,particularly if we have another hot summer. Alan Fuller at Robertsons boatyard in Woodbridge suggests laying sacking in the bilges and wetting with sea water. This sounds like a sensible idea but I wonder if anyone has any other suggestions? :)
Count your blessings - imagine being here in the Algarve.
 

dombuckley

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A very old trick was to use whitewash - indeed there is an old photo of a trading schooner laid up at Lime Kiln Quay with her tarred topsides whitewashed to keep them cooler.

That reminds me. Something I meant to include in my post: best to use a white tarpaulin if you cover her.
 

Romeo

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Get a decent cover on it, wrapping the whole hull to protect from wind and sun. Although perhaps it is too late now?
 

lw395

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Be careful.
Water in the bilges can be salt and will keep the hull planking happy, but high humidity, limited air and warmth elsewhere has potential for promoting rot.
 
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Wind dries timber out, as much as heat: get a tarpaulin around her, like a skirt from sheerline down to the ground. It should be tied off tight, so that it does not flap against the hull, and put several buckets or deep trays filled with water sitting on the hard-standing underneath.

A variation on this would be to make a tarpaulin "bath". Get a large stout tarpaulin around the outside, with the centreline of the tarp along the keel, and the sides tied up to deck level. it will need a bit of jiggery-pokery with the cradle, probably including a very short lift with a crane. Not only will this protect against wind damage, but a relatively small amount of sea water poured inside the tarp will provide enough moisture to keep the planking tight.
Thanks the boat is well covered above the gunwales and I hadn’t thought of covering the hull - I will check out the practicalities
 
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I have known Alan for thirty odd years. He was Whisstocks’ last apprentice. He knows his stuff.

I kept Mirelle at Robbies for a couple of decades. Which side of the yard are you? The sprat shed side is better. Your problem is, as Dom says, both the sun and the wind.

What is she planked with? Teak and iroko don’t move much; pitch pine is the very devil and oak can be as bad.

A very old trick was to use whitewash - indeed there is an old photo of a trading schooner laid up at Lime Kiln Quay with her tarred topsides whitewashed to keep them cooler.
Thanks
The boat is not at Robertsons- if it was Alan and his team are still working and could launch her- she is at Orwell Yacht Club where the necessary equipment is operated by club members and the club management have sensibly decided to halt all Activities where members would be close to each other. The planking is mahogany on oak ribs -she is painted light blue so overpainting white may not make a lot of difference but an interesting idea
 

Kukri

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Thanks
The boat is not at Robertsons- if it was Alan and his team are still working and could launch her- she is at Orwell Yacht Club where the necessary equipment is operated by club members and the club management have sensibly decided to halt all Activities where members would be close to each other. The planking is mahogany on oak ribs -she is painted light blue so overpainting white may not make a lot of difference but an interesting idea

If you haven’t anti fouled yet, I’d suggest a quick coat of cheap white émulsion below the waterline.
 

ianc1200

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My hull is larch on oak, painted black - she's a bawley yacht, also out the water. Last few years had her out until May/June, it wasn't until the concrete hardstanding at Titchmarsh started warming up that the planks started opening. In the water we have had white vinyl "curtains" made to keep the sun off - but the marina wants everybody staying away at present. So I expect we will have no end of problems if and when we do launch this year.
 

dombuckley

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Luckily you are at OYC, not a marina. The hardstanding is gravel over earth, which is a lot better than concrete / tarmac - it retains a lot more moisture and gets nowhere near as hot on a sunny day, which will substantially reduce the drying effects on the timber.
 

Jan Harber

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Hello Jeff
Just to let you know that this won't be the first time Blue Shoal has been stranded ashore for more than just a winter. Back in the early 1970s Jack decided to add teak laid decks (as you know because you've now had them replaced) with help from Bill Sutton at his yard in Wakering, Essex. She came out at the beginning of winter, probably October. It was not until late spring/early summer the next year that there was space in the shed to do the teak laying job. The job took longer than anticipated and, if I remember rightly, it was July before she got re-launched.
Everyone was worried about her drying out and various steps, similar to what Alan Fuller has suggested, were taken to keep the bilges damp, including spraying along seams inside the hull with squeezy bottles. Not sure if it was salt water or not.
She was re-launched the day before we were due to go on a family cruise up the London River to the Clipper Regatta. She sat on the trolley on Bill's slipway and when the first tide came the water just poured in. It was all hands to the pumps and buckets. My other half Alan did a turn with pumps and buckets again on the night-time tide and the next day we set off for London, via the Havengore, by which time she had more or less taken up. Wood is amazing stuff.
Our few days in the Pool of London on a mooring near St Kats were unforgettable, in the midst of famous tall ships and sail training ships from all over the world with a backdrop of Tower Bridge. The ships were all lit up at night. Our daughter was two then, she will be 50 this year... how time flies.
Fingers crossed you'll be on the water again next year.
 

Redwing228

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We’re in the ‘same boat’ with our Finesse 24 ‘Enfys’ trapped ashore at Saundersfoot. I’ve put wetted towels in the accessible parts of her bilges and rigged a sheet on her port side that faces the afternoon sun. The Finesse is planked in Iroko which doesn’t t move much but still worried about opening up.
B76B20B4-3CBF-472D-8FFD-328FC5487DEE.jpeg I
 

FinesseChris

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We’re in the ‘same boat’ with our Finesse 24 ‘Enfys’ trapped ashore at Saundersfoot. I’ve put wetted towels in the accessible parts of her bilges and rigged a sheet on her port side that faces the afternoon sun. The Finesse is planked in Iroko which doesn’t t move much but still worried about opening up.
View attachment 87662 I
Yup, Serinette, Finesse24, is ashore and we can't even get at her to place a tarp over the sides. In previous years, she has taken up in a couple of tides – except for the winter when we installed a heater, which dried her out so well that the water at launch rose to 8 in deep and the floorboards were well afloat. Even then, she was fine after a couple of days . She lives on a drying mooring.

We fit a temporary electric pump, attached to a dedicated 12v battery well above floor level and with a long pipe out of the forehatch. That at least gives us a chance to keep up using the hand pump, and after the initial panicky couple of hours she can be left unattended.

Spraying water into the bilges does seem to help, but as others say you need to ventilate.
 
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