Hairline cracks in ply decking

[Guest]

Hi all,

 

I have recently made my first foray into yachting, and bought a trailer sailor that needs a little bit of love before summer.

 

The boat was painted years ago and then left outside without a cover from what I can tell, so while the paint looks new from a few meters back there are hairline cracks when you get up close. I.e, On the joins on the side of the cabin to the top of the cabin and on the deck.

 

Intuition tells me I should sand it back, fill the gaps with bog, and paint with a layer of undercoat and a layer of top coat. Is this correct? or anyone know a better way of doing things.

 

There is also some small work that needs attention on the bow under / around the eye that the trailer winch connects to. I'm not really sure what to do with that - does anyone know an auckland based repairer I could show and a idea or price for having sorted out properly (terrified of doing it wrong myself and sinking it!)

 

Cheers!

[Guest]

Gidday Sims, "Welcome Aboard!"

 

What sort of trailer sailor is it?

 

In general, old boats are cheap and paying someone else to do your repairs ends up being very, very expensive when compared to what you paid for the boat. Part of owning on older boat is doing the maintainance yourself. With the repairs you are talking about, you'd have to be trying pretty darn hard to sink it! Take the time, have a go, ask loads of questions here if you're not sure - there are some people here that are very happy to share their considerable knowledge and experience.

 

I started out with a Midnight 21. I actually still have it. I paid about $4000 for it nearly 20 years ago and I must have spent 3 times that amount on it since.....not because I had to.....just because you always want to improve something or make it a bit flasher. But at the end of the day it's glass over ply and is still an old boat that needs way too much maintenance. But I still enjoy tinkering with it just the same. You'll get out of it what you put in....and that's on and off the water.

 

I have some ideas about what you need to do to fix the hairline cracking, but there are others here who know far more about that sort of thing than me (Like 'KnotMe' and 'Wheels' and others), so I'll wait for them to point you in the right direction first.

 

Hope you have fun with it!

[Battleship 100]

Hey Sims post some photos of what you are talking about hairline cracking could be a number of things from it just being old ply and moving a bit, or it could be more sinister such as moisture getting in where it shouldn't or worse its got some rot.

Generally these things are not to much of an effort to fix and if you own an old wooden boat be prepared to do a fair bit of sanding and painting yourself or it will cost you a pretty penny.

The main thing is to keep freshwater out of the timber, keep it sealed and dry.

[shanson 0]

Welcome aboard mate.

 

My last few boats were ply and glass over ply, hairline cracks (and larger ) were par for the course and were generally caused by the normal movements of the ply.

 

For the smaller cracks I just repainted then using a single pot paint, for the larger I used a flexible filler. As. Above the trick is to keep the ply dry.

 

My maintanance plan was to do lots of little bits of maintenance rather than big jobs a few times.

 

Hope that helps, wooden boats are great!!

 

Shane

[Guest]

my suggestion is knock the paint off as best you can to the ply (or epoxy) and apply NEATSFOOT oil!!!! Once everybody has stopped laughing... an old codger suggested this to my Dad who had an old launch made of ply where seams were splitting. He bought lots of the stuff and it WORKED! Its supposed to be for saddles etc but seemed to swell the timber up and seal it from moisture for years to come. No joke the stuff WORKED (if you can stand the smell!!)

[Guest]

Any trouble painting over it later?? All the paint cans make a fuss about a clean surface.

[Guest]

Sorry no idea. You have to remember this was about when plastic decimal "coins" were being handed out to get us great unwashed into the idea of changing from pounds schillings and pence to stuff that ended in zeros! I know Dad had the boat and DID paint it and the neatsfoot oil seemed not a problem (lead paint??.... )

[Guest]

Thanks guys for the advice, I also got a good PM which I think is on the money about sanding it back hard, sealing, and the undercoating until smooth (cracks filled) and top coating. I think this is what I'm likely to do, but NEATSFOOT does sound like an interesting sealer!!

 

These are some pictures of what the cracks look like, they run the full length of the boat almost everywhere two bits of ply join.

 

 

Not sure if that shows the extend of the damage, but bear in mind it looks like this boat had been left to its own devices uncovered for quite some time so expect they are caused from ply expanding and contracting with the weather?