James,
I would respond in a different manner than many.

Mead and Jan (the brothers Gougeon) like boats. They like to sail and
enjoy them. They build them so thay can get what they want. They do
not enjoy maintenance, so they set up materials and systems so you only
have to do it once.

I tend to value traditional approches in many cases because these are
tried and true methods. In any case that I have use the approach
outline (actually followed the instructions) in one of the the West
books, I have never been disapointed in the results.

It may be more work than I had in mind, but I like only having to do
that job once.

Matt Colie



James Bullbrook wrote:
I'm about to start restoring a 1964 34' Chris Craft Constellation. I'm going
to start with the hull, which looks to be in pretty decent shape, but I want
to refasten and recaulk at least below the waterline. I've read Jim
Trefethen's book, and he suggests pulling the fastener, injecting 3m 5200
into the whole, and replacing with a slightly larger silicon brass screw
(one or two sizes up). He also suggests fastening the new bungs into place
with carpenter's glue and letting the paint seal them. Nowhere does he use
epoxy, in order to keep the hull flexible.He suggests recaulking the
traditional way, with cotton.
The Gougeon brothers suggest a totally different approach, where they call
for the existing caulking to be removed with a skillsaw, and then putting
thin wood splines that are edge-bonded with epoxy put into the gap, turning
the hull into one solid structure.
Needless to say, I'm confused, I only want to do this once, and I don't want
to screw it up. Any advice is apprecreciated.