Thread: Timber planking and gap filling ?

Your boat was originally carvel planked, then at some point in it's life, likely when it needed to be refastened, someone "splined" the plank seams, in hopes of tightening up the hull once again. This is a repair, judging from the photos, preformed with a router, from the looks of things. Generally, this is a "stop gap" measure to save or stave off a major repair/rebuild session.

My point is, carvel repairs would have been cheaper if preformed in a timely fashion, rather then spineing the boat. Most folks wait way too long for these types of repairs and then have a choice, replace frames, stringers, some if not all the planks or spine it. Had they not waited, the boat could have received it's usual maintenance, maybe had a garboard replaced, a random butt block, etc., but again most don't do this, rather tolerating the leaks until the pumps can't keep up and then are faced with much bigger issues.

So, it's a spine job on a carvel build. As to repairs, well you need to address what's causing the problem(s), which are very likely multiple in nature. Typically, the fasteners work loose, especially on clenched or riveted builds. The fasteners stretch under load and this makes the planks loose. The now moving planks tear out the fasteners and/or work them so loose, that the holes now receive water, which begins to rot out the planks, frames, stringers, etc. Once all this movement goes unchecked, the plank edges begin to grind against each other, ruining their bevels and alignment and tearing up the seams. At this point the hull is usually leaking badly and major rebuild of structural elements is necessary.

Again, you need to find out what the problems are, fix them, then move onto the next item on the list. The loose order of events is: remove key fasteners, such as the garboard, hood ends and those along the LWL, checking their condition. In most cases you don't have to go to the trouble of physically removing them as it's obvious if they're loose or broken. Next you'd check the frames, stringers and other structural elements for integrity. The structural elements are repared or replaced, then the planking refastened with replacement planks as required. Spine as necessary in repairs, though carvel replacement may be better then another spine job if you need to remove planks wholesale.

Fantastic reply. Thank you very much. Actually all I have is a hull on dry stand. Its been out of the water for at least 4 years. I've attached a few more photos of the boat.

Now that I've seen the new internal photos, I have to admit, I've not seen this before. This isn't a wedge seam job, the boat was built this way (an assumption on my part), with alternating wide and narrow planks (why?). Considering it's the first I've seen, I can only guess at the popularity of this build method and repairs. Maybe Mik can ring in and shed some light on this method. I supose it would be possible to use a saw and remove the bad portions of a carvel seam, leaving a wide gap that is then glued and fitted. I say this as there aren't any fasteners on the little strips, so I'm (again) assuming they're glued. It's also hard to tell what's going on with all that dead paint in the way.

Your best advise would be to call a good boat carpenter and have him look her over.

Is it possible that the strips are in lieu of caulking?? If they were a soft timber such as Western Red, then they would squash as the hardwood planks swelled, thus sealing the seam.
If so they would slowly wear over the years until they no longer sealed tightly enough.
Just a guess, but digging a bit out might tell a story.

I haven't scratched back the paint but I'm thinking that the planks at the centre of the boat fit close together but moving towards the bow a gap appears due to the curvature of the hull. This is where those thin strips come in. I'll check this next time I go see the boat.

For those interested I've posted all the pix I have on Photobucket.
Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket

In some of the photos you can see the timber where the paint has peeled off. It could be Western Red but again I'll check next time I visit the boat. It won't be for a couple of weeks so I guess those interested in the outcome will have to be patient.

Cheers for all the info.

the timber I can see looks like OREGON , for the main part, also from what I saw there are also a lot of cracked ribs which I think you will have to replace rather than sister.

As for the issue with sealing the planking , I think you will need to strip back the hull both inside and out!, before you make a finial decision, on how best to attack this .

I would consider sandblasting/soda blasting the hull ,replacing any suspect planks and ribs,, then sheathing the entire hull in epoxy & glass, .

this will achieve a couple objectives ,
1. ensure the hull is totally sealed
2, reduce maintenance


Cheers,

Jeff

I wouldn't sand blast the hull, but would soda, coke, walnut shell or other less destructive abrasive blast it.

I see the potential for cracked and/or broken ribs, but can't ell for sure without the paint in the way. Some do look distorted, which is an obvious sign I suspect Jeff has picked up.

I wouldn't sheath the planking, unless each could be removed and encapsulated, rehung then sheathed (a lot more effort then necessary). As I've ranted about previously (other threads) traditional build methods (this one included) don't mix well with "liquid joinery" methods.

I think we all agree that the paint needs to come off and a better assessment of the fastener, framing and planking conditions ascertained. Then a reasonable plan of action can be arranged.