serious problem - please help!

I'm using jotun vinyguard silver grey 88 which seal's and covers tar etc so should be ok when there's oil present.

Cheers
Mick

<hr width=100% size=1>Danbrit is for sale I'm spending all my time working on her with no time for play
 
Re: many thanks for your advices, folks

Hi Fedor,
Seems like you are getting on with it , it is a pitty that in places she is still spliting but like you say maybe she is almost as dry as she can get. Let's hope so.

I tried using a 'skill saw' ( I think it is what you are doing also) on a couple of larch planks I had that had been fitted ( not by me !) without a bevel. It sounds easy but it certainly isn't, nothing is straight , like you say. I tried it freehand but the saw wandered a bit and started to make a mess , so I had to have a re-think.

I made up a little guide, simply a bit of wood about 10inches long, half an inch thick and the same width as the Skill saw with a small 'v' cut in it where the blade is on the saw ( as it is not exactly central always!) then I drove in a couple of copper nails( any sort will do) four to each side this gave me about 1mm clearance for the saw each side. I used this to set the battons top and bottom by setting the small 'v' where I needed to cut and there was enough clearance for the saw to then pass through cleanly. It certainly helped to keep the cut clean and all I needed to concentrate on was the depth. ( and not falling off the lader !)
It is always difficult to do these things with sawdust everywhere as soon as you start your vission is obscured to some degree.

As to your fixings , do you have any nails and roves with you ?
If you do it could be an idea to put in a short , but wide 'sister' next to the rib, and behind the split, remove the original nail and plug the hole with some glue/putty/ sikaflex, or anything to keep the water out . You will probably want to replace the damaged plank at some point, so you wouldn't be adding extra holes to your existing ribs and weakening them in the long term. I can imagine the problem you are having trying to put fairly thin splines in and keeping the fixings. If you can't rove them you could always just pean the nails over the roves for now , it is not ideal but alot of boats were built this way. I am sure they will hold the planks and better than putting presure on these small (ish) splines and the glue you have used.
The presure would be taken by the plank above and below the damaged one, a bit like it is when you fit a 'but block' . It may look different to you there than it sounds to me here, it is difficult when you can't see exactly where everthing is .
It is just an idea.
But if you have completed one side today then you must be doing OK. I thought this was going to be a six month job ! So I reckon you are doing the best you can with a difficult situation.
We are all clever with hindsight so don't knock yourself too much for it , I know someone who bought a 60ft 'er for 100K , had a full survey and got the OK, to date it has cost him 400K to put the thing right ! , and I don't think he's seen that last of the shipwrights yet ! It's just one of those things, how could you have known this would happen, I don't think there are so many folk out there who would have foreseen this one, and why the folk here are in full support of you from what I have read. I think that if you were here then there would be several helpers on hand , it is a shame you are so far away.
So good luck , hope it turns out OK for you .



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Dear Fedor, this sounds truly awful, I have been reading the posts with growing horror since you posted. I know the sound you talked about, we took apart a mast glued with resorcinol a couple of years back and it was just like being on a rifle range.
Hopefully she's under a white tent out of the sun and you can get some water to her, just spraying it over the decks to stop anymore cracks appearing in the harsh Turkish climate. I remember being in Izmir once in October and not being able to walk barefoot on the beach! I can offer little advice, although we have been fairing the hull of my little boat which suffered years in the Med sun and it's obvious that the climate down there works a boat much more than it does here. I agree that white is just about the only colour possible for a wooden hull south of about the 48th parallel, unless you're washing the decks twice a day (9.00am/2.00pm). I think the problem with splining is the subsequent moving (back to normal) of the planks when they are taken north again, I think a material like Sikaflex would be better as it will stretch out with subsequent drying and yet squeeze out if the planks take up again.
If you like we can punt this out to some of our resident experts, and I'm thinking particularly of Americans who experience what happens when wooden boats are taken from New England to the Caribbean. If the problem has become so bad that many planks require replacing then it may be safer to fair and sheath. Then at least you preserve the boat for someone to replace her planks later if they want to. Re-sheathing is often seen as the great evil, because it's so easy to get it wrong. It's kind of a 20 year measure, maybe more. Resident moisture needs to be less than 15% and it sounds like you may be already below that. The best way is to do it inside and out, and at the very least cover the deck too and create a mono-coque structure. There are several builders, and I'm thinking of California and Australia, who have this method down pat. It's radical but it preserves the boat.
Contact us at the magazine if you want us to punt the problem around...
I'm sorry about your boat.
Dan Houston
Editor Classic Boat.

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Re: Saw blade article

Found the article, in case you decide to go for caulked seams in the future.
Wooden Boat no. 98, Feb 1991. It's on wedge-seam techniques, for construction and repair. Mentions several builders using specially made Skilsaw blades, V-shaped with a fine point and angles of 10 or 12 degrees. Must have huge teeth for grinding to a V up to an inch deep!
Would also work for creating/cleaning up caulking seams, I presume.
Am investigating further with toolmakers here (Amsterdam) because I'd like one myself. Will also ask on the Wooden Boat building/repair forum.
PM me if you want details of any results I may get.
The article warns that wedge-seamed boats must be kept wet....

All the best
Richard

<hr width=100% size=1>LowTech
 
Dan,
Thanks a lot for your letter. Yes, it would be interesting to know about techniques people across the Atlantic use to preserve their boats when going southbound to hotter climates. I wonder if it's possible to get in touch with Don Street - as I wrote earlier, my boat is a sister ship of "Little Iolaire", featured in CB March edition. I will try to contact you by email for details.

As far as swelling up of the planks in wetter weather is concerned - that does worry me a lot. But my strategy at the moment is "let's worry about it tomorrow, Scarlett" - I splined her with okume, which is (hopefully) soft enough to take and give as required. Again, as all the problems are above waterline, I hope that there will not be that much movement, and when it will start to swell again it will be a slow process. For the crack on the waterline which nearly sunk the boat I am using sikaflex as you suggest - there will be a lot of movement there and the crack is only 3 mm wide at widest part.
I think that in the future I will replace the cracked planks. It will be a substantial job - at least three almost full-length planks on one side and one on the other side.

As far as sheathing is concerned... well, the cost of professionally done job is simply beyond my price range. I could do it myself, but I have heard of so many jobs badly done that it scares me to think of it..


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My boat is splined and where the planks are close, edge glued, I've had no problems with moving her from UK to the meddy. I would rout out the cracks with a parallel blade, then put a big round plug, cross grain at each end of the cracks and fill with an iroko spline, the same as the palnks, I see no reason to change timbers?? I may well be wrong, but........ I might also put some round plugs along the spline after its fitted. Do this quickly and get the boat back in the water.

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This appears to be the only online reference to <A target="_blank" HREF=http://caribbeanhighlights.com/donstreet/default.htm>Don Street</A>.
Good luck!

Cheers,
david

<hr width=100% size=1>Those Fathers weren't Fathers, they were mothers!
 
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