Would this do any good?

[WayneW]

I seen this mention before, but I'm not sure it was
in jest, The sailboat I bought has been out of the
water for a good 5 years and I was thing about
pumping salt water on the inside of the haul, just
to get the wood wet.Of course it would be drain out
as soon as I pump the water in.Is this a good idea?
Wayne

[Bruce Hooke]

Getting the planks wet is a good thing. What you have to be very careful about is that you don't let water accumulate inside the boat because water on the inside pushing out can easily blow out a plank. So, you need to keep an eye on things to make sure the planks don't swell up and close up the gaps through which the water is draining...

[Thad Van Gilder]

If the boat doesn't have an electric system or inboard, your best best is to put her in the water and let her sink and take up for a while.

-Thad

[Ian McColgin]

I was stunned one day to see at a very fine local yard an old cat boat being filled right up with water. They were unafraid of springing the planks.

Myself, I prefer to splash about with some towels laid against the hull on the inside and maybe let a sprinkler run under the boat for a bit.

The larger boat is traditionally eased down the railway and left in the cradle just a bit higher than natural float through a couple of tides.

Even at that, a wooden boat of any heft needs a week to take up before you plant the sticks and tighten the rigging. You don't want to stress the skin when all that stress will land on the fastenings. Once tight, the skin exerts a nice pressure right around the boat and the planks can share rigging and movement strains with their neighbors.

This is why simply gap filling with soft goos is not the way to do a seam.

G'luck

[ssor]

I was just talking to a friend about this very thing. He said that in the yards where he has worked they would launch the wood boat as the last one on Friday and let it hang in the slings over the weekend.

[WayneW]

Should I do some repairs to the haul before
doing the water thing? There are some seams that
I'm not sure will tighten-up if the inside is wetted
down.My thoughts are to wet the inside to see what seams will tighen-up.
Wayne

[wyndham]

Boats are designed to resist the external forces exerted by water on the outside of the hull, not to contain water on the inside of the hull. If you want to fill the boat with water sink it as mentioned above. It is easy enough to launch the boat close to shore and begin filling the hull with a hose at the same time, but you want the water line inside the hull to be equal to or below the waterline on the outside of the hull.