Thread: Repair 59 Speedliner plywood boat

Howdy Ed,

First you need to assess what actually needs to be done. So can you put some pics up. Then tell us how extensive the soft spots are. Sometimes it spreads to adjacent structure so look for that too.

But the spread and depth of the rot is important to find out at the beginning to see if pieces can be patched or need to be replaced.

Best wishes.
MIK

Thank you for the reply,
Well, I took a screwdriver and dug out some the wood after receiving your message,
looks fairly well under the plywood, maybe, could be filled. The pictures show the
wood will need to be replaced; any suggestions what to use to fill small holes.
Any suggestions as a good place in the states to buy Marine Mahogany plywood.

Thanks and have a good week. Ed ( Pics included)

Typically in a repair like this, you'll have rot in the fastener holes on the chine log, possibly the bottom planking and maybe some of the frames too.

If you use putty, you'll be painting her, instead of varnishing. If you intend to varnish, then the whole side panel (up to the next seam, which looks to be about 5' forward of the transom) needs to come off the boat and be replaced, to make it look like new again. You can do a local repair and let the chips fall where they may, but I'll bet the rot extends well up the chine (this would be the usual case), making for a long, skinny repair piece, which looks bad under varnish, but not under paint. The splash rail should be removed as it's a common location for rot too and there's some darkening around it, meaning water has gotten under the varnish.

In Sterns County Minnesota you should be able to find a "specialty" wood supplier. These folks deal with the furniture builders and craftsman of the area. St. Cloud maybe? You might just try boat builders in the phone book and ask where they get their good stuff.

There are lots of books that will have sections within, about the skills and techniques you need for this repair, but not specifically geared to it. This is because you'll be doing so many different things and no two repairs are alike.

In general, you can patch the rotted wood if it's not structurally compromised (yours is) with putty. Since your repair area is the second most highly loaded area on the boat, a quick putty job isn't such a good idea (unless you want to do this again and again, etc.).

You first should decide what you want, a natural wood finish (pretty, but a pain in the ass to maintain and difficult to fix, unless you're a pro) or a painted finish. A painted finish is nice and it will hide a million errors, putty holes, repairs, etc.

The next thing is to remove the fasteners and other pieces that are in the way (like that splash rail). 50 year old fasteners will be just like humans after spending that long in one place, stubborn, crusty and cantankerous bastards. They'll probably have to be drilled and removed with a bolt extractor. Breaking off screws is something to avoid, so learn how to use an "Easy-Out". Once you have removed the screws on the bottom edge of that side panel, you can wedge it open and have a good look at the faying surface of the chine log. The screw holes will probably tell you how much rot is in the chine log, but heck, maybe you're lucky and it's just the plywood.

The corner of the transom should be considered suspect as well, just because it's touching the affected areas.

Thanks for the info. Looks like a winter project. Ed