Cold Molded Wylie 38 - Wet Wood

[clausont]

We just purchased a cold molded Wylie 38. It is sound with the exception of about 3' of the sheer clamp shelf on the starboard stern (rotten), part of the lower deck skin and a side deck frame (rot) where a stanchion was leaking. We will replace this section. There is a bit of wet wood about 6" down the hull under the shelf as well, but not discolored or rotten so I believe I can dry this and fill the drilled holes with epoxy after it has dried. The hull id 1 1/8" thick at this point according to the original owner / builder who we bought the boat from. Materials used are Doug Fir and Cedar with Mahogany for the sheer clamp shelves.
My plan for drying this section of wood (about 24" x 6") is to drill 1/8" holes every couple inches in the wet area and keep a fan on it for a couple weeks while working on other areas of the boat. Once the area shows moisture at an acceptable level, inject epoxy into each hole.
I am no expert on wood or cold molded boats, but I believe this should not be a problem to repair. Any suggestions or a link to an existing thread would be great. I did do a search for a suitable thread, but didn't find what I was looking for.

[fourlyons]

Your plan is basically sound. If you have basic woodworking skills and take your time you'll do fine. Just rebuild what you have now, scarfing in good wood where needed.
But, it's going to take more than a couple weeks to bring the wood back down to 6-12 percent moisture content, I suspect the wet area is larger than you estimate. You might want to add heat to the fan. Get a decent pin style moisture meter. Stripping paint from the inside hull surface will help a little, along with the holes, unless the wood was sealed with glass and epoxy. Wood dries much faster through end grain than side grain so your holes should go pretty deep, say 7/8".

Enjoy the process, at least you're not grinding glass or rusty steel, it could be worse.

Sent from my Z5157V using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[kapnd]

Best to grind the glass off of the wet area, vacuum bag it for as long as it takes to remove the moisture, then glass it back up.
You should try to determine if the other side of the glass has delaminated from the core, as it will be wet clear through.

[Gary Mc]

It is cold molded wood veneer, I do not believe there is any glass. It is my favorite building method, not that I have one, but did once delivery a 55 foot cold molded trimaran! Wow could that thing move!

Your plan sounds Sound.
Good Luck

[clausont]

Originally Posted by Gary Mc

It is cold molded wood veneer, I do not believe there is any glass. It is my favorite building method, not that I have one, but did once delivery a 55 foot cold molded trimaran! Wow could that thing move!

Your plan sounds Sound.
Good Luck

Correct! No glass involved. Just strip planked and veneer / epoxy. The entire boat was done really well, but one stanchion started leaking at some point and the original owner was unable to get back into the quarterberth any longer to find the damage due to age and health. The original owner spent 13 years building this boat and splashed it in late '94.

[clausont]

Originally Posted by fourlyons

Your plan is basically sound. If you have basic woodworking skills and take your time you'll do fine. Just rebuild what you have now, scarfing in good wood where needed.
But, it's going to take more than a couple weeks to bring the wood back down to 6-12 percent moisture content, I suspect the wet area is larger than you estimate. You might want to add heat to the fan. Get a decent pin style moisture meter. Stripping paint from the inside hull surface will help a little, along with the holes, unless the wood was sealed with glass and epoxy. Wood dries much faster through end grain than side grain so your holes should go pretty deep, say 7/8".

Enjoy the process, at least you're not grinding glass or rusty steel, it could be worse.

Sent from my Z5157V using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

Yes, the wood was sealed with epoxy. It is a strip planked hull - cold molded. (think Gougeon Brothers). Adding heat to the fan sounds like a good plan. The wet area gould be larger than I think. Hopefully not. I'm going by sounding the hull carefully. I'll have to pick up a decent moisture meter to be sure. Some damage to the deck and other areas as shown in the photo, but nothing earth shattering. It all appears to be pretty easily fixable with a bit of patience and care. I was thinking the holes should go at least 50% depth, but as you say, maybe I should plan on going closer to the outer edge of the hull without penetrating to the outside. Thanks

[clausont]

Originally Posted by kapnd

Best to grind the glass off of the wet area, vacuum bag it for as long as it takes to remove the moisture, then glass it back up.
You should try to determine if the other side of the glass has delaminated from the core, as it will be wet clear through.

I hadn't thought about vacuum bagging. That;s a good idea - I'll look into that. Happily there is no glass to grind off. It is strip planked and epoxy coated basically (a bit more to it than that). But stripping the epoxy off the inside is good advice. Thanks

[Clivevon]

Are you sure its epoxy coated, not epoxy saturated?
Gougeon Bros WEST stands for wood epoxy saturation technique. Used on strip planked construction. Each plank epoxied to next one. You might find that wet unsaturated patches of wood are not connected to each other but are isolated by epoxy saturated wood so need drying out separately. Multiple moisture readings, multiple drain holes & vacuum bagging larger area sounds like a good idea.

[Symphony]

Originally Posted by Clivevon

Are you sure its epoxy coated, not epoxy saturated?
Gougeon Bros WEST stands for wood epoxy saturation technique. Used on strip planked construction. Each plank epoxied to next one. You might find that wet unsaturated patches of wood are not connected to each other but are isolated by epoxy saturated wood so need drying out separately. Multiple moisture readings, multiple drain holes & vacuum bagging larger area sounds like a good idea.

This is good to think about.
(I owned a cold-mold WEST system boat - fantastic vessel)

[pcmm]

Originally Posted by clausont

Correct! No glass involved. Just strip planked and veneer / epoxy. The entire boat was done really well, but one stanchion started leaking at some point and the original owner was unable to get back into the quarterberth any longer to find the damage due to age and health. The original owner spent 13 years building this boat and splashed it in late '94.

Are you 100% sure there is no glass. I can see the glass in the picture provided. The deck isn't glassed but the hull sure looks glassed to me. It would be really weird for a strip planked or cold moulded hull to not be glassed. The glassing is usually done as impact protection for the wood

[taylormobile]

I used "CPES" from RotDoctor for my project. Their website is great and so is their product.

www.rotdoctor.com

Also used a 5 hp shop vac to pull vacuum. I used a multi-meter to test moisture - googled correlation of ohms to moisture. Photo is my vacuum manifold setup.

Steve

[luckylinda]

Glassing a WEST strip planked hull is a mistake.

[Bowdrie]

You have a boat with an interesting pedigree.
In the 1985 March/April issue of WoodenBoat magazine, (issue #63,) there is an extensive interview with Tom Wylie, "Hot Ideas for Cold Molded Boats", and pics of his own Wylie 37/38 that he used as a racer and family cruiser.
He discusses building techniques and philosophy for cold molding.
Others have already posted some good pointers/paths for successful repair of the area(s) you are concerned with.
For external repair work a router can be your friend in many ways.
Well done, a cold molded boat is incredibly strong and has the rigidity to carry high rig loads without the hull deforming/bending/wracking.
They're definitely not your Grandads "wicker basket" plank on frame boat.

[pcmm]

Originally Posted by luckylinda

Glassing a WEST strip planked hull is a mistake.

Why is this a mistake? Its litterally part of their instructions...

[bailsout]

I sometimes find it better to drill holes all the way through thus allowing better drying and easier filling, taping off the holes to later contain the injections.