Thread: when is a leaking timber boat ok?

P.S

I have both older and more recent photos of her here http://www.aussiecommunity.com.au/boat/boat.htm

Apart from the inconvenience of working upside down, there is nothing that would prevent an amateur repair of this being successful if it was well thought through and it was reasonably small in area.

But do the tap tap tap with the screwdriver handle - you could try now in the water or after a day when you slip it.

MIK

It depends on how the planking is handled. Is it set on lead or shellac or glued? Most often it's not actually glued, but bedded in lead or shellac. In either case, the boat still has to be hauled to fix it, because the source of the leak is on the out side planks.


If it's bedded then the actual leak will be a considerable distance from the internal leak location. This is because the water must commute along a seam (usually) to the interior entry point.

There's no good way to deal with this without haul her out. 90% of the time this is caused by movement, which eventually pulls the fasteners. The longer it goes unchecked, the worse it'll get. Unfortunately, double diagonal hulls are one of the most difficult to repair. Local damage is easy enough if isolated to the outer layer of planking, you just replace the affected planks. But, if the problem breaches both layers of planking, you have to remove a large amount of exterior planking, just to expose a small portion of interior planking.

Most often what's done is the exterior planking is removed, the area puttied up with thickened epoxy and the exterior planking put back on. This really isn't the best repair, but is a common one, considering the cost of the proper repair.

the other issue is it is also copper sheeted. I have no idea how the copper is fixed against the plank. so that would have to be removed to even get to the planks i would guess?

This era and this plan would have almost certainly been glued. Almost.

Though I am starting to wonder now its been mentioned about the copper sheathing. That is very unusual for this type of boat. It is nice, but throws back to a much earlier time. Maybe the planking is shellacked between the layers - it would be pretty unusual, but it is also unusual for the glue to let go.

The sheathing does make it a more complicated job by a long way if you want to put the sheathing back on at the end - you do mean the whole bottom is sheathed in copper?
Best wishes
Michael

I cant say with 100% certainty the entire bottom is covered with copper but yes i do believe the greater portion of the bottom is copper sheathed as we discovered when scraping back antifoul back in 2007.

Just another reason really to make sure i am cashed up before i start looking to closely.