Repairing inner stem from iron spike damage

Another repair I am finishing up soon.
I dug out an iron spike from the end of the inner stem, kept digging till solid wood was found.
I crafted a white oak middle filler, and will need another 2" thick piece glued on top.
The ear cut is for a bronze bolt that was a few inches from the floor spike, the floor is gone here, out of the way, and I will not put it back, just reinforce and replace some frames, as in doubled up one on the other.

This is an improvement from OEM builder, the inner stem terminated right next to the inner keel. I overlapping the wood from inner stem to inner keel. There is 5" of wood below the planking here as part of the skeg. Should be plenty strong when done.

I used a chisel and also ground out the weakened iron damaged white oak, till I created a flat surface for new wood to glue into.

Made a paperboard pattern to get a roughed out shape.


Fits decently enough




Clamped down with a 10"c clamp.



'

 

It's finished
Weighted down for glue drying, those are big lead weights. Very heavy.


What it looked like unsanded


Sanded down smooth


3/8" bolt hole drilled and coated with PL premium to seal the wood.
I filled in the gap with little pieces of white oak to make a smooth transition.
The new piece is not inline with the inner stem, inner stem rises up moving forward.
The inner stem end originally terminated with a curve butted to the end of the inner keel, no overlap.
I overlapped inner stem to inner keel. That makes more sense to me than what they did.

 

That second piece of white oak glued on top the first piece is also 2" thick. I do think the keel and skeg design is really strong as it should be.
I don't care much for bent frames, but a lot of boats use them.
I prefer sawn frames, but that does take up more interior space.

This boat, most frames have a white oak floor laid on top. And the floors run deep in the center and get thinner as they approach the rounded chine.

 

If you ever decide to build a wood boat, do not use any kind of rusty iron fastening. Sure it works, but it damages the wood over the long haul very badly.
You will be better off using, SS nails, black locust as trunnels and spikes than using iron that rusts. I see these old steel nailed Deadrises hauled out and the sides are weeping iron stains and the planking wood is weak at the spots from all the rusting nails used in the planking to the frames. This one guy took a chisel and claw hammer and gouged out the rusty wood down to the weeping nail head, then filled the resultant rough chopped holes with epoxy, sanded and relaunched. I suppose that made it look better. His whole boat on the sides was all pockmarked from gouging out that wood. Mostly the bottom planks on Deadrises are using SS ring shank nails. Which I have noticed when removing bottom planks look pretty decent shape.

He told me no one thought the boat would be around this many years, so the builder did not care.

 

Got it done, redid the lower ends of the frames
Cut out a 6 inch section on the right side.
Built it up with another thicker frame glued on top. Wood is ground contact SYP cut from a short piece of 2x4 and totally knot free.

On left side, I have a plank patch and those smaller pieces hold edge to edge both planks
This creates a somewhat closed void which I plan to put in some closed cell great stuff foam to keep water out.

SS 316 screw is temporary for help holding it together as glue cured.

The doubled part of the frame extends up about 18 inches, high as I could go due to internal stringer.

Frame heels here are double compound angles around 45 -50* to keel and they sit at a small sideways angle to keel centerline. Got a tight wood to wood fit frame ends to inner keel

 

Couple frames further aft, I have another frame heel got to fix, say should fix. It is pocketed into inner keel so will be more difficult to extract from inner keel. It's been bad for a long time like 10 years and has not compromised the boat. I was thinking can drill it and dig it out without removing garboard plank, then do same repair method. That one also does not have a floor sitting on top. The OEM used white oak frames, but for some reason that one turned into wood fibers on the very end.

 

Today digging at the part socketed into keel, it all came out and the keel is good. Will cut a 7.5 " long frame heel and glue into place, then run a longer piece over the top. It will run into a stringer 13" away, but its good as I will cut the end like a wedge and slip it's end underneath this large stringer. The stringer is 2" wide, 8" tall and sits on the floors running lengthwise and to it is attached a 2x4 framework that supports a plywood sole (floor). Lot of inner structure in this boat. I have a finger height width between frame and stringer. The frame and stringer will touch there. and end of added frame will have an angle cut so the end sits flat against the stringer bottom. Meaning it cannot move up, be locked in place.