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What makes wooden boats difficult?


Jennarasion

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14 hours ago, Jennarasion said:

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

......

The type of wood required for boat building / repair is not in anyway cheap, and is also much harder to source than steel.

And "the right boatyard" doesn't exist, there isn't a big enough market for a commercial boatyard to specialise in wooden boats, they all do steel boats. So you either have to do the work yourself,  or enlist the help of a group of enthusiasts - which will probably be harder work and take longer than doing the work yourself!

If you want a project, and will enjoy the challenge, and have the funds to support it. Then go for it, but don't do it because you think it will be the same or less cost and work than a steel or GRP boat.

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37 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

 

I'll give it a try!! 

 

 

Apparently old Ronnie Barker tried to build a boat but it sunk. 

 

It turned out he didn't get his Arkwright. 

37 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

 

I'll give it a try!! 

 

 

Apparently old Ronnie Barker tried to build a boat but it sunk. 

 

It turned out he didn't get his Arkwright. 

37 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

 

I'll give it a try!! 

 

 

Apparently old Ronnie Barker tried to build a boat but it sunk. 

 

It turned out he didn't get his Arkwright. 

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Just now, magnetman said:

Apparently old Ronnie Barker tried to build a boat but it sunk. 

 

It turned out he didn't get his Arkwright. 

Apparently old Ronnie Barker tried to build a boat but it sunk. 

 

It turned out he didn't get his Arkwright. 

Apparently old Ronnie Barker tried to build a boat but it sunk. 

 

It turned out he didn't get his Arkwright. 

Taking two of everything is traditional. Three of everything is ridiculous.

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14 minutes ago, Barneyp said:

The type of wood required for boat building / repair is not in anyway cheap, and is also much harder to source than steel.

And "the right boatyard" doesn't exist, there isn't a big enough market for a commercial boatyard to specialise in wooden boats, they all do steel boats. So you either have to do the work yourself,  or enlist the help of a group of enthusiasts - which will probably be harder work and take longer than doing the work yourself!

If you want a project, and will enjoy the challenge, and have the funds to support it. Then go for it, but don't do it because you think it will be the same or less cost and work than a steel or GRP boat.

 

There are wooden boat specialists such as Jem Bates at the top of the Marsworth flight and Michael Dennett on the Thames at Laleham. 

 

Some others too 

 

Good way to turn a large pile of cash into a small pile of cash. 

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20 minutes ago, magnetman said:

 

There are wooden boat specialists such as Jem Bates at the top of the Marsworth flight and Michael Dennett on the Thames at Laleham. 

 

Some others too 

 

Good way to turn a large pile of cash into a small pile of cash. 

I wasn't aware that there were still boatyards that had the skills to work in wooden narrow boats so I stand corrected.

As you say they won't be cheap.

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4 minutes ago, Barneyp said:

I wasn't aware that there were still boatyards that had the skills to work in wooden narrow boats so I stand corrected.

As you say they won't be cheap.

How about Tooley's

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12 minutes ago, magnetman said:

Dennetts at Laleham do motorcruisers not canal boats but to be fair I don't think the OP said what type of boat it was. 

 

 

There's also Freebody's at Hurley, if the OP means a proper boaty wooden. boat. 

 

 

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Rotten timbers, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm to the budget in the morning

 

Sorry for the Apocalypse Now reference but seriously, as others have noted, all wooden boats are a nightmare. From a plywood sailing dinghy, a classic wooden cruiser, an historic narrowboat or the Cutty Sark. The maintenance regime is non-stop and the costs very significant.

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22 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

 

There's also Freebody's at Hurley, if the OP means a proper boaty wooden. boat. 

 

 

Wootens at at Cookham Dean are good with wooten boats. 

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5 minutes ago, BilgePump said:

Rotten timbers, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm to the budget in the morning

 

Sorry for the Apocalypse Now reference but seriously, as others have noted, all wooden boats are a nightmare. From a plywood sailing dinghy, a classic wooden cruiser, an historic narrowboat or the Cutty Sark. The maintenance regime is non-stop and the costs very significant.

 

I've had one wooden boat. Twinkle Ten clinker dinghy. 32 yars ago. 

 

Lovely little boat but even something tiny gets complicated and potentially expensive. 

 

 

1 minute ago, rusty69 said:

Isn't cook Ham what the cannibals did to Noahs son?

 

I don't think so. 

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1 hour ago, Barneyp said:

The type of wood required for boat building / repair is not in anyway cheap, and is also much harder to source than steel.

And "the right boatyard" doesn't exist, there isn't a big enough market for a commercial boatyard to specialise in wooden boats, they all do steel boats. So you either have to do the work yourself,  or enlist the help of a group of enthusiasts - which will probably be harder work and take longer than doing the work yourself!

If you want a project, and will enjoy the challenge, and have the funds to support it. Then go for it, but don't do it because you think it will be the same or less cost and work than a steel or GRP boat.

 

 

There is a wooden boat builder on the Nottingham Canal (they have been in that location since the very early 1900s) Its a wonderful place to go into with the smell of fresh wood shavings and all other associated woody smells.

They have a huge 'steam bender' for producing wooden ribs.

 

They do work on steel hulls (painting, blacking etc and have a very nice drydock), but their 'heart is in wood'

 

 

 

Screenshot (207).png

 

 

Our NB in their drydock for blacking

 

 

 

CAM00053.jpg

Edited by Alan de Enfield
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22 minutes ago, harrybsmith said:

 

That would indeed be you... I'm sure you'd echo the sentiments of it's a lot of expense and time though 

Yes, it is. There are ways to keep the costs down, or the time, but not both!

 

However, I can also say that it is really satisfying work. There is a lot more craft to it than a steel boat I think. However, I wouldn't do one alone again.

 

Alec

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There is an excellent thread on  here about the rebuild of the wooden  GU wideboat "Progress", posted by Chris Collins.  It is not the first wooden boat he has restored, as he was responsible for one of the Ovaltine boats.  His posts, and pictures of work in (on?) Progress show just how much like hard work wooden boat building is and the sorts of skills that are wanted.

 

N

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I did like the wording. 

 

What makes wooden boats difficult? 

 

It is a clever use of language to describe a wooden boat as 'difficult'.

 

There are other ways of asking this question. 

 

 

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6 hours ago, magnetman said:

 

There are wooden boat specialists such as Jem Bates at the top of the Marsworth flight and Michael Dennett on the Thames at Laleham. 

 

Some others too 

 

Good way to turn a large pile of cash into a small pile of cash. 

 

AP Boatbuilding at Alvecote is another.

 

https://www.apboatbuilding.co.uk/

 

Someone I know bought the Thomas Clayton wooden tanker Dane quite cheaply with grand plans to restore it. He tried boating in it but soon got fed up of pumping it out before he could use it. He was quoted £100,000-£150,000 for the necessary repairs to bring it back to good condition, so put it on eBay with a starting price of £1.

Edited by cuthound
To add the last paragraph
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10 hours ago, stagedamager said:

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

There was quite a bit of helpful comment plus the usual jokey stuff - about Noah's Ark in this case. Then stagedamagerer posted the above which was very to the point. Sadly this was also the last time the OP was on-line looking at the thread, so I guess either he did not see it or decided not to bother - a pity either way, but it does seem to happen a lot, and does influence the sort of replies the next enquiry of a similar nature receives.

 

Tam

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