That boat, as some may be tired of reading, is a 1958
Chris Craft. It's a plywood lapstrake hull. Mostly we
trailer it. When running there is a small leak and the
bilge gets an inch or so of water. Each time we pull
her out all the water dries up. But that wood
remains damp for some time. ~ As I understand it
rot is really micro-organisims that eat away the wood
and they thrive when there is dampness but also
oxygen.

So my question: Is there anything, salt maybe?, that
I can put in the bilge water while running that will
curtail these criters & their rot while not harming
the wood or making a mess?

Or is it nothing to worry about?

Gary

Gary Warner wrote:

So my question: Is there anything, salt maybe?, that
I can put in the bilge water while running that will
curtail these criters & their rot while not harming
the wood or making a mess?

TIMBOR

Or is it nothing to worry about?

It will continue to rot quite nicely whether you worry or not if you do
nothing to eliminate the water.

Rick

"Gary Warner" wrote in message
...


That boat, as some may be tired of reading, is a 1958
Chris Craft. It's a plywood lapstrake hull. Mostly we
trailer it. When running there is a small leak and the
bilge gets an inch or so of water. Each time we pull
her out all the water dries up. But that wood
remains damp for some time. ~ As I understand it
rot is really micro-organisims that eat away the wood
and they thrive when there is dampness but also
oxygen.

So my question: Is there anything, salt maybe?, that
I can put in the bilge water while running that will
curtail these criters & their rot while not harming
the wood or making a mess?

Or is it nothing to worry about?

Gary



I'm remembering that when my dad had his Luhrs, way back when, we scraped
the wood bottom each year, stuck some sort of cotton-like stuff into some of
the seams, and painted. Have you done a job on the hull that approximates
these steps?

I believe this process is still called caulking.

In article , "Doug Kanter"
wrote:


I'm remembering that when my dad had his Luhrs, way back when, we scraped
the wood bottom each year, stuck some sort of cotton-like stuff into some of
the seams, and painted. Have you done a job on the hull that approximates
these steps?

Yeah, but I don't know if, for wooden boats, you still use wadding, or
something from a tube.

"Bob D." wrote in message
...
I believe this process is still called caulking.

In article , "Doug Kanter"
wrote:


I'm remembering that when my dad had his Luhrs, way back when, we
scraped
the wood bottom each year, stuck some sort of cotton-like stuff into
some of
the seams, and painted. Have you done a job on the hull that
approximates
these steps?

In article , says...
That boat, as some may be tired of reading, is a 1958
Chris Craft. It's a plywood lapstrake hull. Mostly we
trailer it. When running there is a small leak and the
bilge gets an inch or so of water. Each time we pull
her out all the water dries up. But that wood
remains damp for some time. ~ As I understand it
rot is really micro-organisims that eat away the wood
and they thrive when there is dampness but also
oxygen.

So my question: Is there anything, salt maybe?, that
I can put in the bilge water while running that will
curtail these criters & their rot while not harming
the wood or making a mess?

Gary, There was a good discussion of this by a retired chemical engineer
named Dave Carnell. Unfortunately his page is gone, and I'm worried
about Dave too, as I haven't heard from him since I built a tool for him
after he had a stroke.

I have a copy of the cached copy of his page he
http://terryking.us/public/boats/RotEthyleneGlycol.html

and a couple of equivalent text files he
http://terryking.us/public/boats

I have used Ethylene Glycol on my 25 year old homemade inboard cuddy
cabin boat for the last 7 or 8 years, arresting some rot in several
places. Every winter layup I spray Glycol along the almost-dry inside
keel, on the lower frames, and on a couple of slightly-soft plywood
panels. I have added a new transom of 3/4" Pressure-treated plywood
with epoxy/glass over it. But the original transom is spongy to realy
deteriorated in several places. Every layup I pump Ethylene Glycol into
about 100 1/4" holes drilled into the inner old transom. It has had no
progression of rot, and no more "obvious rot fungus growth" like it had
before. Ethylene Glycol is one of the few things that can stop rot in
wood that is wet.

