just another thing as im rather new to wooden boats.

[manish]

are wooden boats the pain in the glutus maximus that most boat owners make them out to be??? its just that as i would be away for 3 months at a time i was think of letting the hull dry out for 3 months or is that too much??? thanks once again /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[Porthandbuoy]

They can be. I always reckon to lose between 10 and 15 minutes in every hour blethering to people wanting to know about Mariposa and her history.

 

[Topcat47]

Why would you want it out of the water for three months at a time?

Wooden boats seem to work best when left in the water, the one moored next to my GRP craft only gets taken out for a scrub and polish (OK and a coat of antifoul and any underwater work needed). The longest it's been "out" is four weeks. in the past two years, (four days this month).

Mind you a lot of wooden dingys stay out all year when not being used....

 

[Sixpence]

I'm finding that working on my wooden one is easier than the plastic one , and more enjoyable . But she needs to be back in the water sooner rather than later . Wooden boats dry out too much ( so I'm told ) so once treated and looked after they need to get wet again

 

[Peterduck]

Well now, there's wooden boats, and there's other wooden boats, and they're mostly lovely. Carvel and clinker boats don't like being dried and wetted; it's much better to be one or the other. Plywood and cold moulded or strip-planked boats don't mind so much, as their water-tight integrity does no depend on the wood swelling.
Peter.

 

[jezjez]

my boatyard - i'm on a swinging mooring - don't have insurance to allow me to stay in the water. That means 5 months out. Is that going to be a killer?

 

[Casey]

I have just launched Kala Sona, a forty year old clinker built boat which I hauled out last October. She was launched on a trolley down a slipway and immediately started taking in water. Alongside a pontoon jetty I had five pumps going initially but after aboput ten minutes could stop hand pumping. The hired petrol pump of 50 gallons a minute capacity was stopped after about 20 minutes and the auxillary electric pump (500 gph) was not needed after about 50 minutes. It was about an hour and a half before I could stop the engine and the automatic bilge pump leaving the float switch controlled 1500 gph electric bilge pump to deal with all incoming water. This started cutting out after about two hours and after 24 hours cut in briefly when I stepped aboard.

This experience is typical of me launching my boat although last year, after a damp spring I only needed the engine and fitted electric pump. Although quite alarming in the initial stages she takes up after about three hours although it will be a couple of weeks before I attempt to set a sail to give the ribs (oak) chance to take up.

The first time I launched her I was very alarmed but now accept it as the price I have had to pay for having a very attractive boat to look after. Regrettably, other considerations are forcing me to put her on the market.

 

[jezjez]

This does no harm?
Is there any value in filling the bilges with river water for the winter or is that plain daft?

 

[Casey]

When I first had Kala Sona I used to fill a garden spray with sea water and spray around both inside and out but found that it made little or no difference to the amount of water that came in when she was launched so discontinued the practice. I know that some people use wetted sacks placed around the inside of the boat kept soaked with sea water but have not tried this. It all seems to depend on what sort of winter we have had and how long she has been out of the water.

I wanted to keep the boat ashore for another month or so but with this very dry weather for the past six weeks I could see the joints opening up so launched.

 

[Lakesailor]

Suppose it depends on what you have inside that you don't want wet.
Last week they relaunched most of the hire row boats in Bowness Bay. They have about a dozen at a time lying with they gunwhales slopping level with the lake. They have a petrol pump running all day and just keep moving the strum box to another boat in turn until they stop sinking. Then they're all OK for the season.

 

[manish]

ok i think it might just be a good plan to take her out for a week when i have leave and get any work done in the winter as the whole thing of my boat almost sinking would be a brown trouser moment

 

[Katomi]

Wood boats:
I am the newbi here but the old boys at the sailing club have a bucket of sea water in their wooden dingies to keep them wet so the dont dry out. My 1960 enterprise would take a dat to tak up water then would tighten up stop moving about in the joints and sail a treat. I currently have an old boat which I hope peeps here will help me id which is also wood and lives on a swinging mooring all year round and she takes up about an inch of water in the bilg then stays at that amount as the wood expands
Stephen

 

[Seagreen]

If you are going to stay afloat for any length of time in fresh river water, it would be a good idea to throw handfuls of salt about the bilges to salinise the water seepage and prevent rot. Dunno what the environmentalists would make of this, though.

 

[Searush]

[ QUOTE ]
This does no harm?
Is there any value in filling the bilges with river water for the winter or is that plain daft?

[/ QUOTE ]

I would definitely NOT use river water unless it is an estuary. Sea water preserves wood, fresh water rots it.