gaps in planks

I have a 1953 Holiday Chris Craft that I am restoring. I have stained and sealed the boat. There is gaps in the side planks as much as 1/8 inch in some spots. Any suggestions ? I did put the boat in a plastic tent and ran 2 cool mist vaporizers for a week with little results. I am worried about putting the varnish on the gaps.

 

I can't remember if the Holiday is clinker (I think so), but if it is, she's dried out and needs to swell up a bit and /or have a caulking job done.

I wouldn't have done the finish on the hull if she wasn't tight, as careful as I'm sure you tried to be, some finish got into the seams and may cause problems during the caulking.

Poke around one of the worst areas inside the seam and see what comes out (do this from the outside of the boat). There should be some reasonably hard stuff on the surface, followed by some stringy stuff (the caulk). The seam itself should have a taper from the widest outside to around half way through the plank being the narrowest. This "V" is the caulking seam and is filled with caulk in the form of cotton or other materials covered with a seam compound.

It's quite normal for seams to open up after a boat has been out of the water for a time. Vaporizers may not produce enough water to swell up the planks. The last boat I swelled up I used a garden sprinkler (several) and got it good and wet. Sure some water came in the boat before everything swelled tight again, but that's normal too (MAKE SURE IT GETS PUMPED OUT RIGHT AWAY) After construction some boats were sunk or filled with water to swell up the planks in the old days.

This should give you an idea of the amount of water it'll take to swell the planks. You will find after half a day the gaps have noticeably closed some, if not completely.

1/8" gaps are about as much as I'd like to see, before I start getting out a mallet and having at some new caulking. This is a skill that is dieing and I don't recommend a novice try it without some practice. You can really screw up the planking by pounding in to much caulk in a dry boat. Experienced caulkers can do a perfect job quickly and not mess anything up.

Another option is to launch the boat with pumps aboard. Rent a Honda pump and have it ready if the bilge pumps get over whelmed. This, believe it or not, is the fastest and easiest way to get it done.

You could also wedge seam the seams. This is a process of removing the caulking and putty, cleaning the seams to fresh wood and gluing in a wedge of the same planking material. This would lower the value of an old classic, but may solve the gap problem. I personally don't like this technique on trailered or dry storage boats, but hulls in the water all the time can benefit.

Good Luck,

 

If it is a mahogany hull, that gap is too much for it to swell. The boat needs a caulk job. You'll have to refinish it after. I'm not familiar with all the CC models, so it may be one of the plywood planked ones. Can you give more details?

 

These boats were not originally caulked. Unless she is in a heated shed the moisture from the vaporizors is not doing any good, and is probably insufficient in any case.
Contact us at www.classicboatworksofmaine.com and we will try and talk you thru this.

 

If you don't get any solutions by the start of March, I'll be driving past you on my way to Florida.

 

Hi Mike,

Mitch stays STOP! Don't go any further until you have the boat swelled up. It WILL swell. These Chris Crafts are just like sponges. If you were doing this in the winter, it may be that your shop was too cold. Turn the heat up to 75 - 80 degrees. If the humidifiers don't put out enough moisture, then get a steamer. When the finish is stipped off a carvel planked boat like yours, the moisture quickly escapes from the wood.

If you don't swell the boat now, you can be sure it will swell when you launch it, and anything in the seams will squish back out. These seams should not have any space at all.

Once you have it swelled, stained and varnished, it won't dry out like this again. If you wait for spring, you can throw it in the lake to swell it, this will go more quickly than in the garage. If you do this, cover it with a canvas while in the lake.

Think Spring!
Mitch & Kathy

http://www.classicboat.com


Call us, you have the number.

 

six years late, but good advice.(My boat sprung a leak today while at sea. Above the waterline, but below the bow wave.)

 

I did a lot of restorative work on a '53, probably the same hull. That boat has batten seams and 1/8" is pretty big. The hull should be luan. If I were you I'd give more time to swell up. Mitch and Kathy are correct. Those seams should be so tight that there's no gap to even contain any compound, though any fifty year old hull will have a few seams that (especially at the bow) that will need to be filled (though as said, it will squeeze out when the hull's taken up). Then use a razor to cut off the excess if you like.

 

Thanks Alan. Good advice.