I hope to keep the old girl running another 25 years...

It Ain't Elegant. But it works, by gosh...

(Please read Dave's article before you bombard me with toxicity warnings
and turn me in to the EPA. I used to use PentaChlor (AKA PCP) which was
a lot worse :-)

--
Regards, Terry King ...In The Woods In Vermont

"The one who dies with the most parts LOSES! What do you need??"

Very Happy to say I was pointed to a current Dave Carnell site at:
http://www.angelfire.com/nc3/davecarnell/

All the info is there.

--
Regards, Terry King ...In The Woods In Vermont

"The one who dies with the most parts LOSES! What do you need??"

"Terry King" wrote in message
.. .
Very Happy to say I was pointed to a current Dave Carnell site at:
http://www.angelfire.com/nc3/davecarnell/

All the info is there.

--
Regards, Terry King ...In The Woods In Vermont

"The one who dies with the most parts LOSES! What do you need??"


Glad this thread helped you find / find out about Dave
as well as helping me.

"Gary Warner" ) writes:

So my question: Is there anything, salt maybe?, that
I can put in the bilge water while running that will
curtail these criters & their rot while not harming
the wood or making a mess?

salt boxes in bilges is an old preventative I've read about.
don't know how well it works. it'll do not harm.
rot works faster in fresh water for sure.

if the boat were not leaking you could tar the inside to keep the water
out of the wood, but this water is comming from the outside and is
probably getting into the wood already.


Or is it nothing to worry about?

you can let it go and plan to cut out and replace the bad wood some time
in the future. eventually trot will make he wood weak enough to lose its
shape and the bottom of the boat will flatten. lapstrake boats get their
strength from the overlapped planks more than other boats with bigger
frames. you may have seen older discarded lapstrake boats hauled up on
shore with their bottoms caved in. time will do it.

I doubt the rot is an immediate concern, but something you can research
and look into.

Wooden boats don't last forever, despite what your read about 100 year old
vessels. Those old boats had to be refurbihsed and refitted every few
years, all the rotten wood cut out and new wood put in. Very little of
those historic wooden boats is original wood. In fact there's a rule that
if you replace all the wood in an old boat it's a new boat, but if you
leave a teenly little bit of oiginal wood in it then it's the same boat.

--
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On 28 Jul 2004 19:53:20 GMT, (William R.
Watt) vaguely proposed a theory
.......and in reply I say!:

remove ns from my header address to reply via email

Oh dear! What was his name?

Famous mariner. I am sure his boat was the "Spray", but his name was
not Roberts. G

He re-framed the planking, then replanked the frame.

JOSHUA SLOCUM! google and persistence wins again! Memory fails.

Good God!

I fight the "technology over brain" fight, then use the bit I rail
against!

Loooooser!

Do we see a whole new search-based "intelligence" or mourn the slow
and basic old one?

I mourn the old one because when you are "out there", you can't simply
switch to "Survivor" and see someone else's problems.

It feels to me that the new revolution really does remove us from the
pain of results.

Sorrrrry!

Actually it's funny. I use a famous mariner who had a boat that was
completely rebuilt, and was the epitome of "restoration is really new"
to start my own rant on the values of reliance on other systems.


Bummer!

Wooden boats don't last forever, despite what your read about 100 year old
vessels. Those old boats had to be refurbihsed and refitted every few
years, all the rotten wood cut out and new wood put in. Very little of
those historic wooden boats is original wood. In fact there's a rule that
if you replace all the wood in an old boat it's a new boat, but if you
leave a teenly little bit of oiginal wood in it then it's the same boat.

So the coin under the mast step should be sliver of original wood? G
************************************************** ***
It's not the milk and honey we hate. It's having it
rammed down our throats.