Wood boats - maintenance

What type of wood boat?
Different hull types have different issues.
I have 56' of wood powerboat with a copper riveted, mahogany planked hull.
It has a lot of brightwork that gets redone yearly.
The brightwork and the teak deck deep cleaning are the main yearly projects. Along with a haul out for bottom paint (but this goes with any boat kept in the water)
The rest of the boat is sterling lp paint and was just repainted after 8 years.
It really didn't need it but I'm anal about a shine to the boat.
If the wood boat you purchase is in good shape to begin with you just need to be a LOT more vigilant with it than fiberglass.
The trick is not to let any thing open up and let the moisture in.
This attention has been given my boat since new 42 years ago and she looks newer than most of the tupperware boats around me in the marina.
In fact, I usually have to prove to people the hull is not fiberglass but edge glued wood planking!

Aside from the bright work and teak decks which some new boats have, my wood boat has not been more physical maintenance than a fiberglass boat but it has taken more of my time in attention than a fiberglass boat.

If you're a boat person that will use a boat often than a wood boat could work for you.
If you're looking for a boat to visit only occasionally than go with fiberglass.

Here's a shot of her this summer when she took first place at the Long Beach Sea Fest show.
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Snje,
Coming from someone who just finished restoring one of these boats and in the process of doing another one, no offense but someone has to ask about the maintenance on these then you shouldn’t get anywhere near one. The planking is the easiest and most inexpensive part of the boat, these boat don't reveal their colors until they are completely striped ie, bottom is off the boat. This is the point where you learn what you have to replace, the chimes, stringers, frames batons etc. A general rule of thumb for these boats is it will cost about $7,000 per foot to restore one, now that is including re chroming all the chrome, rebuilt engines trans, all new interior etc, and with that size boat you will have to be in dry boat in a boat yard thus costing more money. Not saying these boats aren't fun and rewarding as they are, but they are very maintenance intensive unlike a fiberglass or steel boat. I personally would love to see another guy get into this hobby as it is quite the adventure, just a costly one at that if you don't know what you are getting into up front. I will help you in any way I can if you have any other questions. Hope this helps and wasn’t blunt.

 

What a beautiful boat she is and will be. The biggest thing I learned while doing these boats is that there is no such thing as a straight line. You can throw out the tape chalk line, and straight edge completely. You can do the whole boat yourself no problem, just read as many books as you can and search the internet for all of the knowledge you can absorb. Chris-craft.org has tons of info as well as Don Danenberg web site whom many consider the best restorer in the world. The boat in the pictures looks like she needs plenty of work to get her sea worth once again. The $7,000 per foot is a turn key you drop the boat off in no matter what shape she is in and then you pick her up ready to rip. You can cut cost substantially by doing as much as you can yourself. If you can restore planes, cars etc then a boat isn't that much harder to tackle. The only main difference is a car or plane or most aren’t' constructed out of wood, and the best or worst thing about wood is it was a living creature at one point in time, so the wood not only moves but changes shape. So with that in mind it doesn't always hold it's shape and you will have to fine tune it. I hope this helps and I am not just rambling on.

 

I restored a 1947 Luke Warner Yawl a few years back.. It was a blast.. You must be patient and willing to do a lot of research.. This boat hadn't sailed in over 20 years until I brought her back to life! She is now living in South Texas :-( I miss her........... The Black in White was taken in 1951
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Dude. Someday you need to write a book about your life. Seriously.

 

Tillman, I want to someday however I need a Ghost writer, I couldn't sit long enough to write a book.

Angie was cracking up at me becasue where we are living temporarily here in Pennsylvania is about a mile from a huge coal mine. I told her last week I wanted to
get a part time job in the mines to add to my resume. Then I could also tell my grand kids I worked in the coal mines as well.. She thinks I'm nuts...

I just want to experience everything at least once..

