Anyone Here Sail a Wooden Boat?

[CharlieCobra]

Just do a search on Oh Joy here. Plenty of posts about owning a wood boat.

[S&S]

You've been quite busy. I should post pics of our refit at some point.

[SkiprJohn]

My last big boat was an all wood Mariner 35 which I sailed the islands with and then sailed to the Puget Sound. That was many years ago. What I miss most about the Mariner was all the beautiful mahogany interior and the sounds she made while sailing. There is nothing so beautiful as the sound of gently creaking timbers while the boat is gently rolling and pitching in about 15k winds.
Regards,

[CharlieCobra]

Originally Posted by S&S

You've been quite busy. I should post pics of our refit at some point.

Yep, still at it...

[svquest2]

My Irwin 37 is glass but my 26' Thunderbird is wood (Plywood w/glass over). My mahogany cabin sides have dried out and cracked however while covered and stored on my trailer. A major repair in the offing. They should have also been made out of plywood because the hull is still great.

Have fun

Joe S

[CharlieCobra]

svqyuest2, a certain amount of checking in mahogany is normal. How long are the cracks and do they extend clear through the panels?

[zeehag]

i learned to sail on a 36 ft gaff rigged racing sloop built by nate herreschoff in his yard in 1903...my mothers uncle was a tallshipman in navy and merchant marines in his long life--excellent ssailor and took wexcellent care of his registered national historic treasure.. was excellent learning arena....

[S&S]

Originally Posted by CharlieCobra

svqyuest2, a certain amount of checking in mahogany is normal. How long are the cracks and do they extend clear through the panels?

Made enough "dutchmen" to add "van" to my name. Finally we replaced the cabin sides with a sandwich of 1/4" mahog. plank / 1/2" 9 ply / 1/4" mahog. plank. Dimensional stability is a wunnerful thing.

[anotherT34C]

When you replace wood planking below the waterline, is it generally with epoxy encapsulated planks these days? Is there a reason to not?

Please forgive my ignorace. I know nothing about wood boats.

[S&S]

Originally Posted by anotherT34C

When you replace wood planking below the waterline, is it generally with epoxy encapsulated planks these days? Is there a reason to not?

Please forgive my ignorace. I know nothing about wood boats.

Generally the planks have to swell to fit, so no not in conventional construction. Epoxy is not impermeable, but the inital take up time would be greatly lengthened by using it on "dry" wood.

If the whole boat was made and fitted for epoxied planking (e.g. West system) then you'd follow that schedule for replacing planks.

[anotherT34C]

If you were replankling the entire hull (or just below the waterline) would it be with epoxied planks by default?

And don't laugh... would an epoxy planked wood hull approach the maintainence level of a glass boat?

[S&S]

Well, it's not a gelcoat so you'd still have to paint. (but you have to paint the bottom anyway). If you went with West (or something like it) it'd make sense to use Awlgrip so I'd think the maintenance would be similar.
But in this case you wouldn't be doing single planking (double planked boats are much stiffer and work better with epoxy construction).

Van Dam likes to use epoxy, Gannon and Benjamin doesn't- both top notch builders.

When Bob Direcktor built ours in the early 60's he was quite the innovator- so there's a lot of "miracle goo" in ours from new.

[anotherT34C]

I'm wondering how long an epoxied plank could be expected to last. I imagine epoxy over planking to be similar to having a glass boat with wood core, only in easy(er) to replace bits.

I love the look and feel of wood (the S&S yawls are of course a favorite), but I'm scared of the maintainence. I don't mind paint, but I'm not a carpenter.

Are your hull planks original?

And you've simply GOT to show off an S&S 48 with pics.

[geocav]

My Newporter 40 is wooden. see geocav/ albums

Cav

[svquest2]

CharlieCobra, the cracks went clear through and the mahogany shrunk so much that my windows came out. the main reason the shrinkage was so devastating is that the 4 corner posts have a vertical grain and didn't give any.

S&S, I may use dutchmen or replace the cabin sides completely. I haven't decided yet.

The damage was a complete surprise to me as the boat was completely covered (see pict). I had been working on the rudder and sailing my bigger boat. Then.... Ouch!

More fun

Joe S