Wood Treatment

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pauls_SPT

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Hello,

I'm stripping all the paint off my Seaplane Tender (which is definitely keeping me off the streets) and I'm almost at the stage where I can start repainting one side.

The construction is double-diagonal teak (or mahogany, I'm not sure how you tell the difference) and I've been wondering about using Teak Oil or something like that on the planking before I repaint it. So I have four questions, if you might indulge me /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Would Teak Oil be a good idea or would it stop paint from sticking?

Should I put any sort of caulking between the planks where they've started to dry out and seperate?

What primer should I use?

What paint should I use?

Any help/advice/going hmmm while nodding will be much appreciated,

Many thanks,

Paul
 
I wondered how you were getting on?

How are the bulkheads?

I would think the hull planks are almost certainly mahogany, its a reddish colour, teak is more brown and fades to silver.

Teak oil is for protecting teak that is not to be painted, like a deck.

Assuming you have got the boat back to bare wood you need to decide on a paint system, on a double diag hull there will be more movement than a two pack system could cope with which leaves you with single pack urethane or alkyd yacht enamel, I'd go for the urethane.

Decide if you want Blakes, Hempels, International, EPIFANES or screwfix.

I'm switching to EPIFANES this week.

There is a clue in the above as to which I'd reccommend. Which ever you go with get the booklet/CD from the paint company. Follow the directions plus a few extra coats never hurt.
 
It's coming on slowly - I've had the unenviable task of cleaning out my bilges these last few weeks - I've lost count of the number of bags of bilge effluent I've shoveled out so far... I've managed to arrange power and water, so I've been able to pressure wash a lot of it out /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I've got a better idea of how the bulkheads should work now, thanks. The one single bulkhead that's left (into the forepeak/chain-locker) is a single layer of vertical planks, so that'll be a challenge for my carpentry skills...

Here she is as is (sorry about the loony image size):

flybywirecomposite5wv.jpg


She looks a lot scrappier than she really is, as the paint is only half stripped off in this picture.

Thanks for your advice - should I put something between the planks before I paint over them?

All the best,

Paul
 
over the years i've owned and restored a few boats. i never use anything but bog standard undercoat and gloss, it's never failed me. i know other people who have used brand names specifically for wooden boats and up to now i've to be impressed ,apart from the prices of them !! the primer i use however [ arguably the most important coat } is always metallic pink or aluminium . covers knots , old bitumin and antifoul. i'd certainly fill the gaps first,again i use white lead paste. remember the 5 p's.

good luck with your project
 
If you haven't been you should visit the British Military Powerboat Trust at Marchwood (Southampton Water).
They have done one or two similar construction craft using modern methods that looked very sensible to me.
The end results, inc' RAF tender 102 (Phillip Claburn), even after a few years use are superb.
 
Hi Miket,

I managed to visit the BMPT before they were moved on from their shed at Husbands and had a good old look around ST1502, which is a wide-beam 41'6" ST. It was very interesting and they indulged me by letting me lift all the floor up and climb around in the forepeak etc - they were probably quite glad when I'd gone /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

They had turned ST1502 upside-down, sand-blasted her and then completely sheathed her in fibreglass. The end result was a fantastically well preserved boat, but not the sort of thing I want to do...

Plastering Fibreglass all over the hull is not, to my mind, restoration. It's also a job that would simply be beyond the resources I have to hand. My boat has been liberally coated in fibreglass during it's life and, everywhere I've stripped it back off, I've found rot and damp underneath. On top of that, they had fibreglassed the decks and the superstructure, which had given them an incredibly resiliant boat to the water, but there was so much ply and fibreglass everywhere, there was very little feel for what the original boat must have been like.

Of course, this is purely my opinion and I utterly respect the BMPT team for the amazing work they had done in turning ST1502 into a thoroughly modern boat, but that's not what I want...
 
Hi,
I'm in the middle (wherever that is) of trying to restore my first boat, a BPB Seaplane tender so very glad of the advice above. Cheers.

I've have a small web site that has a load of photos of my boats slow restoration that might be of help. There are other photos of the exterior of quite a few other ST's.

Hope they help a bit. If you get a chance you should look at the BMPT forum on ww2 boats found/discovered. http://www.bmpt.org.uk/forum/ There is a section on ST's but updated rarely.

Do you know the maker or yard no. of the Seaplane tender?

Good luck with her.
 
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