Paying seams
It’s raining and snowing last two days so it did felt OK to remove plastic cover on Meritaten’s bottom.
Even though she was covered there appeared few hair-gaps between planks. I paid them with Farm 100 tonight, to minimise drama during launch on Friday.
All of them are on port side, back part.
My way of finding them is by putting strong light inside the boat and looking closely from the outside, best done after dark.
I apply Farm only on the surface, not squeezing it into joints. This bitumen-based goo will harden after 1 or 2 years so I don’t want to have it between planks - it would deform wood during swelling, leading to bigger problems with time. The other way of doing it is to apply paper tape. It serves the same purpose: allows more time for timber to swell while limiting water ingress so that bilge pump can cope with it.
Meritaten hardly leaks during launch but anyway it is a stressful moment every year.
Outside my boat hall there is another wooden boat, built with pine or lark. She stands there without cover, exposed to wind and Sun. I looked closely tonight on her bottom and freeboard. Pity for her - such careless handling is causing the hull to crack and open. It will certainly swell back few hours after launching but stress on mechanical fastenings is huge!
Her freeboard also split on few planks - not uncommon on pine boats which were glued and then exposed to too much weather. This usually does not happen to hardwood-built boats like Meritaten. Mahogany withstands such abuse much better. The owner repaired the split with pieces of pine, covered probably in epoxy.
Back to my boat I removed all unnecessary clutter accumulated during the winter and prepared everything for antifouling painting tomorrow. Loaded heavy items aboard - anchors, sails etc. It’s easier now than after launching - my new summer harbour does not have side access to the boat. Loading stuff from front is always more troublesome.
I wanted to change piano-hinge on cockpit locker into heavy-duty hinges from Toplicht but after dry-fit I don’t like the look.
Not only they look too massive but they will also be a problem every time I need to varnish the cockpit. I will probably go back to piano hinge.