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What makes wooden boats difficult?


Jennarasion

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I have seen a lot of wooden boats for sale, all of them quite cheap, and have seen the warning that wooden boats require a lot of maintenance.

From What i can find online, they need to be painted every year (which seems similar to blacking in my uneducated opinion (more frequently obviously), and the odd plank needing replacing (wood is cheaper than steel, so if you were able to find the right boatyard not too bad).

Is there something that I'm missing? I feel like Ive trivialised it a lot judging by the warnings 😂

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4 minutes ago, Jennarasion said:

I have seen a lot of wooden boats for sale, all of them quite cheap, and have seen the warning that wooden boats require a lot of maintenance.

From What i can find online, they need to be painted every year (which seems similar to blacking in my uneducated opinion (more frequently obviously), and the odd plank needing replacing (wood is cheaper than steel, so if you were able to find the right boatyard not too bad).

Is there something that I'm missing? I feel like Ive trivialised it a lot judging by the warnings 😂

 

Are you talking about traditional narrow boats or other types of wooden boats?

 

I very much doubt a hefty plank of oak or elm is cheaper than steel, probably well over an inch thick and several feet long.

 

Then there is the caulking that sometimes falls out, so the boat starts to sink, it then needs slipping or docking to put it back in.

 

Wood moves more than steel with moisture and temperature, so as the boat is made from many pieces they soon start to leak, especially any cabins. The caulking is what helps minimise such leaks, but you don't caulk cabin sides and roofs.

 

By all means ignore the warnings, but I hope that you are either very skilled or very rich.

 

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Wood floats which is a good start. 

 

However once you add metal things like engines and internal fittings and the bolts holding the wood bits together the whole lot is basically going to sink at some point. 

 

There are some exceptions to this rule such as incredibly well made teak hulls with steel cabins but they are rare.

 

By all means buy a wooden boat but keep on top of it big time or it will let you and itself down. 

 

 

 

 

One reason to keep on top of it is that when it sinks you end up above the waterline as long as it is a canal boat. 

 

Tent on the top of the cabin might be worthwhile. 

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A full rebuild of a wooden narrowboat (of which there's probably 20 or so that don't need a full rebuild) is currently around £200k alone in materials, and about 2 person years of work. I desperately want to rebuild one so i'm looking to buy a forest in the nearish future, already have access to a massive sawmill and a timber tractor*. It really isn't a cheap or easy option, you need to be well off enough to buy a house and mental enough to not, instead devoting years of your life to graft, inevitably shortening your life expectancy and being able to do little else with your spare time.  Replating a steel narrowboat isn't particularly hard, and GRP boats are the easiest of all. 

 

 

 

*There's 1 person who may be reading this who can disregard this 

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We had a beautiful double diagonal teak on oak and iroko frames, built in 1939. I bought it from Brooms boatyard, it was in immaculate condition in 1993.  forty ish footer. With beautiful mahogany superstructure/cabin. One family had owned it for most of its life and maintained it in superb order. I had it transported to the G and S and kept it in Victoria basin to enable going out of Sharpness. I kept it about a year and could see it was going to cost me squillions to keep in top condition so I sold it and bought another much easier to look after narrowboat. It was bloomin lovely though. I sold it in 24 hours with only a for sale sign stuck in the front in the dock.

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I love wooden boats but I really do not want to own one. As soon as you convert one or fit one out you are building dead air spaces that will rot and you cannot get at it without taking it all apart. The big problem is rot and if, for instance the stempost is rotting there is a good chance that every plank that fits into it is also rotting at the ends and that is a Very Big Job to fix. Steel corrodes and has it's problems but is much easier to repair. GRP (fibreglass) is possibly the best material for most boats except narrowboats which have large flat areas and that tends to be vulnerable to damage.

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1 hour ago, Jennarasion said:

(wood is cheaper than steel, so if you were able to find the right boatyard not too bad).

 

This bit made me smile. You have a lot to learn, grasshopper.

 

Floorboard wood may be, but decent planks of oak, teak or mahogany are different matter.

 

And rhyming with John Lennon's acerbic observation that life is what happens while you are making other plans, wooden boats tend to turn into Weetabix while you are doing other things.

 

DAMHIK. 

 

 

 

 

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I think it would help to know what type of wooden boat you are thinking of and then the right people can offer advice as to the practicalities of those types of vessels and their pitfalls.

 

Kind regards

 

Dan

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10 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

I'd want it to last more than just 40 days tho.

It lasted 40 nights too. 

 

It may have lasted 50,but I have noah idea if it did. 

Edited by rusty69
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For the OP - if you are under any illusions as to the work involved then have a word with the Wooden Canal Boat Society

 

Wooden Canal Boat Society

 

In Three Men on the Bummel, Jerome K Jerome comments that one can either maintain a bike or one can use it to go cycling, you can't do both - wooden boats are the type you need to maintain rather than go boating in them. I'm delighted that there are some splendid wooden boats on the system, and equally delighted that I don't own one of them. I did own a narrow boat with a steel hull, GRP cabin and wooden bulkheads, it was the speed with which the wooden bulkheads, deteriorated that defeated me, especially at the rear of the cabin facing the back deck (also wooden).

 

28 minutes ago, MtB said:

Noah: So, let me get this right God, you want me to build you a multi storey carp ark?

 

 

The old ones are the best Mike :D 

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39 minutes ago, MtB said:

Meanwhile, in the parallel universe the quantum physicists used to mention an lot, its 2024 and God's voice boomed down to Noah...

 

God: Noah, it's time to build another boat.

 

Noah: Oh, OK, you’re the boss. Do you want the same again, animals, two by two?

 

God: Actually no. We forgot the fish last time so this time this will be just for the fish. Also, build it with more than one deck.

 

Noah: Big boat, only fish and several levels. Got it boss!

 

God: And another thing. Not just any fish. I want only Carp on the new boat.

 

Noah: So, let me get this right God, you want me to build you a multi storey carp ark?

 

You should repeat that on the Ark thread. You can double your greenies.

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