Wooden boat lament…….

[Wansworth]

@Sumara of Weymouth, where do you do your 3 weeks a year maintenance? On the Black Isle, I'd 5 days from September & March where I might've been able to approach working on the hull. To enable that work, I'd have had to either put her in a barn, or a enclosing tarpaulin, with a cost and, in my case a severe restriction due to the wind and rain we are exposed to on the Inverness Firth. This then means that I've 'now' 4 weeks work to do, before launching to get a brief good period of sailing.
For myself, I now prefer sailing. When I bought the boat, I bought into the whole thing, and that working on the boat was part of the joy of the ownership. Now I don't, nor can I see anyone coming along wanting the same experience: why would you?

He onlyhas76 posts whereas you have 6.240

 

[jamie N]

0.7/day over 0.1/day. You're quite correct in that I fritter my life away on this trolling site.
Can I interest you in a wonderful classic yacht???

 

[Wansworth]

0.7/day over 0.1/day. You're quite correct in that I fritter my life away on this trolling site.
Can I interest you in a wonderful classic yacht???

…..I must admit varnishing has never been my strong point!

 

[Fr J Hackett]

He onlyhas76 posts whereas you have 6.240

That's because he spends all his spare time varnishing and has no time to post.

 

[Sumara of Weymouth]

@Sumara of Weymouth, where do you do your 3 weeks a year maintenance? On the Black Isle, I'd 5 days from September & March where I might've been able to approach working on the hull. To enable that work, I'd have had to either put her in a barn, or a enclosing tarpaulin, with a cost and, in my case a severe restriction due to the wind and rain we are exposed to on the Inverness Firth. This then means that I've 'now' 4 weeks work to do, before launching to get a brief good period of sailing.
For myself, I now prefer sailing. When I bought the boat, I bought into the whole thing, and that working on the boat was part of the joy of the ownership. Now I don't, nor can I see anyone coming along wanting the same experience: why would you?

Good point! When I was keeping my boat in Scotland, I would have it put under cover for two weeks before the launch to ensure I could keep to a schedule. When it is nearer home I take the risk with the weather and try to make use of any warm dry days. This year the weather was tricky to say the least. but she was still launch before June.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

Good point! When I was keeping my boat in Scotland, I would have it put under cover for two weeks before the launch to ensure I could keep to a schedule. When it is nearer home I take the risk with the weather and try to make use of any warm dry days. This year the weather was tricky to say the least. but she was still launch before June.

I kept GRP boats in Cornwall, Devon and the East Coast, if I wasn't afloat by the end of March ( it never happened) something would have been seriously amiss. I even left them in the water over winter periodically and still managed the maintenance. I have to admit though that I did on an occasion take the saloon table and later the companionway steps home to strip and varnish.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

That's because he spends all his spare time varnishing and has no time to post.

I still seem to find the time to write drivel and keep up the varnish. Our wooden boat is in the water and racing regularly, it can be done. It’s a big and draining effort every spring though, to get her ready. Not to mention expensive, even with a great deal of DIY. The XOD costs about the same as an exotic, complicated plastic boat with big laminated sails. The non DIY bits are done by the guy I race with, so that’s at mates rates. It’s 3 or 4 grand a year to run an XOD full service, and then big ugly things can go wrong. Hence the popularity of Etchells and Sqibs etc. however, only maybe a dozen out of 200 XODs have ever been lost or written off. Maybe there's something in the longevity theory, though Triggers broom springs to mind.

 

[Wansworth]

Was paid to paint a Xboat back in 1973.The owners really wanted it to look smart on the mooring whilst they gazed from the ISC.Anyway spruced up the varnish and a whizz over with the white top coat.Anyway about to embark on a local dredged in Cowes when one of the owners rushed up….with a white palm.Can I touch up the topsides? ………he had ,to see if the paint was dry slapped his hand on the topsides amidship!

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Was paid to paint a Xboat back in 1973.The owners really wanted it to look smart on the mooring whilst they gazed from the ISC.Anyway spruced up the varnish and a whizz over with the white top coat.Anyway about to embark on a local dredged in Cowes when one of the owners rushed up….with a white palm.Can I touch up the topsides? ………he had ,to see if the paint was dry slapped his hand on the topsides amidship!

Life would be so easy if customers didn’t interfere Ours was resprayed this year. I didn’t touch it til it was dry.

 

[jamie N]

My wife was sent this picture from the Isle of Harris, taken by the 'Golden Rd.' in 2005. The boat to the left is a Folkboat from the same yard in East Germany as my own boat, and I really believe that mine deserves better.
I don't know what the final story is, but I reckon it's not good.

 

[Wansworth]

Life would be so easy if customers didn’t interfere Ours was resprayed this year. I didn’t touch it til it was dry.

