Fresh Snow Panic

[Kristal]

Haven't been around Crystal for the last two days - have just discovered that the Marina has had a significant settleage of the snow that did very little a few miles further into Central London. Therefore, I'm quite worried that she (specifically her cockpit, kept open for living aboard purposes) will now have quite a lot of the stuff lying on her.

Fresh water concerns now fill my brain. I'm going to rig the cockpit cover when I return tonight, but what about the amount of fresh that has already undoubtedly got into the cockpit and bilges beneath? In a fresh water marina?! Without any varnish on the teak in the cockpit? I'm ultra-paranoid now...

Will it help to thoroughly heat and ventilate the engine area (beneath cockpit sole) via the saloon hatch in the hope of drying it out before it begins to encourage rot? Should I be regularly sweeping snow from anywhere it lingers? Is there anything else I can do to keep her healthy in this most boat-unfriendly environment?

Advice much appreciated,

/<

 

[Gordonmc]

Our American cousins apparently use anti-freeze as a rot inhibitor in fresh water bilges, 'though I don't know if the glycol based variety would do. A search in the Wooden Boat forum might turn up something more definitive.
After heavy rain and my cockpit cover filling I put a few buckets of sea water into the bilge, then pump out. Not so easy if you are on a river or lake.

 

[Kristal]

I need a bucket, and a very long rope and then take a hefty walk to the Thames and back. I don't suppose I could use buckets of fresh with huge amounts of salt put into them, could I?

 

[LittleShip]

I have often spread salt on my decks and in the bilges to help with this problem. You can buy salt from Koi carp dealers or any good aquatic store it's about £6.00 for a very large bag. Stops the decks from going green as well so it must work, problem is as soon as it rains you have to do it again.
This maybe worth a read!!
www.acbs-bslol.com/Gadgets/D97WoodRot.htm

Let me know what you think
Tom

 

[trouville]

If you use glycol your ment to soak dry wood then let it dry as it replaces the water. as for salt water of salt that causes other problems. Either let her dry out every year or sail in salt water areas from time to time,but salt water is only a mild solution you can still get rot.
I think it ought to be alright if you keep her well aired keep the bilges dry not leave puddles,
As for the teak no problem just use a washing up sratchy sponge with water and it will look like new, teak even red has so much oil it will push off varnish anyway.

 

[Mirelle]

Panic not; as Trouville says all is probably well; certainly the teak will come to no harm, and the rest of the boat has probably experienced this a few times by now.

If (which it probably has not) it has frozen hard your varnish will have suffered.

I thought the stuff used for preserving wood was polyethylene glycol ("PEG") not ethylene glycol (antifreeze) and in any case it lifts all paint coatings so not perhaps an ideal plan...

 

[Kristal]

It has frozen hard, in fact, and thus hopefully the varnish will have taken a beating - it will save the elbowgrease needed to sand it all back before applying Coelan when the weather is more hospitable. I did give the engine room a good hour or two's blast with the cabin heater and leave the engine room open overnight to circulate some air through.

I'm a bit nervous by nature at the moment, and all this concern about fresh water is starting to make me paranoid!

Thanks, all...

/<

 

[Casey]

When I first bought Kala Sona I read everything I could find and found out some interesting facts about rot. One of these was an article in the American Boatbuilding website (www.boatbuilding.com/) on the use of antifreeze as a rot preventative. I still use clear cuprinol! Another one was to ensure that your boat had a through draught of air at all times. I have done this and had the pleasure of seeing her dry out and even pieces that I thought that I would have to cut out and scarph look good enough to varnish.

Another article, which I have spent the past hour trying to find through google to no success, was on the causes of rot in wood. This one said that rot was caused by a percentage of water in wood whether it be fresh or salt. The actual percentage and the method of measurement escapes me and it would be far too technical for me anyway!! I suppose if we look at an old wooden pile on a jetty we find that the part exposed by the tide has rotted but the bit only exposed to air is sound. Does this bear the theory out?

I found a soft patch in my boat's transom this year and on cutting it out I found that it started near the point that rot had been cut out before. The wood had dried out after the repair and the rot had not spread. Interestingly it was between two fastenings, point to point, one stainless and the other brass. Electrolysis perhaps?

I do not think that you need worry too much about the snow in your cockpit; ensure there is no standing water and everything is kept clean.