To copperbottem a clinker hull or not?

trouville

trouville

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Being winter and time for thought i was wondering if its practical to copper bottem a clinker hull! Once its well tared the hull wont rot (providing there isent any to begine with) as tar sticks water nor air will ever get behind it.

When it comes to the copper it can be shaped quite well but there will certainly be air gaps that will fill with water in time but would that matter as the wood would be well tared and protected??

Along the same lines if a very thin copper tape were used could it rot proof the wood by being so well glued on that theres no air behind it?? (doubt it??)

Has anyone ever seen a clinker with copper??

The tar alone would mean no worry about worm!But tar cant be antifouled!!It would then HAVE to be coppered or leaded.
 
I would not recommend it, you would have to riddle the relatively thin planking with nail holes to attach the copper sheet, with the very real risk of splitting the planks. Copper bottoms did also wear thin and did require replacement, resulting in yet more nail holes. Any dissimilar metals, e.g. ballast keel, stem band, through hull and rudder fittings will risk galvanic corrosion and electrolytic degradation of the wood.
 
Tar can be anti fouled, there are a number of barrier primers that will do the job.
 
Which?

I wouldent mind trying a piece of wood with tar, barrier primer, and antifouling left in the water for a year or so and checked from time to time in say rochefort where the tide will wash accross it at a normal sailing speed!!

Ive been thinking about the nail question and its not a problem! Short nails and mahogany isent used below the water line very often as its not a very good boat building wood all considered(depends on the mahogany!) pitch pines better!For example (i have had a mahogany boat!)

As for the copper i could use lead or zink!!!???plate

In the end it will be better just to go on takeing my TBT antifouling and haveing another shovelfull added!!!Costs though!
 
As in the far north (places like Shetland, and I am sure there are others) boatmen around here used to tar the bottoms of their boats once a year.

The last time I saw it done was by the skipper of a N.Devon wooden Sand Barge. I was very interested at the time, because I was a lot younger and very impecunious. So spending money on antifouling paint was bringing tears to my eyes. Now I know that tar in itself is not reckoned to have much in the way of antifouling qualities, but the bottom of his barge never seemed to get that bad, maybe someone more knowledgable than me could comment?

He had a fire going on the beach and his melting pot over the fire into which he was dropping lumps of tar, when the tar was bubbling hot, he would then take it off the fire and pour in about a half litre of diesel oil, and stir quickly and thoroughly.

He then proceeded to paint the tar onto the bottom of the barge. The diesel oil delayed the setting off time of the tar by a good bit, and the tar went on just like paint!, I was mightily impressed at the time, he got about a square meter covered before the tar would stiffen up and need to go back on the fire.
 
We wouldent need antifouling if we could get into fresh water every two months or less for a week, sail hard everyday and all the seawater stuff falls off!!!

Tar is only used on barges and rotten boats!! Or fresh water commercial or sailboats that used to need covering!! Weed will grow on tar!!!Pity!!!

Tar would be ideal if it would stay clean,protects a wooden hull against worm water and rot,economic and smells good as well!!(compared to other antifoulings!
 
I suppose that if you were to mix in some copper powder, it might work a bit better as an anti-fouling?
 
Around my place, the oldtimers also used to tar their working boats bottom. They said it kept away the worms and
I suppose also the barnacles. But we are not talking about
bitumen tar, as used on roads, roofs and inside of coffins, which is an oil product, but about coal tar, which used to be got at gasworks, I am told. This stuff is quite poisonous, and
nowadays, like all the goodies for wooden boats, banned by law. ( red lead, white lead, creosote and now even pine tar have the same fate ) Creosote is destilled from coal tar.
I nevertheless, applied a coat of this stuff, heated up in a kettle, as first layer, on my newbuilt Iroko doublender.
A bitumen based barrierpaint followed ( the manufacturer of
antifouling will recomend one ) and then two layers of antifouling. In the tropics, we used to have the missfortune to chafe of some of the antifouling, when coming of a slipway. It was chafed off down to the layer of tar, which also penetrates the wood, so I canot say down to bare wood. Anyway, half a year later, we still had no worms, and never had after.
Try to get some and leave the copper sheathing, I would say.
 
I've seen yachts being tarred on the Broads, in the manner described. In fresh water it keeps the bottom pretty weed-free for most of the season, and then gets re-done during the annual winter pull-out.
People swear by different concoctions. I've used a mixture of 50/50 bitumastic gutter paint and Stockholm Tar. No heating necessary.
I've accumulated a nice lot of coal/wood tar mix from the back of my Raeburn flue, which might come in handy for something, one day.

Incidentally red lead, white lead, and pine tar are still legal and easily obtainable at the right places - it's just that you won't find them in ordinary chandlers anymore.
 
My boat was tarred until last year. Her previous owner scraped (most of) it off and antifouled on top. There are patches where some tar remnants are peeping through the antifoul but it held up very well. I suspect that tar, being as rough as it is (at least as it was on Tafna) may have a very small detrimental effect on boat speed.
 
It seems to go on very smooth, like paint if you use the diesel trick, but there are probably better ways of doing it these days? better products as well I expect.
 
Must be the difference inbetween U.K. and Germany. The trouble is, I once went to Davey&Co for to try get some whitelead, and he told me, he had a contract with Toplicht in
Hamburg, that forbids him to sell anything to germans directly, even if they are abroad. So I went home with empty hands again. How about any other usefull adresses? I´ll be visiting again this summer.
 
You are most welcome!...........don't clean him out, leave some for us! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
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