Dried-out clinker: to salt or not?

[Keith 66]

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!

 

[Silverfox58]

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.

Nice Thread with some good advice. What’s the wisdom on paint on a dried out clinker before it’s taken up. Although I’m some way away on my newly acquired Sea King I’m wondering what I should be thinking as there is not a lot of paint on my hull, the bilges aren’t too bad.

 

[tonijon]

Are you on the finesse owners acc FB group! I've got the 21 sea pie..she was essentially abandoned above neap highwater on the blackwater.according to a mutual friend of my self and the previous owner she took 2 days to take up! Some of the chaps have had theirs out for longer and appear to take up well!

 

[FinesseChris]

Report:

Well, she's been afloat (or rather drying out between tides) a month now, and for the first week she didn't half leak: Especially at the higher edge of the bilge, above the bilge keels, which I suppose must have dried the most in the 18 months ashore, being most exposed to sun and air. You could see the water bubbling in....

Now it has stopped.

The centreboard case always did leak, and it's still leaking more than pre-lockdown.

But nothing that could not be coped with. I rigged an extra electric pump with its own battery and a hose out of the fore hatch for the first 2 weeks.

Fingers crossed for the season...

C