Floor timber, keel bolt#3, frame scarf

I took a day off from payed job to catch up with Meritaten’s renovation. Rosättra boatyard has started to put boats into water today - ice has melt, 10 degrees on plus, sunny and strong wind.

The list of tasks for today was long but I ended up doing only one of them, for the whole day: installing floor timber #3.
It was a combo-job: before installing the floors I wanted to remove broken frame and shape a scarf for gluing the new bit. Much easier done if the floor timber is not yet installed, otherwise I cannot access this with a hand saw.

This frame is originally glued from 5 pieces of bent oak. I am repairing it with my glued/bent frame consisting of 15 thin pieces.

After measurements I cut the first incisions to prepare a glue joint. The 5 elements of this frame - originally glued - are no longer glued to each other. The glue is gone. After removing all the rivets and screws (brass !!??) I am starting to shape the joint for replacement part.

Hand saw, chisels and angle grinder. Last step with hand plane to plane the scarf.

The next step was to adjust the shape of the new frame bit to the hull and to the planned joint. The dimensions were transferred with respect to aft and fore face of the old frame, to accommodate hull’s curvature in both directions.

Once I was happy with all faces alignment I could finally install the floor timber. Freeboard was soaked in linseed oil few days ago and got some more today.
The bottom face and all end grain of the new floor timber was sealed with penetrating epoxy and then painted with iron oxide paint, the traditional way. Upon installation I spread bedding compound - Farm 80 - to close all possible gaps between freeboard and floors.

The component went into its place and new keel bolt #3 followed.
The bolt was painted with epoxy as a rust protection. As additional sealing I’ve covered it now with the same bedding compound.
It has three functions here: close gaps, if any, in the keel hole, minimise friction upon installation (hammering into tight hole) and to isolate the bolt from oak.
Additionally it will keep it from being glued to the structure as I needed to correct my mistake in drilling the hole in new floor timber.

Due to my drilling error I ended up with the hole which was oval-shaped, leaving a gap between the bolt and wood on both ends of the new floor timber.
Now, with keel bolt inserted, I filled this gap with thin epoxy until it started to flow in the bilge. Upon that I tightened the nut and pressed down the floor timber so that it “sat” in its place entirely, closing all gaps with squeezed-out bedding compound.

In the iron keel there are again 2 nuts, on the floor timber there is one. Big and thick steel washer which I made for this element spreads the load more evenly than washers in the old floors.

There is still a bit of bedding compound to be cleaned but I will do that tomorrow, when it dries a bit.

What is left now, on this part, is to close the ballast opening with lead plug and to rivet and screw adjacent frames and freeboard planks to this new floor timber. Of course I will use silicon bronze screws, not brass as original.
Then I will final-shape the new frame bit and install it with copper rivets (to freeboard) and bronze bolts (to the floor timber).

New floor timber in place, with frame scarfed and ready for repair. Original holes in frames and freeboard will be used to install new bolts and rivets.
In the foreground are two steam-bent and broken frames which will be repaired next.

Once this is done I can move on to repair all other 26 broken frames: steam-bent originally, they all cracked at the tightest curve. They will be repaired with quarter-sawn oak bits, epoxy glued and copper-riveted to flat scarfs on the healthy wood.

As a side note: it’s a sign of our times that we put so much effort to preserve classic boats. They were not built with the thought that they will last 100 years or so. They should last 20-30 years, after that there will be a new boat built. This may explain why on our boats there are iron fastenings, brass screws under water line etc. Why bother with zinc-flushing if the hull will be obsolete in 20-30 years?

Well, it is no longer true. We preserve these boats for 100 or more years.
Why?
Well, first of all, to build such a boat today would be very expensive. 2 mln crowns for my boat, I was told. Secondly - there is no such wood available in big amount any longer, it would be difficult to source good quality Honduras or African mahogany from legal sources.
One can use other wood of course - the first Laurinkoster, Monsun, was built in oak. But hardwood is more stable, it does not shrink and swell as much as oak. And it is a pleasure to work with it, unlike oak which is a curse.
Meritaten is relatively young in this club (born 1957/58) so she is in quite good shape but brass screws on the garboard plank and floor timbers are reaching their life limit. That makes me adding this to To-do list for coming winters.
Not a job I look forward to but needs to be done. I just don’t know yet how to tackle it!

I keep this memory in mind when I crawl in the tight bilge and repair my boat…