What is it about wooden boats?

[DarrenC]

Friends, i looked at something today that I had no business looking at and i can never un-see it.

I now know what romance is - romance is what makes you talk yourself into unwise, impractical, imprudent, and generally irrational decisions.


Has anyone else ever felt compelled to abandon all sense of sanity over some sexy classic lines and a flawless bright-finished complexion?  Is it the provenance of craftsmanship and artistry of hand building, or is it the way that her classic lines weigh on your consciousness and say "where next? - you want to cross the ocean? Circumnavigate? Piece of cake ! What are you waiting for?"

Somebody please talk me down!!!!

[CharlieJ]

If you are discussing a wooden boat, send me an email- I'll send you something about that. They tried for a year on a classic. Broke their hearts on it.

In a word- forget it. Wooden boats in very good condition are great, but they need CONSTANT care. and that means CONSTANT.

And by the way- I built wood composite boats for a living.

I'll take a classic fiberglass one any old day.

[Godot]

I love woodies. I love working with wood. I love the warmth of the material. I love the character.

That said, if I were to own one I'd become real friendly with paint, and keep the varnish to a minimum. The very few folks I've talked to who own nice wooden yachts have suggested that maintenance isn't that huge a deal, if the varnish is minimized and so long as everything else is kept up with. Once you start to fall behind the power curve it gets very difficult to catch back up.

A wooden boat, more than a glass/steel/aluminum boat is a living thing and needs to be treated with love. Neglect the poor thing and she will die.

Someday I may own one. Maybe. Or perhaps she would own me.

[rorik]

I love woodies. I love working with wood. I love the warmth of the material. I love the character.

A wooden boat, more than a glass/steel/aluminum boat is a living thing and needs to be treated with love. Neglect the poor thing and she will die.

Absolutely this.
Glass/aluminum/steel boats boats can be quite beautiful with personality, but wooden boats have a soul.

[Kettlewell]

It depends on the person. I have owned four different wooden cruising sailboats and I loved them all. One of the bunch was a real classic and looked the part, and as others have pointed out she required endless amounts of labor to keep even just reasonable. Modern types of wooden construction can be a lot less labor intensive, but still require more work than fiberglass, no matter what anyone says on the Internet. I have owned both and I know. But, some people love owning and working on a wooden boat as much as they do sailing it, and for those people the material makes sense. If you read WoodenBoat magazine obsessively, enjoy nothing more than spending your evenings doing woodworking projects in the basement, look forward to putting on weeks' worth of varnish every year, and get as much joy out of the look and feel of your boat as you do going places, wood might be for you. It is not for dreamers without a concept of what they are getting into. The skills are generally easy and learnable, and there is a huge and dedicated community out there to help you. My bottom line is that I would rather be sailing than sanding.

[CharlieJ]

"My bottom line is that I would rather be sailing than sanding."

Got THAT right. I love a small amount of bright work on the exterior, emphasis on the SMALL.

Tehani has some companionway drop boards, trim around those, and some varnished hand rails. That's about it.

Another side of the wooden boat picture is WHERE you are. A classic wooden boat, owned by someone sailing in Maine, is a FAR different story than trying to keep that same boat up in Florida, or here on the Texas coast. Our sun is brutal on brightwork, and the warm waters are rough on wooden hulls too.

There's a photo in my gallery of the way Tehani looked like after being abandoned for 15 years in a boat yard in upper NY state. A wooden boat, left like that, would have to have been burned, or totally rebuilt with new wood replacing the old- effectively building a new boat

Modern Composite hulls- Wood/epoxy, are some what of a different situation. The cold molded cedar/glass trimaran I built and launched in 1980 is still in great shape- but the outside still takes more maintenance than a glass boat. And if you let scrapes and gouges go unattended,, she'd go down fast too.

I love the look and feel of a good wooden boat- just don't wanna be a slave to one- I'll keep my old glass cruiser :D

[w00dy]

I've lived the romance. Yes, they can be beautiful, but so can a boat with a plastic or metal hull. The traditionally planked wooden ones are much more likely to sink and become less beautiful, unfortunately. Should you be aboard when this happens, you (and your passengers) may quickly begin to reevaluate romance in favor of reality.

Back when I owned a wooden boat, I found out about a man who was selling boat parts through our owners association. I went to pay him a visit and was in awe of his beautiful property on the water, complete with boat dock and a nice house with an attached woodworking shop. Out back was his sailboat up on stands under a large, self constructed cover. He had obviously put a lot of work into the whole affair and had even rebuilt a bit of the interior. Unfortunately, the strip planking had suffered as the strips had dried out and the resourcinol glue had completely cracked apart, leaving inch wide gaps in between the planks and effectively killing the boat. I will never forget how unhappy he seemed at the prospect of parting out his dream project to me.

I have a friend in Maryland that has a sort of disease or perhaps a soft spot for dying boats. He buys them up and has traded several perfectly good fiberglass boats in running condition for old rotten deadrise fishing boats with all the planking half gone or rotten. One in his backyard is only a keel,stem, transom and some topside planking. One summer, I spent two weeks helping him reinforce the knees at the chines of an old Dickerson ketch that had already sunk on him once. Her bottom kept wanting to drop out of her and sure enough, that winter she sat on the bottom again. She's on the hard now and all that's left to do is gas up the chainsaw.

