Softness of the Stem

[nandtatno7]

No, not me, the boat.
Pitch pine on oak, well built, and in vgc all over - except - beginnings of softness in the stem around the ends of 3 planks near the gunwhale on one side of the bow. Water is obviously getting in from above but the question is what treatment?
Ideally I want 1) a holding position to allow me to sail until late Summer and then 2) a permanent treatment. I can sort the paint / cracks on the deck through which the water is presumably finding its way, but what about the stem / plank ends. Do I dig out softness and fill temporarily? Slap preserver and paint on for now? Am I being too optimistic expecting treatment to wait until Autumn? Any suggestions for temporary and permanent fixes gratefully received.
Nick

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[Mirelle]

Ho hum. If you can find where rain water is trickling down from, that will be half the battle. Is the softness in the oak stem itself or is it also in the hood ends of the three planks?

I am no expert, but I have found softness in old oak to be almost always localised and slow in spreading, hence easy to fix.

Pitch pine in my experience is incredibly resistant to rot; we had a sort of long running laboratory experiment when I bought Mirelle because a fresh water header tank in the heads had rusted through and was dripping fresh water in a confined space onto CRE bent frames, oak grown frames, pitch pine stringer and teak planking - all behind panelling! When I got round to it we found the CRE had disintegrated from keel to sheer strake, the oak had gone bluish black and softened for about a quarter of an inch and the teak and pitch pine were wholly unaffected!

However, many boats are described as pitch pine planked when in fact they are planked with Oregon Pine / Douglas Fir / British Columbian Pine (all the same tree, so far as I know) and this is a very different kettle of fish indeed because it will rot quite rapidly in fresh water. Pitch pine REALLY STINKS of turps and creosote when you scrape it; BCP just looks the business and smells slightly resinous.

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[DMGibson]

Whether it's the planks or the stem post, the usual remedy for "firming up" softening timber is to dry it out and saturate it with epoxy resin -"West" is how it is often referred to. However, several firms sell the resin, in a suitable form for saturating the timber. Basically, it needs to penetrate into the body of the timber where it sets, and binds together the wood fibres to make a composite material which is as strong as the timber itself.

You can do this during the season, provided you can dry out the timber, as long as you can get to the timber to treat it - the stuff brushes on like varnish. If the timber is dry, it will soak in very quickly, so keep painting it on until it stops disappearing. It will also stick everything else together, like the planks to the stem, the caulking to the plank edges etc, so be a bit careful where you let it get to.

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[ccscott49]

Use meths to thin it and it will seep in better.

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