I Fixed Some Broken Planks

[David McCollum]

This is my 1950 Matthews, 32' Playboat.
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1602/7805708/14722713/221536280.jpg

She fell over in the yard, and on the port side forward, four planks were either broken or cracked.
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1602/7805708/14722713/221536285.jpg

Because three of these breaks were close to the plank end, I hated to discard 12 feet of good plank to repair one foot of bad plank, so I cut scarf joints on those and epoxy glued new plank ends in place on the boat. The picture below shows the finished result. The long plank was cracked in its middle, so there was no advantage in scarfing pieces onto it, so it was replaced full length.
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1602/7805708/14722713/221536282.jpg

I believe I saved a considerable amount of time doing it this way vs. full plank replacement. I am hoping it is just as strong as ever.

[pcford]

I would feel better if the planks were longer and the butt staggers farther apart.

Shorty planks may get marked down in a survey.

[David McCollum]

On the top plank, the butt is to the right, and the scarf is on the left. On the next one down, the butt is to the left, and the scarf is on the right. Those butts are separated by two frames. I know they look like short planks, but really I added no new butt joints to the structure. The butt joints are in their original spots from when it was new.

[Peter Green]

I own a '59 Matthews Martinique Express and have replaced quite a few planks over time. I agree that generally you want to stagger your joints a few frames apart. Looks like a nice repair though.

I didn't see your follow-up post before I wrote this. It should be fine

[Dan McCosh]

Assuming the ribs behind are sound, the repair should do fine. The scarfs are much stronger than butt blocks.

[Ken Hutchins]

Fine work.;) :)

[Chan]

epoxy, great stuff isn't it.

[P.L.Lenihan]

A fine intelligent repair David which makes the most of the technologies/resources available without spoiling the nature of your classic boat. Brilliant!

Peter

[pcford]

Well, my objection stands. I assume that left of the picture showing the repair is forward. If that is correct, it appears from your picture that the feather edge of the new plank is forward. Featheredges of scarfs should always point toward the rear end of boat. That's basic.

Doing a scarf with the feather edge aft is a hassle, often impossible since it has to be done on the inner side of plank. I did this once on a lapstrake plank replacement. Seem to be better than a block since there would be a point (next to the lap) where the block could not overlap the joint. But it is a hassle.

In any case, I think I would put a butt block behind the scarf....don't understand what the advantage is of scarfing in place. Given the difficult of getting a good scarf joint on the forward old plank, there may be significant disadvantages.

Just does not look good. Sorry. My .02. Others may have other opinions.

[Benjicohn]

Paying attention to which way the scarf is facing always seemed like an out-dated concept to me.

With something like epoxy holding a scarf together, is this notion as important as it used to be?

[pcford]

Paying attention to which way the scarf is facing always seemed like an out-dated concept to me.

With something like epoxy holding a scarf together, is this notion as important as it used to be?
I suppose...if you are 100% sure the the joint will never fail. If it does, it's disaster. Does not seem like a good bet to me.

If a scarf like this is done up on the bench...fine. You can control things and work until it is just right. But doing it in place seems a bit dicey.

[brad9798]

Is this the boat in Portage des Sioux?

[David McCollum]

Yes, this boat is in Portage des Sioux, Missouri. It has been out of the water since 1990, when I embarked on what I thought would be a small repair. Well, one thing led to another. Now she has 13 new frames on the port side, and I have five more yet to do on the starboard side. I replaced three planks that had been repaired improperly before, replacing them with full length planks where short sections had been put in by a previous owner. This particular repair was not perhaps the ideal solution, but I appreciate all the feed back from everyone.

[Bill Mercer]

As long at the scarfs are faily long (8 to 1, or better 12 to 1), I'd think the short length would be OK. The old plank's plenty dry if it's been out of the water since 1990, and as long as you have a good glue line you might well be making a joint as strong as the new wood. After all, it's hard to buy wood that doesn't have some grain slope from twist as the tree grew. The new wood might have grain with more than 12 to 1 runout--I bought what was supposed to be spar stock from a well-known supplier of boat lumber, and some of the pieces had so much grain runout I was afraid to use them for anything structural (again, grain slope, hard to see on rough-cut wood on a stack).