Fiberglass sheathing old carvel planked boat

I can only think back to my days working on radioactive equipment when we had to work with latex rubber gloves on. If the wood sweats half as much as my hands did I can't see it being a good thing!
 
Zen Zero said:
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My brother in law is the owner of this beautiful 80 yr old carvel built racing "gozzo" which lives in fresh water on Lago di Bolsena.

He wants to do some hull maintenance, including sheathing the hull in glassfiber and resin, which I think is a really bad idea.

"The water will get betwen the resin and the planks and will rot your boat quicker" I told him. "You should recaulk it where needed, replace any rotten planks and paint it with traditional oil paint and maybe some anti-foul."

He's not convinced, and of course, I may be wrong. I'd just consider it a minor crime against humanity to damage that boat.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I was considering it on my 45 feet 46 year old cold moulded mahogany hull, I sanded her right back to the timber. And found some rot around a skin fitting, i made the repair which as 5 layers of mahogany ply.
I then after having the boat out of the water and covered for a year and 3 months, the moisture content still was not dry enough for what i would consider suitable to then add wests epoxy and glass sheets,
I was not so much worried about cost. I own the boat now and I was looking at keeping the boat for ever, So it was going to be an investment. I live on board also. The money saved on council tax and rent is to me ok to be spent on the boats upkeep. But after all that time my concern was that the hull was too old to be glassed over to remain trouble free for the next 20 years, or if so that 20 years would be lead to the deterioration. I researched into Spirit yachts who sheath their hulls but they do both inside and outside and the timber is dried and new. The hulls are more of a cocoon like manufacture. i was worried about moisture seeping through from inside out. It was too late in the boats life to rip apart internally to sheath also. and my fear was that i could never get the moisture i wanted out.. out of the hull.
In the end i painted 5 coats of wests epoxy on the bare timber so as to seal the hull. and then epoxy primer etc.. I am however thinking of in the future glassing below the waterline to prevent wood worm etc penetrating the timber. Even a cold moulded yacht flexes and cracks the paint etc as it expands and contracts.... Its been 14 months now and seems to be alright so far. I shall wait and see.. If i was building the boat brand new and the timber had not sat in water for 40 plus years i would definitely sheath the hull, but i feel it needs doing both inside and outside for it to be effective.
Just my opinion though.. Everyone i spoke to had something different to say on the matter, especially the people that had never owned timber boats. I dont see my boat as excessively high maintenance and i quite like the fact that if i do have to fix rot its easy to just cut out and replace the peice of timber... Its why i love the boat so much.
 
Have you thought of ferro cement. You can do quick fix sheathing or effectively build a new hull on the outside. Hartley have done many that lasted years and effectively mean there is no hull maintenance at all. They have often found after sheathing that the larger displacement and presumably reduced moisture means that a substantial amount of ballast needs to be added to bring them back to the original waterline.
 
I recently saw a Stroma yole that was sheathed in grp around 40 years ago. The sheath was beginning to de-laminate in places, so it was all removed. The condition of the wood below was excellent, so the rotting in between brigade can go swing. It was sanded and filled, then re-sheathed in more grp, and should last another 40 years or more. The boat is over 100 years old already.
 
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