My wife was sent this picture from the Isle of Harris, taken by the 'Golden Rd.' in 2005. The boat to the left is a Folkboat from the same yard in East Germany as my own boat, and I really believe that mine deserves better.
I don't know what the final story is, but I reckon it's not good.
View attachment 178652

You will have to drop the price if your keen to sell finding a sympathetic possible owner in your part of the world is limited

 

[srm]

I was very much attracted to a wooden boat on a couple of occasions while living in the Northern Isles. Both times a realistic consideration of the climate and looking after the poor thing made me decide that keeping such a vessel there long term would amount to cruelty to such fine examples of the shipwrights' art.
Though I did meet a doctor in Stornoway with a very nice wooden yacht. I can not remember its name. Sadly she was passed on to someone on the south coast of England who managed to turn her into a total loss. Can not remember the details but think it involved a rocky coastline.

 

[Wansworth]

I was very much attracted to a wooden boat on a couple of occasions while living in the Northern Isles. Both times a realistic consideration of the climate and looking after the poor thing made me decide that keeping such a vessel there long term would amount to cruelty to such fine examples of the shipwrights' art.
Though I did meet a doctor in Stornoway with a very nice wooden yacht. I can not remember its name. Sadly she was passed on to someone on the south coast of England who managed to turn her into a total loss. Can not remember the details but think it involved a rocky coastline.

The thing with a wooden boat is it can be put ashore on some plies and caulked or fixed without concerns for curing times for epoxy or what ever..a wooden boat is by its nature the nearest object toa tree ,obviously a smart cutter will need to be in a shed but a working boat an be bodges upon the tideline

 

[srm]

The thing with a wooden boat is it can be put ashore on some plies and caulked or fixed without concerns for curing times for epoxy or what ever..a wooden boat is by its nature the nearest object toa tree ,obviously a smart cutter will need to be in a shed but a working boat an be bodges upon the tideline

Yes, I almost added a bit more above to the effect that when first in Shetland almost all of the fishing fleet were wood. They went on the slip once a year for painting etc. However, there is a world of difference between a heavily built work boat and fine yacht work.

Thinking of painting boats in Shetland I set out to put a touch up coat of paint on my steel boat one spring morning. Before I started the humidity increased so I put the paint and brush away. At much the same time a couple of guys from the commercial boat yard started painting on one of the steel pursers. They continued working all morning in a very fine drizzle.

 

[Wansworth]

Yes, I almost added a bit more above to the effect that when first in Shetland almost all of the fishing fleet were wood. They went on the slip once a year for painting etc. However, there is a world of difference between a heavily built work boat and fine yacht work.

Thinking of painting boats in Shetland I set out to put a touch up coat of paint on my steel boat one spring morning. Before I started the humidity increased so I put the paint and brush away. At much the same time a couple of guys from the commercial boat yard started painting on one of the steel pursers. They continued working all morning in a very fine drizzle.

Here the local council cuts the grass in the rain

 

[Chiara’s slave]

I was very much attracted to a wooden boat on a couple of occasions while living in the Northern Isles. Both times a realistic consideration of the climate and looking after the poor thing made me decide that keeping such a vessel there long term would amount to cruelty to such fine examples of the shipwrights' art.
Though I did meet a doctor in Stornoway with a very nice wooden yacht. I can not remember its name. Sadly she was passed on to someone on the south coast of England who managed to turn her into a total loss. Can not remember the details but think it involved a rocky coastline.

I knew a chap who bought a wooden boat from a doctor in Stornoway, and managed to sink her 2 years later.

 

[DownWest]

I am feeling intimitated.. recently made two masts with oregon pine, glued with epoxy, as is the rest of the boat. Big differences with 'classic' plank on frame.
Lots of room for modern techniques with wood, esp for one offs or short productions runs. Spirit Yachts?
Agree that old tore outs may be beyound economic saving, but they were built with a life in a different era.

 

[Wansworth]

I am feeling intimitated.. recently made two masts with oregon pine, glued with epoxy, as is the rest of the boat. Big differences with 'classic' plank on frame.
Lots of room for modern techniques with wood, esp for one offs or short productions runs. Spirit Yachts?
Agree that old tore outs may be beyound economic saving, but they were built with a life in a different era.

My Commando class motor sailer designed by Angus primrose had been built by Blanks boatyard in the early 1960 amongs other small yachts,it was a coldmoulded hull and the boat was almost all glued construction using ply for the bulkhead sand some kind of low quality mahogany.Dont know what glue had been used.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

My Commando class motor sailer designed by Angus primrose had been built by Blanks boatyard in the early 1960 amongs other small yachts,it was a coldmoulded hull and the boat was almost all glued construction using ply for the bulkhead sand some kind of low quality mahogany.Dont know what glue had been used.

Boiled horse, I daresay.

 

[Wansworth]

Boiled horse, I daresay.