Repairing Strip Planking

The predecessor to this thread started as a question about sheathing a timber hull.

http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/showthread.php?p=126983#post126983

It looks like I may acquire the follow boat for a very good price (... is there such a thing as a "good price" for a damaged timber boat?? )

1953 timber sloop, 30 feet LOA, 8 feet beam, lovely lines. She is strip planked with 1" x 1" jarrah planking (Jarrah is a very very dense and heavy Australian hardwood).

The current owner believes that the planking has been edge-nailed and glued, ie, no caulking. It has about four broken frames/ribs (transverse) about 1/3 length of the boat from the stern. She is also leaking like a sieve through a gap where the seal is broken between two planks.

The owner bought her with the ribs broken, but it wasn't leaking back then. He has slipped her a few times to repaint the hull, and it seems to me that the planking probably opened up during slipping as the broken ribs didn't provide the necessary support.

Any suggestions on how to fix this?

 

There are many possible reasons why you have broken ribs, tension cracks, fastener rot, bad glue lines, impact or other damage, etc. Rather then looking for the answer to your issues on something as impersonal as this forum, you should strongly consider a well recommended surveyor to give her the latest once over (likely one of severial in her life, so far). This person should be familiar with this type of construction and come recommended by trusted folks, be that your insurance company, local wooden boat owners and/or marina.

There is also several ways you can address this leaking seam issue, but a hands/eyes on approach is best. A skilled surveyor or boat carpenter will see the other, possibly related issues and will suggest a course of action, that can fit your budget, skill level and point you toward proper repairs.

Many can offer unqualified "quick fixes", but you really need a dentist to pull that tooth, though the string and door knob could be tried, if you understand my meaning.

Yep, it'll cost money, welcome to yacht ownership, which is a bit like buying a local hooker new ear rings . . . most of the time. Try to enjoy it the best you can.

 

Hi,

Sounds like fixing the ribs is the main thing. The open seam is probably from drying. Not much give in a strip planked hull, especially if the wood is dense. Something has to give. A broken frame becomes a weak tensile area, and the drying pulls unevenly there.
If the frames are solid, sistering them makes sense. Laminating them would save work, but the hull should lie fair first, by whatever means.
You can guage unfairness by careful inspection of the hull from inside next to the broken frames, using a thin batten pressed vertically, using good lighting.
The gap in the planking could be caulked, I would imagine. How vast is the gap?

Alan

 

Looks like I've found myself a wooden boat specialist surveyor/shipwright to come and run his experienced eye over my problem. I'm thinking a quick fix to get her floating again, then the full job later down thetrack when I decide if I like the boat enough to spend all my hard earned on her!

 

That's the first step in the right direction, a plan. A good one as it sounds. Don't caulk the seam, glue it.

 

The distiction between caulk and glue used to be clear, but I would certainly recommend an adhesive caulk, which is a glue. Tensile strength is from the ribs and to a lesser extent the nails. If a hard glue is used, the wood surfaces should at least be cleared of the old glue (which does not necessarily exist, but if it does, it will be very obvious inside in the form of drips). The Amphibicons built on Mt. Desert Island in Maine were nailed and glued with resourcinol. Pulsifer Hamptons (pine strip launches) are nailed dry.
The issue isn't strength, but water-tightness. What type of glue would be clearly superior to adhesive caulk, do you think?