Taking up

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grumpydog

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I have an enquiry from a friend of mine. She bought a West Solent Scow (12 clinker dinghy) this year, fixed it up and varnished it. Planking is pitch-pine and mahogany. The boat has been out of the water for eight years, but the gaps have been filled (by friend) with red lead and sikaflex. There are also six layers of varnish on the planks. She wonders how urgent it is to get the boat in the water. Ideally she'd wait for spring next year, to let her sort more stuff out... But is it a matter of urgency to wet the thing?
 
there is no urgency, when ever its convenient chuck her in.

As to the stopper, I would not have used sikaflex. My method would simply to work into the seams some soft putty, the idea being that as the planks take up the putty will be pushed back out again. Sikaflex will stay put and could, depending on how far into the lands it had been worked, strain the fastenings or split a plank.

The major criterion here is that one simply wants to keep the water out as the planks take up wherupon the planks should return to their original tight fit.

Hope this helps.
 
At the beggining of the rowbo hire season in Bowness Bay they put the boats into the water and they sink. They have a petrol powered pump and go around, dropping the strum box into each boat in turn and it empties and floats then slowly sinks again. By the second emptying they stay afloat and keep that way until the end of the season. They're carted away to rest over winter indoors and then it starts all over again. Some of the boats are decades old.
 
In the days of clinker ships lifeboats, I believe they were always stowed with several inches of seawater in the bilges to keep them from sinking when they were launched.

No good abandoning ship if the lifeboats are going to sink because they havent taken up!

But always use seawater - never fresh, as it rots the wood out double quick....

but I am quite worried at the thought of all that sikaflex between the planks - where wll it all go when the planks take up? Good chance not only of splitting the planks but straining the fastenings and wrecking the whole thing IMHO. When expanded the planking is (should be) a really tight fit, so when they expand in the water there will be nowhere for them to go.... except outward against the copper rivets, stretching and loosening them. And thats a pig to sort!
 
Hmmmmm?

Well, I have a Wootton Industries Day Boat, (Devon Potter) and she is clinker built, mahogony on oak copper fastened, now when she was built They placed sealer between the lands (I don't know what sort) to stop the boat from opening up whilst out of the water. The boat is designed to be a trailer sailor, and they fully expected her to be out of the water for extended periods. What can I tell you? It works, she has been on her trailer for about 18 months to my knowledge and not a sign of her opening up.

When I spoke to Mike at Wootton Bridge, he told me that it was the way they build all their boats, and have never had any trouble at all, he was a bit cagey about telling me what sealer they used, maybe he considers it to be a bit of a trade secret? :-)

Incidentally, there is a boat builder up in Scotland that uses they same system on his boats, I will see if I can dig up his URL, he builds traditional Orkney / Shetland style double enders, if memory serves.

I can't rightly say whether or not the original posters friend is going to have any trouble when she chuks her boat back in the oggin, but I think maybe it will depend on how much Sikaflex has been squeezed in between the planks? I agree, it is not the best choice for the job, guess she will have just have to suck it and see? I do hope it doesn't give her any problems.

Best, Charlie.
 
[ QUOTE ]
The boat is designed to be a trailer sailor, and they fully expected her to be out of the water for extended periods. What can I tell you? It works, she has been on her trailer for about 18 months to my knowledge and not a sign of her opening up.

When I spoke to Mike at Wootton Bridge, he told me that it was the way they build all their boats, and have never had any trouble at all, he was a bit cagey about telling me what sealer they used, maybe he considers it to be a bit of a trade secret? :-)

I do hope it doesn't give her any problems.


[/ QUOTE ]

So do I Charlie, but I think you answered your own point here: Mike 'builds his boats that way' - in other words, he allows space for sealer between the planks in the first place, just as carvel planking must allow space for caulking.

My experience is that unsealed clinker does not take kindly to having sealer forced in between the planks: it does not allow enough room for the wood to swell, and considerable stresses can arise. If the builder allows space between the planks to allow for a sealer that solves the problem, but if not..... /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Its the same problem as over zealous caulking or using too hard a material in carvel hulls. Fastenings can be strained, and planking damaged. 'Can be' - not 'are'.
 
Point taken, and I guess the poor lass will just have to wait and see? Incidentally, I have a book called "Cruising Under Sail" by Eric C Hiscock, it's the second edition, wonderful old book, but in it with reference to looking after clinker dinghies, he maintains that the very best treatment for a clinker dinghy is to get it out of the water for the winter, dry her out fairly well, scrape all the old paint or varnish out of her bilges, and then tip a couple of gallons!! (Yachties were rich when this book was written) of 50/50 Raw Linseed Oil and Turpentine and leave it to soak in for two or three months. swilling it around now and again.

He says that when the boat has taken all the Linseed and Turps, it will never open up again? (my question mark) has anyone ever tried this?
 
I was told me about a boat in which so much linseed oil had been poured in over the years that the wood was almost translucent. Quite what this does to the strength of the wood I don't know. Must have left a slick a mile wide when it went back in.
 
The linseed oil (RAW, not "boiled" - very important!) and turps routine recommended by Hiscock goes back further than that - it originates with Claud Worth, whose friend Green built a clinker dinghy in his lodgings (tolerant landlady!) and did this to it. It apparently worked very well.

Worth says that one gallon will do, but you want to move the dinghy around once a fortnight or so so that the stuff reaches every corner.

No effect on strength, apparently.

Forget varnishing for quite a long time after the oil has soaked in!

I did hear of a dinghy where this was tried with deks Olje No 1, but apparently that was not a sucess as the planks did not swell up and she leaked for ever more. I never saw the boat, but the tale was told me in Tollesbury in about 1981.

Linseed oil swells the wood apparently.
 
When I was a lad in Burnham the process was known as "plimbing" but I've not heard it called that for years, was it just a local saying?
A friend once complained about his clinker dinghy leaking and I said it just needed plimbing. He complained later that he had tried all the chandleries and couldn't buy any.
When I had a Stella the first night of each season was spent aboard. Had to sleep with one hand out of bed so the rising water would wake you.
 
Hi Mirelle, I seem to recall an article on the restoration of a lovely old Spitzgatter where the sodden hull was repeatedly sprayed with raw turpentine. The turps apparently pushing the water out of the timber to the point that water could be seen forming on the surface of the timber, she reportedly floated visibly higher after several years of this treatment. Mike.
 
What about Danish Oil? I had heard that it is good to use, as when it dries completely and can be varnished over. Tradboats appear to recommend as it a base for Le Tonkin whatever it is
 
I'm surprised the Deks Olje didn't work, as far as I know it's mainly a mixture of linseed oil and spirit of some sort, no doubt with some secret ingredient to justify the price.

On the same subject, does anyone know if Deks Olje, as the name suggests, helps to keep planked decks watertight?
 
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