refastening a lapstrake hull

[endeli]

I have a 23 ft lapstrake with a 8.5ft beam. It was originally launched in 1961 and the copper rivet fasteners are becoming pretty tired. I want to refasten the hull and I am looking for suggestions. Can I replace the rivets with silicon bronze wood screws or do I need to use silicon bronze bolts? Is epoxy an option? It is a pain to remove the old rivets and I am wondering if this is a necessary step :confused:

[Noah]

Use copper rivets. Unless there is a very good reason to change, I would keep what was used originally. Most lapstrake boats were fastened this way. Very few were screwed. Occasionally people will use a bronze bolt in place of rivets, but when refastening the whole boat this would get expensive, and not look as nice.

If the boat wasn't designed to be glued together don't do it. You will create more problems than you already have by trying to epoxy the whole thing together. Plus it will be lots more work, having to pull two planks at a time.

On another note, you don't mention if you have tried "hardening" the rivets. If the nails are still in good condition, you should be able to reset the roves, and tighten up the boat. Do a search on "hardening" or the like.

Noah

[Noah]

Plus, what type of boat is this, sail or power, ETC?

[Ruaridh]

Like Noah said.
But one other thing...are you SURE you need to replace all the the rivets?
The rivets (square copper nails) on my 1951 Folkboat are near perfect. Copper is pretty amazing stuff for corrosion resistance. Perhaps you've just been unlucky and pulled the few that are bad.
I'd say pull a few more, if they're OK, just harden up the hull as Noah suggested and replace the ones you need to with new ones. If you really need to replace them all then you'll just have to do it...it's surprisingly quick once you get into it, quicker than replacing them with bolts in fact.
And no, you can't replace them with bronze screws, they are entirely unsuitable for this kind of joint.
Regards,
Ruaridh.

[nedL]

Endeli, --- What they said, & also as Noah asked, what kind of boat. Any chance built on the Jersey shore? ( it appears you are in NY)- My 'passion' are jersey skiffs.

[endeli]

Endeli is a power boat. It has a Palmer IH 248? as a power plant. My uncle purchased the hull from a company in NJ. He used to call it a Jersey Sea Skiff. Not sure if this is the name of the company or just the design of the boat. He added the power plant and cabin etc. and droppend it in the water in 1961. Some have mentioned that I should consider "hardening" up the rivets. I have not tried that. What is the best way to go about doing that. The rivets appear to be in ok condition but have loosened after 40 years of expansion and contraction. Any further advice is appreciated.

[nedL]

Teh term "Jersey Sea Skiff" can in no way be linked to a specific builder, it is the generic term for any lapstake inboard powerboat with a New Jersey construction or design heritage. Each NJ builder had his own variation of style or construction detail so it may be possible to determine who built her. Also, by the early 1960's the number of builders in business was starting to diminish, some built only stock boats, some built only custom-to order, some did both. Do you have any pictures I could take a look at, or do you have any idea where in NJ she was built?
AS for your rivets, if she has always been taken pretty good care of & (I'm guessing ) kept up the Hudson(?) you should be able to get away with tightening (or harding up) the rivets. -Not difficult, but kind of time consuming.

[Allen Foote]

I had a 24 foot lapstrake Silverton that I had reframed and replaced the rivots with 1/4 silicon bronze machine screws. They worked fine, considering the rivot holes just needed to be touched up with a 1/4 bit.

[Jeff Kelety]

<But one other thing...are you SURE you need to replace all the the rivets?>

Right. Pull a few and check. I've got a 1950 Folkboat. Just pulled a couple of rivets this haulout and found they were in excellent condition. Do this first. Then try hardening up below the waterline. Many good posts already on the subject. Do a search on the forum and you'll find some good info.

jgk

[Frank Mehaffey]

I would not pull any of the old fastenings, but would consider using bronze screws and nuts to reinforce. We have an old Cruisers Inc. 18', and a 17' Thompson, and both use these fastenings throughout the hull. Now, I am going to say something nice about epoxy, so any purists out there might want to scroll to another topic,,,,, ok. We have a 1958 Lyman 16.5' runabout we had back in the water 5 years ago, after a long storage. After the 1st year, there were some constant leaks along some small seams, even after soaking in. To me, it looked like the sealant used had cracked and dried out. I delicately scraped the seam edge, where the 2 laps overlapped, throughout the boats hull. We then put a bead of thinned epoxy along the entire inside of the boats lap seams. Our baby does not leak, shows no sign of moisture or rot problems, and rides quieter and with less flex. Really! I would do this again, even if purists of Put-in-bay gasp at my impudance, given a boat with a good hull and tired fastenings and sealant.