back in water

[dirk]

i've bought a oak wooden boat that's out off the water for four years.It was kept outside protected by a cover.
Have someone has experience with it?
What to do first,make it wet,oil?,?I dont know.

[Bergalia]

Working on an assumption here: Lapstrake planking - open dinghy ?

Check the quality of the timber. Has the wood become 'brittle' - or rot found its way in where planking meets the frame (soft patches 'rimmed' by mildew). Lightly tap along the length of timbers with a small hammer - see if she rings true - a nice solid, almost musical note.

Check the fastenings - the acid in oak has a habit of 'eating' away at various metals.

If she sounds good - then immerse her (completely sink her) for a couple of days. Lift her, dab off the surplus water - then see if she floats without leaking.

No leaks - then let her dry a bit more, then add oil. (My preference the old one third boiled linseed; one third white spirit; one third clear timber preservative.) But that's my preference - ohers are bound to disagree.

[PAR]

I think we need considerably more information about the boat before we can offer any reliable suggestions.

Though Max is usually on target with his replies, I'd not sink the boat. This is a very easy way to break the boat (literally). It was a common practice to slide a small skiff into the water sideways (rail first), letting it flood, for a few days at the opening of sailing season. This practice can be done on small craft, but not on anything you can't manhandle in knee deep water, and only if the structure is quite sound. A boat of questionable condition shouldn't have this treatment, you'll just be inviting more problems to board the boat (again literally).

Considering the basic nature of the original poster's questions, they'd be best advised to have a boat carpenter come over and have a look see, to access her condition, possibly a full survey if the vessel's class warrants one.

[Bergalia]

Good points PAR. I've no arguments with your reply. I was wrong to answer based on 'assumptions'. I'd 'visualised' a small 'solid' open dinghy - such as exist on many of the Scottish hill lochs. Beached and left from one season to another with little if any maintenance.
And yes I've known - even experienced - cases when grabbing the boat to push it back in the loch, finding the the damn thing come apart at the bows.
Apologies Dirk. Take PAR's advice over mine.

[PAR]

As a boy, I used to skid a small skiff sideways under the wet for a day each spring. This was the best way to get her cedar planks to fatten up for the season, which saw her on a mooring or dragged up the beach. As the years progressed, the single day need to be extended, eventually she wouldn't take up any longer. Her bottom planking was worn to about half of its original thickness and iron sickness had loosened her up, to the point where nothing short of a rebuild would get her in service again. I fished the crap out of that boat, literally until it was dead. A storm came and got her off the beach one night and ended my concerns over her sorry state, which I felt was better then a slow decay on the sand.