Keeping clinker dinghies wet

[Cyberusfaustus]

Sail it more often, so it does not dry out completely. At the start of the season, consider sinking it for a couple of days. Don't fill it with water when ashore...... the planking is not designed for that sort of load.

As for keeping water out, no worries there. I have a proper cover and be several dry storage solutions. I am mostly concerned with getting the wood wet enough from the outside to swell and close the seams... And then keep an it that way throughout the season. Sinking her does seem to be a necessary first step. If I kept her on trailer over grass, would sailing her weekly (maybe Sat and Sunday) likely be sufficient?

 

[wombat88]

Don't overthink this or you will not enjoy owning the boat.

This is what I do with a leaky 12ft clinker boat in not particularly good condition. Lives in a dinghy park.

I start the season by going sailing with a crew and a pump. If sailing weekly things improve quite quickly (assuming salt water that retains moisture). I always try to leave the boat with some sea water in it to keep it damp. Not too much, don't want too much extra weight, boats are not built to hold water in.

If you are sailing a couple of times a week I'd imagine the 'water ingress situation' will decline quite quickly. Don't expect it to go away completely. After a month or so I find the water level stays around floorboards which is fine, floating floorboards and big bulk of water in the boat are not much fun.

If I can sail for a couple of hours without the need to pump I'm happy but as the weather heats up the topsides can start to get a bit leaky.

Sailing a couple of times a week and trying to leave the boat in the shade should be fine but you need a crew to pump, at least to start with...unless it is a quick boat with self bailers of course...mine isn't.

 

[Cyberusfaustus]

Don't overthink this or you will not enjoy owning the boat.

This is what I do with a leaky 12ft clinker boat in not particularly good condition. Lives in a dinghy park.

I start the season by going sailing with a crew and a pump. If sailing weekly things improve quite quickly (assuming salt water that retains moisture). I always try to leave the boat with some sea water in it to keep it damp. Not too much, don't want too much extra weight, boats are not built to hold water in.

If you are sailing a couple of times a week I'd imagine the 'water ingress situation' will decline quite quickly. Don't expect it to go away completely. After a month or so I find the water level stays around floorboards which is fine, floating floorboards and big bulk of water in the boat are not much fun.

If I can sail for a couple of hours without the need to pump I'm happy but as the weather heats up the topsides can start to get a bit leaky.

Sailing a couple of times a week and trying to leave the boat in the shade should be fine but you need a crew to pump, at least to start with...unless it is a quick boat with self bailers of course...mine isn't.

Thank you! This sounds like a great plan. One detail is that I will be sailing on freshwater, not salt water. How much of a difference does that make to how quickly the wood swells? I have heard of people who suggest lining the bilge with rock salt to achieve the similar effect in fresh water... As for pumping, guess I just need to get her down to the launch and see how quickly she fills compared to how quickly we can pump her out. Thanks again for your reassuring description of your experience!

 

[wombat88]

I don't know if fresh will make any significant difference to the speed at which the boat 'takes up' or 'plims up'. I doubt one would notice the difference.

The problem with fresh water is that of rot. Hence trying to make it salty. I suppose one could put a spoonful or two of salt into the water in the bottom of boat when you leave it in the dinghy park but draining the boat seems a more obvious approach if you are sailing quite regularly.

Launch and pump and see how it goes has to be the plan.

Something that never gets mentioned is the colour of the cover it lives under. Surely boats under dark covers get hotter than those under light ones? Just a thought...

 

[14K478]

Quite so quite so : A boat , especially a Racing Dinghy is quite carefully constructed to sail fast , not act as a Water container; After all Rain Water is surely a Timber boats worst enemy ; Keep rain water off and out of timber boats , always

This explains the extinction of a once common class - the RNSA 14 dinghy. Designed by the rather illustrious combination of Charles Nicholson and Uffa Fox and built in quite large numbers by RN dockyards for use by the Navy, there were a very common dinghy in my youth -I learned to sail in one - but hen's teeth and now more common.

They were racing dinghies,, "squaddie proofed" to a certain extent,ie fairly stable, but when the RN sold them off, and replaced them with the more squaddie proof Bosun, they tended to find themselves in the hands of yacht clubs who used then as teaching boats (that's how I started in one) and private owners who thought, mistakenly, that as "lugsail dinghies" (they had a biggish gunter lugsail sloop rig with a small spinnaker) they could be left kicking around. Not so; they are as delicate as the next racing dinghy although they are less exciting to sail.

I think the actual RNSA 14 is now as extinct as the Dodo; the NMM have not got one, just a nice model of one.

 

[Capt Popeye]

I don't know if fresh will make any significant difference to the speed at which the boat 'takes up' or 'plims up'. I doubt one would notice the difference.

The problem with fresh water is that of rot. Hence trying to make it salty. I suppose one could put a spoonful or two of salt into the water in the bottom of boat when you leave it in the dinghy park but draining the boat seems a more obvious approach if you are sailing quite regularly.

Launch and pump and see how it goes has to be the plan.

Something that never gets mentioned is the colour of the cover it lives under. Surely boats under dark covers get hotter than those under light ones? Just a thought...

Might mention that the Colour the boat is painted can also effect its ability to remain watertight and not dry out in warm airs , Recall that there was (maybe i still is) a well known local Craft to Waldringfield , named afer a religious fella , that was painted Black , its timber sided really dried out in the summer weather , one could see the caulking lines in them planks easily .

