I have been looking at the hull of my 1973 carver 28' mariner which i
just bought about a week ago..
The hull is planked mohogany but i noticed 2 or 3 spots where there is
rot in the planks by the frames just about at the water line..

Can anyone tell me what i should do?
I was thinking of sanding down the outside to get rid of the paint and
the other **** the previous owner just slopped on to cover some areas
to take a good look at the hull.

How does one go about removing a plank? is it possible to just cut out
the problem section and replace it with another piece of wood without
removing the whole plank, then sealing it somehow??

How does one go about making the hull watertight?
I know nothin about caulking but would like any information someone
can give.

I was thinking about just remove the caulking and stuff around the
problem areas/planks so the caulking of the other planks stays there
(less work for me) but is this wise?


Also, i noticed when i lay on the v-berth and look up i see mould
growing on the deck's underside. how does one go about removing
mould? does the presence of this mold mean that i have to replace the
deck too?

any advice would be appreciated.
Jay.

On Sun, 13 Jun 2004 16:12:44 GMT, Jason wrote:
The hull is planked mohogany but i noticed 2 or 3 spots where there is
rot in the planks by the frames just about at the water line..

===============================================

The first thing you should do is ask for your money back. The next
thing you should do is call up your hull surveyor. You DID have it
surveyed before you paid for it, right? Assuming you can't break the
deal, can't give it back, and have no surveyor to sue, you now own
what is known as a "project boat" and have much to learn.

Waynes humor is rather dry, but that's about the size of it.

You need to find a place to work on it, and you need to find how you
going to get it here to there and (hopefully) back again.

The following is some info.

Wooden boats without fiberglass or plastic coatings shrink when they dry
out on land too long. This results in seams opening up and various other
peculiarities, some of which will go back to normal when you dump it
back into the water. For this reason wooden boat owners try to get all
their fixing done withing a short time. I'm not an expert, but for a
small boat I believe you'd want it back in the water within a week or
two. You can extend this slightly by spraying water on the boat and
covering it with tarps to inhibit evaporation.

But you're probably not in that time frame, so go with the flow. Figure
on standing by with some good pumps the first time you drop it back in
the water. Many perfectly good wooden boats have sunk overnight after
being restored and put back in the water. It takes a few days before
they swell up again to the point where their hull seams close up and
they keep the water out.

All that stuff you mentioned can be done, more or less. But some of it
can require some fairly good woodworking, some of it requires some
really excessive muscle (getting planks back on), some of it requires
wierd and peculiar skills (traditional caulking). You can do all of it
with hand tools if you are truly a master boatwright, but otherwise
you'll need a small shop.

Wooden boats usually rot from the top down - ie. rain leaks are far more
deadly than hull leaks. That doesn't mean you can ignore your hull, but
it does mean that you can kiss off the boat unless you fix all the rain
leaks.

You have a lot to learn. You have a boat to learn on and without doubt
the best way to start is to spend a month or two loitering around the
docks and boatyards and chatting up anyone who will put up with you. You
topic of conversation will be "who's a really good surveyor of wooden
boats around here?". When the same name starts to come up over and over,
you know who you need to talk to next. Pay him what he asks and politely
question and learn as much as possible when he surveys your boat. You
want to know all the dirty ugly little details, and some ideas about
fixing them. Even if he condemns the boat as unfit to go back in the
water (you want the boat hauled so he can do a decent job), it will be
worth every penny if you have any thoughts about being a wooden boat owner.

To prevent more bad things happening to your boat in the mean time:

1) Verify a working automatic bilge pump. Ensure sufficient battery
charge to run the pump and take care of any existing leaks. If this
isn't possible, either visit the boat every day and pump it by hand, or
buy a new car batter, a battery charger, and an automatic bilge pump
which you wire directly to the battery and drop into the lowest part of
the bilge.

2) Re the above. Bilge pumps clog up if there is lots of crud and crap
floating around them.

3) Cover the boat with a tarp to prevent rain getting in. The tarp
should be hung about 2 feet above the deck to allow for:

4) Ventilate the boat. Wooden boats require huge amounts of fresh air
ventilation in every single nook and cranny or the rot and mildew. So
leave the hatches open and if the boat has adjustable vent scoops, aim
them at the wind.

5) Check that the lines securing the boat are not frayed or otherwise
looking like they will fail. Make them fast to cleats or rings or
whatever the WON"T PULL OUT. This applies to both ends of the line -
some boats have cleats that are purely imaginary.

6) Close the valves (seacocks) which you should find installed anyplace
a hose penetrates the hull of you boat. However, don't make like King
Kong and break one of them. They're not supposed to break, but ... They
do sometimes. Inboard engines, toilets, sinks all use water from
outside, and in the case of toilets and sink they drain to the outside.

7) DONT CONNECT A WATER SUPPLY HOSE TO YOUR BOAT, even if it has that
capability. A plumbing leak at home makes a mess - a supply leak on a
boat often sinks the boat.


When you're not loitering around the dock, take the Coast Guard
Auxilliary class on boating. It's free and it has lots of good info.

Good luck. Rufus

jay you need pro help with the planking work to show you how to do the repairs
as to cleaning up the mildo bleach and water will work well on that