Trojan Boat Forum

Hello: Got some good advice last year from this forum. Here's this year's first question: I notice that some planks? are separating a little. There isn't a gap, the boards just aren't touching in places. I think we should probably be cleaning those areas out and fixing them but not too sure what to fix with. Any ideas for people like us that love a wooden boat, but what were we thinking buying one?????

I've had some experience with restoration of wooden boats. What type of construction do you have, ie, carvel, double planked, lapstrake, strip planked, etc? This will assist with pointing you in the right direction. There are some great modern products that can help cut down on the ongoing maintenance of a wood boat, but it always requires you to stay on top of it to prevent early deterioration.

How much of a gap are we talking about? Out of the water and dry during off season is normal to see gaps. These should tighten up once in the water if the gaps aren't too wide. I suspect you you may be plank over ply below the water line but an inspection of the bilge will confirm. There are a variety of products for seams on the market. Each with pros and cons. The easiest are applied with a caulking gun. Caulks that are petrolium based will bleed oils into the wood in the seams. This sometimes shortens the ability of future applications to adhere properly, and can affect some bottom coatings. It should also be noted that caulking over some coatings may cause premature failure as some antifouling coatings by their very nature prevent adhesion.

I've owned carvel planked and double planked boats. In my experience, products like slick seam work best for taking up small separations until the water can swell the wood back into being tight. On my old carvel planked boat the over use of polysulfied caulk didn't give the planks enough room to swell. It eventually pulled fasteners at the chine. I spent one spring pulling all the calk and replacing most of the batten and covering the seams with bees wax(toilet seals) to save money. With that and some refastening at the chines the boat went back into shape beautifully.
I've never owned a plywood boat. The above may not help in that case. Good luck
Mike