how not to caulk a Kings cruiser 1959

[Kings cruiser]

thanks to all for their advice..my Kings cruiser is NOT supposed to be caulked with cotton..as it clearly was when hulled, but tight seamed carvel (which i was recently told used the crushed fibers of the planking in combination with boiling hot water squirted upon them to close them into an apparently solid unit...a very skilled and effective method -how could i get this on video?!!!?)
Anyhow, now that these seams are ready to close in on themselves (after 400 ft of laminating). my plan is more or less as follows: and please give me a centimeter here... after one year at this self-imposed wooden boat school.. my first boat...
i'm thinking that the best idear is to put some caulking into the larger seams and finalize the seam issue by 'floating in' soft strips of wood (with non other than our old buddy 5200) to compress and allow for the shell-compression strength that allows these boats to be so light and responsive.
the shipwright at my location says use 5200, no caulking.. but 5200 has little compression strength.. And i'm terrified that the planks would just tear themselves to shreads...then again there might be enough flexible strength in the 5200 and the new frames to prevent anything major. haha.. how would you do it?
presently, the seams are rabbitted with one side of the seam having an inner edge that i assume will act as a kind of gasket
here's a few shots. all seams have been painted with penetrating epoxy, notice in photo 2 that there is an edge to the inside of the seam... that's the spline after routing out with a thin blade skill saw and by hand with a sawzall blade.
http://www.bayrunning.com/seams2liveby.jpg

http://www.bayrunning.com/seams2livewith.jpg

[John R Smith]

Kings

how long has this boat been out of the water?

If this is supposed to be tight-seamed, it certainly doesn't look it now. How much do you expect it to close up?

John

[Kings cruiser]

John,
its been out a year.
i don't know how much it will swell exactly. above the turn of the bilge i expect more expansion. the wood below had some deisel saturation, and it was kept moist intermittently. A ball park would be around 1/8" on every seam above the turn (which would make them quite tight//but not "tight planked" and a little less than half that below. this is definately experimental. i really like the idea of 'floating in' the wood + caulking material with some 5200 to creat a tight and tough package.. and allow for the swelling. After the last 3 days rain it should show me more.
Richard

[Allen Foote]

No cotton? Then why would you use 5200? Do NOT put 5200 in those seams. If you want to spline it with cedar, then the edges of the planks will have even more resistance to swelling. Sounds like you want to replicate the initial "crushed edge & hot water" treatment....but can it be done now after the boat is 42 years old and out of the water for a year? Perhaps the boat should be preswelled before you do anything to any seams...so that you can see where she can nolonger expand enough. Some of these boats are built like fine pieces of furniture....but I'd rather go to sea in a dry steamer trunk than a leaky piano. Put plastic under the boat and tape clear plastic around the boat above the waterline. Use a soaker hose and lay it in the bilge on the keel, put a sprinkler inside spraying the hull....then after a few days you'll have an idea of what is needed and where.

[Dale Harvey]

You have neither fish nor fowl here. To spline the seams, cut ALL the way thru, and glue a SOFT cedar spline to only one edge of the plank. The mahogony will crush the cedar just fine, but as these boats are too lightly framed to begin with, you may be fairly certain you will crack any original frames left in the turn of the bilge. You MIGHT get away with two part polysulphide in your routed seams. It will give you better compressive strength than 5200, but every seam will bulge when she swells. Troweling it hollow will help, but sanding after swelling will likely still be neccessary for yacht finish. Two part is much easier to sand than 5200. Make sure you get a trowel grade as opposed to pourable. Fill caulk tubes with the mix, and use a pnematic caulk gun. It is tricky to gun this stuff into a seam and not get air bubbles. As this is in no possible way a one man operation, a SKILLED professional would be a cheap investment. One of the new two part soft epoxy seam compounds MIGHT also work, but I have not tried them. All this puts you right back to: will she pop the frames? That is why these boats are such good candidates for a veneered skin over. If done right, the frames are then pretty much irrelevent.

[Allen Foote]

Dale, I recently looked at a 55' Chris that was sheathed with West System and cloth....I still have my doubts, however, would sheathing with wood veneers be a better choice?...especially for a sail boat? What is the name of that little pilot boat thats done all the Artic sailing? Wasn't there an article in Wooden Boat about her being sheathed with veneers and epoxy? What other 2 parts have you worked with? I've only used BoatLife so far...am I missing something?

[Frank Wentzel]

Allen

I believe that was "Curlew" and it was reported that the sheathing worked just fine. You will need enough thickness in your veneer sheathing to handle the working of the hull, but you will have a really rigid hull when you are done.

/// Frank ///

[Allen Foote]

Thanks Frank.