There are plenty of wooden boats being sailed and cruised the world over. Keeping them up isn't impossible, but is difficult and time consuming. The resources required are exponentially related to the size of the boat. If the boat is older, it likely already has a myriad of issues that you may or may not be aware of. Don't count on the surveyor or the seller to inform you of them.

This article by an experienced marine surveyor may give you some idea of the issues involved in wooden boat maintenance. https://secure.yachtsurvey.com/Wood.htm

I was pretty much told all of this before I bought my first wooden boat. I still had to learn the hard way. Sometimes it's the best way. Good luck.

[w00dy]

I think I need to add/rephrase: Keeping up with a wooden boat doesn't have to be insanely difficult, depending on what your standards are. If you are keeping her at dockside and won't be pushing her too hard, then you can relax quite a bit. If you're planning on cruising or circumnavigating, as you mentioned, then the standards of care go way way up. That goes double if you are bringing others aboard, amirite?

Of course, the KISS principle applies perfectly. Smaller and simpler is definitely more manageable.

[Kettlewell]

I do have to add that sailing on a great wooden boat is one of the most wonderful things in the world. Our 37 footer was a double-ended K. Aage Nielsen design--a near sister ship to a classic that won the Bermuda Race called Holger Danske. She was super comfortable offshore due to her vast weight and since she also carried a ton of sail she really moved out. She would comfortable lope along at six or seven knots almost irregardless of the conditions or point of sail, and when you went down below it was so quiet. That's actually one of the things I miss the most. Going down below was really "down below" as you were sitting just below the waterline. The motion was so easy you could cook, sleep, etc. underway much more easily then on most modern bouncy, corky boats. I'll never forget leaving Penobscot Bay once into the teeth of the typical Smoky Sou'Wester at 20 knots plus right on the nose for our course to the Cape Cod Canal. We had to tack all day and all night and the next day with four to six footers offshore, but we never missed a hot meal, slept like babies, and really didn't think it was a tough trip. On a lot of boats that would have been an uncomfortable slog to windward. If I was rich I would have my dream boat built in wood, base her in Maine, and have the finest craftsmen in the world maintain her. Not being rich, I make do with old fiberglass boats that don't require as much loving care.

[Mario G]

I'm happy playing with other peoples woodies.  Was just up the mast on one not long ago, I can really appreciate the craftsmanship that goes in to building them. I like to see them while out sailing. I would want a stash of extra money to own one, my hats off to the owners.

The old Chey Lee was fun to work on but would not fit my needs.

[Kettlewell]

Data point. A quart of Captain's Varnish from Defender goes for about $32.

[rorik]

I love woodies. I love working with wood. I love the warmth of the material. I love the character.

A wooden boat, more than a glass/steel/aluminum boat is a living thing and needs to be treated with love. Neglect the poor thing and she will die.

Absolutely this.
Glass/aluminum/steel boats boats can be quite beautiful with personality, but wooden boats have a soul.

Disclosure:
I've owned 4 boats in the last 20 years - 2 glass, 2 wooden.
Lived on all 4.
Partially refit 1 of glass and 1 wood and completely rebuilt 1 glass and 1 wood.

I love my Cape Dory 28.
She fits my needs very well, has nice lines and some personality.
But my 1959 Cheoy Lee `Frisco Flyer Type 1 and 1938 Gauntlet had souls.

[w00dy]

If wooden boats have souls, it must be because they feed off the souls of their owners, right?  ;D

[Frank]

rorik....was your frisco flyer the doghouse or straight cabin?  They were a folkboat knock off by memory....great sailing boat!!!!   Pretty too

[DarrenC]

I'm ashamed to admit the truth - how vain and self serving is it that the number one reason this craft has dominated the recesses of my imagination for over a week now is that I cant shake the idea of having a boat i cant stop looking at?

I should really have learned my lesson, since once upon a time i wanted the girl i couldn't stop looking at, and that has caused no end of complications in my life  ::)

[CharlieJ]

I'm ashamed to admit the truth - how vain and self serving is it that the number one reason this craft has dominated the recesses of my imagination for over a week now is that I cant shake the idea of having a boat i cant stop looking at?

I should really have learned my lesson, since once upon a time i wanted the girl i couldn't stop looking at, and that has caused no end of complications in my life  ::)

One of the signs that you have the right boat is that walking away from it down the dock, or rowing away you have to stop for one last look ;)

[Kettlewell]

One of the signs that you have the right boat is that walking away from it down the dock, or rowing away you have to stop for one last look.

I thought that was a sign you can't remember for sure if you closed the hatch over the V-berth!

[Frank]

Tooooo funny   ;D



As I peck this out from shore looking out at our boat with dark clouds moving in.......

[rorik]

rorik....was your frisco flyer the doghouse or straight cabin?  They were a folkboat knock off by memory....great sailing boat!!!!   Pretty too

The Type I was the straight cabin.
And yes, it's a carvel planked version of the Folkboat.
Folkboat sails fit perfectly.

And yes, w00dy, wooden boats are parasites. They'll eat your wallet. And I still wish my Cape Dory was planked like my `Frisco Flyer was..... full length teak planks, copper riveted to Ipol frames, with a Yacal backbone.