Wood Boat seams openning up after 38 years

My buddy and I installed a 327 in his XKE and it ran well, though had constant electrical issues. Eventually it was all yanked out and redone with a harness for a Nova. When that V12 ran it was like a clock running, but it didn't do this very reliability and the extra 100 HP the 327 offered helped the fun quite a bit. The best thing to happen to Jag was to have Ford buy it. Their reliability went from last to near the top.

 

And in the mean time what about the shrinking sinking boat !!!Its lost interest ??

Something has changed in recent months !! what have you changed ??
what have you done inside the boat thats changed its internal enviroment ??
Have you painted the boat a dark/or darker colour ??
Dark colours draws lots a heat and drys the timber excessivly !!

 

We have not seen any actual photos of the seam separation yet. Can you post some? It might shed some light on the problem.

 

Rob, unless there is some sort of compression on the beams (e.g. from trailer or storage as others point out), this sounds like a classic case of dehydrated wood. Once dehydration begins the planks dimensions will reduce in size and it will be hard to get the planks back into their original size.

If you want a long term fix, I would strip off the topside paint, sand it smooth and put a layer or two of fiberglass topside. After that, paint it with a good UV blocking paint that compliments the rest of the boat.

You'll find the fiberglass will make the hull deck all but bomb proof while transporting and under way. Fiberglass + wood = strong.

 

38 year old timber boat + Fiberglass = lots of rot

 

Agreed and as mentioned earlier in the thread, it generally isn't a wise idea to sheath traditionally built hulls. Strip planking is much more forgiving in this regard than other build methods, but typically you need a relatively heavy sheathing to be truly effective, on planking of this thickness. The resulting cost is most often much more then just a traditional set of repairs.

 

i apologise to pericles. he was only having a bit of fun.