caulking planks

THANKS BANTAAN Hey this is great information. There isn't a lot of big wood boat people up here in the Adirondacks and Geraldine is a bit of an oddity up here. Mostly Chris Crafts and Hackers and Garwoods with a lot of Canoes and Adirondack Guideboats. Geraldine is a 1945 US Coast Guard 26 ft Whaleboat with 1" Cedar on white oak frames. Shes been through a lot in her 67 years with quite a few of her planks replaced with Mahogany and quite a few ribs sistered in where a few had rotted. Shes a heavy boat for her size built as a working vessel at the Coast Guard Yards in Baltimore at Curtis Bay MD I will send photos as soon as I can figure out how this is my first time on a forum like this. What kind of wood should I use for the spline in the keel? The boating season is short up here and I plan to trailer her with so many lakes up here to cruise so she will not spend much time in the water

 

Here are the photos of the keel and the bottom let me know what you think

 

here are some more photos with the keel

 

Splines are usually a soft wood. For example, white pine, redwood, cedar.

 

Hey Gonzo Thanks I have plenty of white pine around the shop. Should I epoxy it in with WEST or sikaflex. I am wetting down the boat now and will cover it with old blankets and put a tarp under the cradle and catch the water run off and tarp the whole thing to jack up the humidityfor a week or so and see how it looks. It stays pretty cool in my shop and it stays fairly mild with plenty of humidity up here in the mountains not like Florida but not like Arizona. I guess I should see if it swells some before I spline. Thanks

 

I agree with Gonzo about spline material. Looking at your photo it appears the oak filler block that has the stern tube in it was greatly 'checked', or afflicted with drying cracks. In oak these will often nearly disappear after launch and if that is a hard epoxy I see in them, that may cause some problems, but not major.
First caulk the boat, paint the seams and putty them, scrape clean and paint the boat, but not the keel aft there.
Try 2 or 3 layers of burlap on that exposed wood skeg and keel area that is so open and run a garden soaker hose on it at a low level, keeping it soaking wet for at least a week.
Then take some Dolfinite (tm) bedding compound, a soft oil-based pretty much waterproof material, mix it well and set the can under a heat lamp by you as you work, as it gets really easy to work when it's warm.
Now knife that in with a broad putty knife or squeegee, totally filling those gaps to the bottom, leaving no air bubbles.
Make a slightly tapered softwood spline and tap it in over the dolfinite about 3/8" deep or so, and plane it off flush, and secure with only a couple of small copper tacks.
You shouldn't need glue as the wedge/taper/crush of the fit will hold it in. Now paint the keel and launch the boat for a week.
The filler and keel will swell more (they were tight when the boat was built) and squeeze out the soft Dolfinite as it does, maybe even the chicken little spline, but that's the plan.
When you re-haul the boat you can sort it out, but now the oak should stay pretty much the same if you keep it from drying out so bad again.

 

The gaps I'm talking about are the keel/tube timber/sternpost ones of course. Dolfinite is often used to fill checks that are expected to swell greatly shut.

 

Bataan. Thanks for getting back with me this is really great information. I have been working on getting Getting Geraldine a badly needed moisturizing treatment. I been thinking of the best way to get her a bit swelled up again before attempting Caulking. I covered her with a few old blankets and the old canvas boat cover I have for her and soaked them with water and then put a heavy tarp over that and sprayed out the inside of the boat with water, and then put a small space heater on the floor underneath her with the tarp right down to the floor. She now resembles a Gynormous Humongus Baked potatoe. I put a digital temperature guage to monitor the temp and have her on a slow moisture beauty treatment, I will check her periodicaly to see how it feels under there. and see if she swells. I am attaching photos

 

Here are the photos I really appreciate the assistance. What do you think of the Humidore ? I will let you know how it works. I figure the wet blankets and moisture and a little heat to get the humidity up should do the job. Keep those tips coming I can use all the help I can get. I am working on getting Geraldine to the Clayton New York boat show this year I have till the end of July to get her done. I checked out your profile photo are you some sort of Pirate? Arghhhh!!! Thanks for the help in Shivering Geraldines Timbers Joe

 

Not a pirate, a sometime nautical film worker in the trenches of Hollywood production, which at times means dressing up and pulling ropes to maneuver sails on cue as others fight with swords or act emotively for the close up.
I also built, rigged and "took to stage" some 1/6th, 1/4, 1/12th model ships for said series of films.
Looks like your humidor is just fine. If you crawl in and it's dripping wet everywhere it's working. Maybe a week or ten days of this should be enough.
As I said before, butts first, then the tightest seams above the water line to get some practice, and the hour of making a practice caulking board and caulking it a few times, reefing it out, doing it again, will really make you more confident when you start on your nice boat.
I owned one of these 26' MWBs once in 1969, bought for $150 up on a derelict beach, all the seams nice and open and the wood red-leaded, ready to caulk, but I was a young kid and did not have a clue how to do it so traded it for something else.
This:
<http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=caulking+boat&oq=caulking+boat&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=&gs_nf=1&gs_l=youtube.3..0.3314.5410.0.5934.7.7.0.2.2.0.61.256.5.5.0.>
will probably help you get started too.

 

Yes, it does look like attack of the Giant Baked Potato Monsters and you've captured one.

 

PS, my wife is from Rochester.

 

Dont be too cautious, get a good iron, a few blunt chisels and screwdrivers, any old mallet and youre good to go.

Bash the cotton in about 3/4 of the way, make sure its a good bash! Keep going- wherever theres a join, fray the cotton out so its always the same thickness and after your done paint with grey primer and use sika 291 or 223.

It is hard word and you will sweat and get sore, if not youre not doing it right!

 

Thanks for the encouragement. I have been humidifiying Geralding for a week now and she seems to taken up a little. I used the oldladies steamer to geter humid and seems to be doing the trick. I have been practicing on the tighter seams on her topsides just below the rail and been using the stranded cotton string with seven strands as the seams are only about 1/8th to 1/16 wide tapering to 1/32. The planks are 3/4 on the topsides and 1 inch below the waterline. How full should I fill with the cotton. and how do I know when its tapped in tight enough but not to tight? I plan on using Sikaflex 291 LOT to cover the cotton. Joe

 

BATAAN Arghhh Ahoy there! The old spud has been steaming for about a week now and she seems to have taken up a little I have been practicing on the cotton and trying to get the loops right the real tight seams on the topsides are really tight and the stuff I reefed out was that stranded cotton string with about seven strands so I will start with that. Im just checking out the loop sizes that works best. What should it look like when Im done should the cotton go to the very bottom of the seam nearly all the way through. These topside seams are nearly tight at about a Red C___ hair Gap. The seams below Water Line are about 1/8 to 1/16 open inside. Should there be cotton visible from the inside? I always hear about not getting it too tight or it will pop fasteners> Hey cool photos of your ship Models Very Cool. What movies did you work on? Joe