Wood Maintainance for Folkboat

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ArklowSailor

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After 2000 miles and a lot of brilliant experience I'm in the process of buying my first boat. I'm looking for something cheap, but very seaworthy and capable of long distance cruising.

Everything points to a folkboat, and I'm very impressed by what folkboat owners and former folkboat owners say about them. The lack of cabin space doesn't worry me too much, but I am worried about the maintaince required of a wooden boat. In fact, I'd discounted wooden boats because of the maintainance required.

Does anybody have any experience with maintaining wooden folkboats? What's involved? Am I wrong in hesitating to look at a wooden boat?

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Only you can decide whether you're wrong to discount a wooden boat. Some of us own wooden boats and still have a life! I think there is a kind of rule with wood. Once it is up to the mark, maintenance is not too bad provided it is regular. Miss a year and you'll regret it. I have a bit of a routine which sees me working very hard for about seven days each spring when I high pressure the bottom, rub down the topsides and varnish (should be called vanish really) and then undercoat, gloss, varnish and deck paint. I then touch up the varnish once on the mooring a little later to add extra coats. Frankly that's not too bad but then I like doing the majority of it. Compared with glass boat owners who winter with the same yard, I suppose it takes me about two to three times the time they spend. I can live with that. Let me be biased here - at least once a year my boat looks good - their's on the other hand......

You've got to work out whether you like the work - there's still work on a glass boat - and you've got to buy sensibly. An advantage is that if anything goes wrong on a wooden boat, if you have reasonable skills you can sort many things yourself whereas if you have a glass boat and the bottom needs some anti-osmosis you are pretty well in the hands of a specialist yard.

The trouble with owning a wooden boat is all the people who come up to you and tell you how nice it is - it makes it very difficult to part with them. Three or four years ago in the ruins of a wind and rain swept Calais half way through the summer cruise, I promised my wife, we'd get a glass boat of a modern design with bags of internal room so that if we were stuck like that again we had a caravan to live in (sorry glass boat owners I know not all are like that). From that moment everybody who passed us told us how nice she looked.

A folkboat is, of course, a great sailer provided you can live with the lack of room. There's no difference in the maintenance of a wooden folkboat to any other wooden boat. I perhaps would go for carvel finish rather than one of the clinker ones but if you have one in good condiition, you'll have a great time. Pick wisely and provided you are prepared to get her up to standard and them maintain her you will not regret it. If you are already pinched for time, uncertain whether you want to be wielding glass paper and paint brush - forget it.

As to what's involved - people write books about this but my schedule starting in November is:

Nov:
Mast down and used a ridge pole for an all over cover. Winterise the engine and remove all soft furnishings, ropes for cleaning at home during the winter. remove all bottle screws, blocks etc for similar. Dry bilges and keep clean. Plan winter jobs eg inside work that can be done under the cover. Batteries at home on charge
Dec to Mar:
Check periodically to ensure cover still on and no winter storm problems.
Mar to April
Start spring preparations. If in yard I would have high pressured on hul out, prepare bottom, topsides, varnish work etc - basically above the water line I will refresh everything - one coat of undercoat on topsides and one gloss, as many coats of varnish as I can manage prior to my launch date. rub down and paint deck.
End of April, up with the mast etc and back in commission by May.

Ugh - its impossible to list all the things - the big difference is painting and varnishing a well found wooden baot rather than cleaning and polishing a glass boat. If the wooden boat is not well found, then there's a lot more to do.

That's a start to the answer. I hope it helps.

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Very sea worthy craft, but a bit small for my taste. IIRC the UK GRP version was called a Folkdancer, and also IIRC forum member Spuddy shows a Folkdancer as his boat.

If you wanted something a little bigger, you could do a lot worse than a contessa 32.

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I've not owned a Folboat but for many years had a Stella, which is very similiar but of course far superior. [take cover]
If you look on maintenance as a chore rather than a pleasure then this type of boat probably isn't for you.
Personally, I usually enjoyed working on a wooden boat very satisfying as you could usually see results, whereas work on plastic seldom seems to result in much improvement. For instance I would rather paint wooden topsides than polish plastic.
There are many copies & variations of Folkboats, but a proper clinker nordic version is a real joy.
Have you seen the GRP versions shown @ Southampton Boat Show? Plastic but exact copies of originals, super.

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I can appreciate the love Tillergirl has for the wooden boat but I think you will find realistically that fibreglass is the best thing that ever happened to pleasure boating especially sailing. The resail value alone will indicate that fibreglass is prefered. You might worry about osmosis but it really doesn't matter compared to rot or worms in a wooden boat. Here in Perth back in the 70s a bunch of boat builders sprung up with small to medium sized glass boats. The builders have all gone but the boats live on with much more value than when originally built. They can cope with neglect far better thna a wooden boat. No soul maybe but they just hang in there. Regards ole will

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Agree with that.

