1964 penn yan

hello all,i have posted these questions on another forum and would like to post them here.........thank youhello all. new to this forum.have finally taken the plunge with the purchase of my first wooden boat. have tons of questions. dont know where to start.

boat is 1964 17' magellan. at least what it was advertsied as. boat is solid,no rot everything seems to be original.right down to the penn yan banner or flag.motor is original homelite 4 stroke,was told it was running when parked in 2001.seems to turn over ok maybe a little stiff.also got a extra motor in the deal. not sure of its running condition.

boat will neednew bottom paint and a total sanding job as what is left of the oldvarnish is all but peeled away. so again boat is very solid. now my question is can i pressure wash to clean of the rest of the loose finish and bottom?or do i need to sand and scrap till next year.

know this site is not geared toward woodies as much but will take all the help i can get.and lastly is there a data base with older models in picture. trying to see what this boat looked like new.
thank you for any help.
buddy.......

 

Hi, Buddy,

Welcome aboard! I think you'll find that there are many owners and lovers of wood boats, power and sail, runabouts, skiffs, and cruisers, in this forum.

Penn Yans were good boats, and there is a loyal following even now. There is a web site for Penn Yan owners here: http://www.pennyanbbs.org/

If the wood is, in fact, sound, pressure washing should be fine, although I'd be careful with strong soap and not too much heat. You'll probably find you need to do scraping and sanding to finish the job.

 

I've never done pressure washing on a wooden boat, but I've thought about it. I suggest proceeding very carefully and don't overdo it. The last thing you need is to have what I call wood fur all over your boat. Wood fur is the result of someone blasting the hell out of wood with a pressure washer. Hopefully someone with lots of experience cleaning wood boats with a pressure washer will jump in here.

 

Pressure washing wood is an easy way to remove all sorts of things especially wood. I don't recommend a novice use this technique. Pressure washing will remove the loose stuff, but not much more, so you'll still have to scrape (the best method) or sand (not so great a method) or incorporate a chemical stripper (effective, but choice options and goo factor can be difficult).

If it was me, I'd roll her over onto a strong back, secure her, then take a scraper to her planking. If a lot of paint and varnish has built up over the years, then I'd use a chemical stripper first, let dry, then scrape. Now, you'll have a level playing field to access the raw surfaces. Finish completely or at least seal her up good, before you roll her back over and start on the interior.

Removing paint or any coating isn't a lot of fun, surely no Zen to it, but it has to be done from time to time. Just keep focusing on how pretty she'll be when you're done.