 

Thanks, she really has beautiful lines! At the time of ownership I traveled a lot, she had a small leak and electric bilge. I worried constantly about the electric going out, or shore power coming unplugged.. It drove me nuts... I sold it and purchased a Lotus with some of the dough....

Its been in dry dock every since I sold it. The new owner is updating the interior. He has invited me to help crew when he launches her in the gulf and I cant wait. I actually became able to single hand all three sails but it was a job!!

 

Nothing more beautiful than a classic wood Baglietto!
('cept maybe a Riva Tritone......)

Beautiful boat Murph; I suspect you have done a lot to return/bring her to this point.......much admired.

Tritone

 

Ditto for me!

Don't want to scare you Russ, but sometimes they have to look like this first......
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like a good wine.
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Unless you are a dedicated masochist, I think you want >40' to live aboard on a full-time basis.
Has been done @ 25', but not in the harbor, and not well.
Sail vs power makes a difference re size - power = more space for living.
You can single hand a big (50-80') boat if you have gear (electrics/hydraulics) = $$$$.
pic looks like ZULU, big $$$$ restoration, and it's a day sailer....pretty? to the max.
Culler cutter? not my cuppa - VERY trad, very slow, seldom well equipped. Unless that's "you".......there's lots more to choose.
Go to the .woodenboat.com/forums and start asking questions; you'll get enough opinions to keep you warm this winter.......
You'll also have to decide if you want to just use it as an apartment, or 'go sailing', or get into restoring. Very time consuming to do more than one at a time, and you may not want to live in a boatyard.......


(are you getting the picture yet that this issue is as complex as Ferrari's; and potentially lots more expensive?????)

G'luck!

Tritone
(who's writing yet another check for the next steps on the skeleton in the previous pic.......)
that's >25 large in the box; 4 cubic meters of milled grade AAAA mahogany from Africa via Switzerland...
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I used to work on Chris-Crafts for many years... Every 5 to 7 years we would strip the varnish with a heat gun, sand down the wood until the stain was mostly gone, then re-jute all of the seams between the planks, re-stain the boat, then use tack clothes to get the dust off as which time we would lay down 10 to 12 thin coats of Goldspar Varnish, a light 600 wet sand in between each coat, all varnishing done with china boar bristle brushes and then finish it up the rest of the way with the old salem Cooper Bronze on the bottom and then finally marine white or red boot stripe... We very rarely replaced the planks, it's a fresh water lake, and when we did it was mostly due to dry rot... We only used Filipino Mahogany...

It used to take about a month and we would charge about 4 to 5k to do it, depending on the size of the boat. 99% were in the 18 to 24 foot range...

That was our winter work in those days, when it was 40 below zero out on the main dock there in Grand Lake.. We just stayed in side and refinished boats...

Don't forget that all wooden boats leak, you have to let them soak before you put them in the water. The tightest wooden boat I ever saw was a Rivo from Lake Geneva in Switzerland... It had been in a shipping container for a year when it arrived at the marine in grand lake. We removed the boat, 24ft, from the container via the hoists and put it in the center slip to soak for a while. When we came in the next day it still didn't have any water in the bildge.. Two days later when we took it to the owners boathouse, the bildge was still dry... It was an amazingly well built wooden boat.

As the old saying goes... A boat is a hole in the water into which one throws all of their money...

 

Don't even think about it...

1st...

you will lose the ability to have self furling jib and main sails. these are key to easy single / double handed cruising

2nd...

a wooden boat in warmer waters (anything south of rhode island) is akin to a leg with gangrene... a constant battle to keep ahead of the rot...

the only reason to have a wooden boat is passion. if you don't have it (wife included) it's not worth it

 

Please more pictures of this fine old yacht!

 

Here are a few more
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It must be a royal PITA to keep that up. My Tiara had minimal teak outside and it went gray so damn fast!

 

There's only one thing I have rubbed harder and longer than this boat!

 

Thanks for limiting the pictures to those of the boat...

 

Next time someone asks, "Yeah, but where's the rub?", I'm gonna send them a link!