 

[Gsailor]

As we know, clinker construction is of overlapping strakes, each fastened to the others at the laps with copper rivets. The strakes have to be joined tightly enough that they resist the ingress of water. The way this happens is that, when afloat, the wood comprising the strakes takes up water and swells against the tension in the rivets, thereby tightening each lap to the point where it becomes essentially watertight. If the hull is allowed to dry out, the wood in the strakes shrinks and the laps open up; and if the vessel is then launched she will attempt to sink. For a dinghy like my 15' Aileen Louisa, and I imagine for Chinita's dinghy too (at least to some extent) the taking-up process can take half a day to be completed to the point where the boat can be used, by when it’s almost time to put her back on her trailer to take her home again....

The ‘correct’ answer to the problem is to leave the boat afloat somewhere all the time, so that she’s always available for use when wanted. I was lucky when I had Aileen Louisa that I was living where my back gate opened on to the water, and I could leave her in her mud berth all the time. That way the hull stayed watertight and she floated on each tide, ready for use. With a boat stored on her trailer, some other way of keeping the hull wet is required. It is not okay to fill the hull with water like a bath because of the risk of damage to the hull -- boats are not designed to keep water in, but out, and the weight of water inside could damage the hull, even to the point of destroying it altogether. But it is okay to put in enough water to cover the garboards and maybe one more strake on each side; and having done that you can then lay towels or pieces of carpet against the inside of the hull from there to above the waterline; leave the bottom edges in the pool of water in the bottom to wick the water up, top up the pool from time to time, and if necessary keep the towels wet with an occasional sprinkle from the hose as well. If you do this for a day or so before launching she should float without much leaking.

Another method I've heard about but not tried is to use garden sprinklers under the hull for some time while it's on the trailer to wetten it from the outside, and I can't see why that wouldn't work either (except perhaps in a yacht club, where it mightn't be so easy to organise).

And a third option is to use a waxy product called Slick Seam, trowelled into the laps between the strakes from the outside. This seals any gaps pretty well, but oozes out under pressure as the wood swells in the water, therefore avoiding damage to the strakes. (But what you should not ever consider doing is using an epoxy filler or even an elastomeric compound to do this, because these products stick to the strakes and you risk permanent damage to the wood as it swells against the filler.)

Mike

Interesting - may I ask if using saltwater (you mentioned a sprinkler system) is far better.

I was told rightly or wrongly that fresh water rots wood, salt water pickles it?

I like the idea of some water a carpet, I was going to suggest using vermiculite in bags ( it holds water) or some other crystal (such as the crystals in disposable nappies that expand and hold lots of water).

With a tarp over and condensation the inside would stay wet - but I note you say it is more important to keep exterior wet.

Interesting stuff going back to old tech.

 

[14K478]

Might mention that the Colour the boat is painted can also effect its ability to remain watertight and not dry out in warm airs , Recall that there was (maybe i still is) a well known local Craft to Waldringfield , named afer a religious fella , that was painted Black , its timber sided really dried out in the summer weather , one could see the caulking lines in them planks easily .

Sounds like “Jesus”. Used to be owned by the Rector. But I remember her as green, not black.

 

[Capt Popeye]

Sounds like “Jesus”. Used to be owned by the Rector. But I remember her as green, not black.

Ah you maybe right there , kind Sir , me only seeing her phot in adverts etc thougth Jesus was a dark colour , thought black , but dark green it is theh. Still makes the point about dark colours drying out to reveal the Cauking seams to easily

 

[14K478]

Ah you maybe right there , kind Sir , me only seeing her phot in adverts etc thougth Jesus was a dark colour , thought black , but dark green it is theh. Still makes the point about dark colours drying out to reveal the Cauking seams to easily

Certainly does.

 

[wombat88]

Last time I ran aground in a large wooden boat, in February, we warmed ourselves by leaning against the dark blue topsides.

 

[veshengro]

As a teenage Merchant seaman in the early 1960's I used to listen to tales of wooden clinker built ship's lifeboats filling with water when launched in emergencies. There was an old AB in one ship who had had the misfortune to have been sunk 3 times in the war, twice by torpedoes and once in a collision while in convoy in thick fog. I remember his tale of the first sinking off West Africa, he said they bailed a ship's lifeboat for the first 24 hours because she leaked like a sieve after always hanging in the Davits in hot sunshine, even with a canvas cover on.
When discharging and loading cargoes around the Australian Coast it wasn't unusual for the Mate to tell the Bosun to 'put the boats in the water'. We would lower the wooden boats on their falls until they floated alongside, still hooked onto the lower fall block. There they would stay while we painted and overhauled the Davits and gear. Invariably the boats would have a fair amount of water in them having floated alongside, sometimes overnight. The boats would be lifted clear of the water and left to hang and drain before being secured back in the Davits.

 

[Bodach na mara]

You guys do realise that you're answering a question that was asked over 9 years ago?

 

[veshengro]

You guys do realise that you're answering a question that was asked over 9 years ago?

Yep, I was just commenting in response to messages since Sunday 26th.

 

[14K478]

You guys do realise that you're answering a question that was asked over 9 years ago?

Some questions are eternal (see “anchor threads”)

 

[Wansworth]

Galician fishermen cover exposed planking with a cloth and soak with sea water…..a daily event