Thoughts on caulking alternatives

[jjorgenson3]

Once you get through this moving forward keep her in the water all the time if you can. Only haul her for 12 days tops for scheduled repair and paint bottom. We have a 46 Alaskan that has followed this process religiously and she is doing great.

[Tator]

I'm assuming the planks on your boat were assembled of the same wood and method as the ones on the GB50 we once owned. One yea,r when we hauled out in Port Townsend, WA., we placed her in a large building that had been used for building 100'+ yachts. Unknown to us was the fact that under the concrete floor was a working radiant heat system. It was amazing what that system could do to wooden planks. We ended up having Dave Thompson of PT caulk the bottom before launching. It is my memory that the carvel planking was not caulked originally. We didn't do any pre-soaking of the hull. Very little leakage occurred and no problems for years after. Other times we have been hauled for up to 3 months with no problems.

[Xsbank]

Look into “bear poop.” It was used on the west coast for years to do commercial boats, its a mixture of portland cement and latex rubber and every wooden tug on the coast used it. Call one of the local commercial yards here and ask where to get it.

Here is some “local knowledge.”

“...On others, a long spline cut to a wedge shape has worked in repair to glued-edge boats like Knarrs and IODs where a seam had opened, to restore the glued-edge structure.
An eastern Canadian method is cotton-caulked seams with routed-in battens over instead of putty.
In heavy planking, such as tugs, the old common method is no putty in the topsides, just pounded full of oakum, and portland cement as putty in the bottom seams over the oakum.
West Coast caulking style for over 1.25" plank is a choker of cotton, caulking the job complete, then a line of good soft long fiber oakum over that leaving a seam about as wide as it is deep, then red lead paint, then topside seam putty or underwater seam putty as the location requires.
"Bear S**t" is a NW USA seam putty mixed from powdered Portland cement and black roofing patch tar, applied below the water over the caulking.”
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“Start with the second seam down in the topsides. If you over-caulk your 'learning' seam, you'll push the sheer strake up and off the boat.
The proper irons are crucial and you only need two for this job, a very thin OO size that you loop the cotton in with in 'tucks' and then caulk it in the seam with, and one about 1/8" for 'making' the cotton or tamping it down evenly.
The process starts with the butts first, leaving a 1" tail hanging out anywhere you stop, then the seams, crossing the butt tails and trapping them in. All the seams run out at the stem, again with the tails, last seam is the 'devil' or stem rabbet/garboard which traps all the plank tails.
After these steps you're there.
The proper caulking mallet (eBay, searches "caulking or caulker or caulk") helps, but for just one boat, a square wooden carpenter's mallet will serve. Not a round one, you can't control the blows right.
Here's a couple places to look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCxqvjSD4uo

http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthre...ing-techniques
http://www.nwboatschool.org/programs...ssID=23”
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[HopCar]

Originally Posted by caltexflanc

You might try giving Moores Marine in Beaufort NC a call, they are as expert on this as anyone in the world. Perhaps they could refer you to someone down there in FL whose work they trust to at least give you a little advice. Worth paying something for, given the catastrophic consequences that could come into play.

https://www.mooresmarine.com/

I didn't think of Moore's Marine. They would have the skills for sure. They just completed a big job on a 97 foot yacht my grandfathers company built in 1929. I think they replaced several planks.

[Benthic2]

I believe Huckins, Chris Craft and Bertram are all Florida based. Calling them might lead to a qualified cotton seemer. Also, calling a distributor/manufacturer of the cotton material and asking who they ship to near you might lead to a skilled applicator.

[caltexflanc]

Huckins is a great idea. The yard is very active and top notch, a lot of experience with oldies too. I'm pretty sure Bertram never made a wooden boat and they are on their umpteenth owner. Ditto Chris Craft if they still exist at all.

[Nomad Willy]

Glassing an old hull only works fairly well if the hull is:

1. Plywood

2. Strip planked w narrow planks.

With wider planks .....
The wood expands and contracts due to water content. The glass in resin does not. The glass will crack and then peel. The adhesion will fail due to the sheer forces on the wood to FG.
THEN the boat will need to have the FG removed. Most just get discarded.

[HopCar]

This subject of caulking seams brings back fond memories of my store from the fifties. We sold caulking irons, mallets, reefing irons, cotton and oakum.

The oakum made the store smell eonderful! It was treated with pine tar. I have a bar of pine tar soap in my medicine cabinet that I sniff once in a while