I missed out all maintenance last year, and am paying for it now. Nothig serious, just a lot more work than if I had been a good boy. But last Spring was so fine that we went sailing in March - and stopped in December! The maintenance was planned - and repeatedly deferred! So I got a lot of disgusting varnish, some cracked topside seams and a trivial deck leak.

Folkboats vary immensely. As you might expect, the lower the coachroof and the lighter the boat, the better she sails. Asking around amongst Folkboat owners will soon direct you to the better builders.




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Thank you very much for the information and advice - it is very helpful. I've started to revise my view of wooden boats based on what I've heard here. I have no problem with a few week's sanding and painting each year, so if that's all the 'extra' maintaince involved that's not too bad.

Right now my shortlist of boats to look at includes the Folkboat, various Mariholmes (inc. the IF), Contessa 26, Halcyon 27, Albin Vega, and Sadler 25 and 26. I'm looking for a very strong, simple and seaworthy boat, with speed and accommodation size secondary. Once of my biggest criteria is price - the less expensive the boat, the sooner I can get it! If I won the lotto I'd get a Sadler 29 or a Contessa 32, but I can't afford them at the moment.

With this in mind, all and any ideas on boats to buy and ways to buy them cheaply would be very welcome!

Thanks again!

Graham

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If you want value for money, in exchange for a little scraping and painting in the Spring, here are a handful of other wooden boats for consideration; this is no sort of a proper list, just off the top of my head:

Clinker planked, built in 60's:

Kestrel (22ft centreboarder designed by Jack Jones)
Finesse
Mapleleaf
Oakleaf
Stella (26ft big Folkboat, designed by Kim Holman - still actively raced as a class)

Carvel, built in 1930's & 50's:

Deben 4 and 6 tonner (William Blake)
Z 4 tonner (Harrison Butler)
Hillyard 2 1/2 and 4 tonners
Blackwater sloop

lots more...




<hr width=100% size=1>Que scais-je?
 
Pre 72(ish) contessa 26 cockpit drains into the bilge as it does on a lot of folkboats. Therefore not really suitable for long distance cruising. Invictas, Marie IF's, post 72 Contessas and Halcyon 27's all fulfill your criteria in grp.

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Adrian Morgan\'s article in this month\'s edition

is a very good read, if you are new to small wooden boats and wondering whether to "take the plunge", or not.

The Blackwater sloop whose resurrection is described was in much worse condition than most; as the article shows, she was resurrected without humungous problems.

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Graham

Call and see us down the road at Kilmore Quay.We have Three Vegas and we are very happy with them. They were designed to improve on the Folkboat and certainly sail very well with good sea berths. Also the association in the UK is excellent offering excellent advise, parts etc. Check out www.albinvega.co.uk.

Cheers

Nigel "Eager Vega"



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The Irish Sea section of the Folkboat Association is having its annual Rally at Carlingford Lough, 18 to 22 July, based at the marina and hosted by Dundalk and Carlingford Yacht Club.

Why not come along and introduce yourself and find out a bit more about wooden Folkboats. Incidentally a new GRP folkboat from Denmark will cost about £30,000 to put in the water! Used wooden FBs are from a few thousand upwards depending on condition and spec.


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You won't need to win the lottery if you go for a Trintella 29 (or Tufglas 29) designed by Van der Stadt on the folkboat theme and with a real performance.
I hope to be visiting my wife's family with mine in Arklow this year - come over if you see me.
Ken
 
There's a nice contessa 26 with recent engine for sale in Dunlaoighre... looked at it last year, still for sale and priced a bit high (imho) so might be worth trying an offer. Small inside, but nice and cosy, and bigger that a folkboat I believe (never been on a FB). Also retains the traditional feel. I ran into a guy in Howth marina around the same time who solo sails a Halcyon 27 & gave me a look over it - the big difference there is full headroom. We had a good chat and he offered to take me out for a test sail, but I never got round to it - if you're interested look him up. There's a good review of the H27 in one of the magazine back issues - I have it somewhere at home - if you want to borrow it PM me and you can pick it up on our way to Dublin some day.

If you have the time and skills for sailing longer distances, you could try holland, and sail it back - I noticed a couple of very good looking Marieholm 26's (another FB derivative) in Holland when I bought my own boat there.
 
I would say a small wooden boats better,Even without head room a Folkboats wonderful a contessa 26 is a super boat but it depends where she was built, just as with a folkboat.
Difficult choise ive chosen a folkboat becouse she wood! I tried a J24 which is brethtakingly fast but the cabin is just to plastic.And i wasent sure if the keel wont fall off eventually!!!Wood is just more reasuring
 
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