Pics of water damage to SWIFTWOOD

[brian.cunningham]

Can be found here (http://temp.corvetteforum.net/c4/bcunningham//rewrap/index.htm).

Doesn't look to bad.
I think once it dries out and I sand off the blush it will be OK. I redid the tarp, this time more ventilated. Hopefully if any moisture gets in this time it will work it's way out.

[Wiley Baggins]

Do you think that it would be prudent to fabricate a little bow-roof so that the plastic does not lay on the kayak? It should not be too difficult to put something together with PVC piping.

[Bruce Hooke]

You might want to consider using a colored tarp that will block out the light because a clear tarp can create a greenhouse like atmosphere under it that is very condusive to the growth of mold and mildew.

[abe]

Brian, I agree with Wiley and Bruce, and let me add my .02 cents.

Whatever you use to cover the boat, moisture from cool mother earth underneath will be a problem as well. It appears that you have it stored on pallets off the ground, but condensation will create mildew no matter how tight it is wrapped. Actually, the tighter it is wrapped, the situation will only worsen. And the clothes dryer vent on the wall is not helping.

If you do not plan on working on Swiftwood for a while, load it on top of the vette smile.gif , (borrow a pick-up) drive north twenty miles and store it in my loft before SWMBO takes over. A week away at WoodenBoat and I have dried flowers hanging from the rafters !

With my other building project planned through the end of the year, I won't be doing much in the shop. You could even store the boat on the first floor.

abe

[Rich VanValkenburg]

I've got an idea. Why don't you just finish the boat. :D

Rich

[Chris Coose]

I hate to say this but the only thing that I would wrap in clear plastic and keep outdoors would be something that I would want to increase decay rate on.

[brian.cunningham]

Originally posted by Rich VanValkenburg:
I've got an idea. Why don't you just finish the boat. :D

Richoh, like your one to talk tongue.gif

I appreciate the storage offers, but then I can't work on one as the other's epoxy cures. I need to store the other hulls as I work on the another, hence the problem. They need to be close hand.

I'll make a little side trip to get some PVC and a better tarp. Unfortunately this may be a while, the budget's a little restrainced at the moment.

Do you think covering the fence with plastic will help evade the ground moisture? Which it has in spades. That's where the septic system comes out. euwwww...

I could keep it all under the porch, but someone suggested that the critters would eat it.

Still might be better.

[ 09-03-2002, 08:15 PM: Message edited by: brian.cunningham ]

[Wild Wassa]

Brian, I'm sorry to see that you have extra work to do. Good luck with the redo.

I think that I will look under a few tarps.
This might be prudent, now.

Warren.

[wolfietuk]

Just to reinforce, KEEP THE PLASTIC OFF THE WOOD!!! If you lay a piece of plastic sheeting on the ground and come back an hour later there will be condensation on the back. If you let the plastic touch the wood it will "rain" inside the tarp on clear days.

Rick

[brian.cunningham]

Your all right
I looked out this morning and the tarp had drooped onto the kayak again. Need to make a some sort of tent where it's propped up.

Kinda worried if the ply will have enough thinkness to "get back to good wood" guess there's only one way to find out.

BTW the wood is coated.
I'm wondering if it had something on it that didn't allow the epoxy to "sink it's teeth in"

[Memphis Mike]

Originally posted by Chris Coose:
I hate to say this but the only thing that I would wrap in clear plastic and keep outdoors would be something that I would want to increase decay rate on.Thats exactly right. If it has to remain in
storage for awhile then build some type
of temp shelter over it to shield it from
the elements. Pretty soon all your gonna
have is a pile of firewood. :(

[Mac_Muz]

1. Is that a mast step?
2. Get this boat off the ground 3' would not be too much.
3 what ever you cover it with get air space, lots of air space..

And get it away from the drier.... Or give it to me!!!!!! Mac

[brian.cunningham]

Yep two mast steps actually, hence the time it's taking to build it.

It's a ketch rigged trimaran
my SWIFTWOOD page (http://www.corvetteforum.net/c4/bcunningham/swiftwood/index.htm)

The main hull ( the kayak ) is up on cinder blocks

I've fixed the immediate problem.

a old paint can, several bricks, and a length of PVC pipe later and there's a small tent.

Which I needed to do anyways, after all when I start sheathing the floats I can't have the tarp sticking to it!

All this makes me wonder how I'm going to store it when I finish building it. Perhaps on a trailer under the porch.

Which is I had the $$$ I get right now, so I could place it on, pull it out to work on it, and then slide it back into storage when I'm not working on it.

[Mac_Muz]

18" ground clearance is considered minimum here in New England to keep a small craft such as yours off the ground.

Moisture and dew creep up into a hull and create havoc!

One way to store the boat higher is saw horses. Another is to cantilever a rack on the back of the house, or shed. If you can get the boat higher and in shade even with no cover, you will do the boat a favor. You might think of it this way... The height off the ground is the water proofing, and a cover is for UV alone....

I have a circa WW-1 Old Town Otka canoe, and it has no cover but is on saw horses that are made from a steel kit.

The kit is about 5 bucks, and is no more than a clamp for 2x4. You need 4 pieces of 2x4 as tall as you want the horses to be, and 2 more lenghts of 2x4 as wide as you want the horses to be...

One or two nails per leg hold the legs from falling out when you move the horses...

I have a dorry made of cedar planking, and I can't easliy turn this over alone, so with strapping and a white sheet of plastic I build a tent over the boat.

You could do that easy with the saw horses..

I would lay 2 pices of strapping one on top of the other so you can screw them together. Then temporarily screw these to the saw horses as plates in building a house.

Double strapping rafters directly over the saw horses, so you have two "A" shapes in line. Then add a ridge between the two. Make this frame longer than the boat by 2 feet, and fill in every 24" with a pair of rafters.

Sand any sharp edges and add the plastic. You can use about any wood scrap to staple thru to hold the plastic down some and tie off the rest with a lines.. You might even include a drop cloth under the plastic.

None of the cover should touch the boat.

If you wanted to get really fancy, a 2x4 and ply wood dolly with wheels might be made to fit the hull shape, and work station.... No trailer is high enough...

Another good reason to have the boat higher is to keep vermin from getting the boat.

Once upon the mountain where I used to live, one night I heard a power hack saw sound. I went out to see what it might be, but the sound stopped.

It came agin for the next 2 nights before I discovered a porkypine chewing the $%^#! Out of my old canoe!

Well, Mister lemme tell you something! I was hotter than a pan right off the stove, and solved that problem in a heartbeat! But the damage was done, and that boat was 4' off the ground too!

I don't know where you live, but red squirrels will chew up a wood boat some wicked fast as well, and they are more sneaky about it...

You will have to seal your sails too. Mice love them, and will chew thru the folds, so when you open the sail bag, and see one hole, then like paper dolls spreading out there will be more inline!!

I have seen sails and tents ruined this way, and there is nothing to kill to make you "Feel" better.

I would love to see your boat finished and see it sailing...... I have a wicked blast sailing my old canoe... I was clocked at 17 knots once running from what came to be a hail storm. I passed a bigger boat undersail, and a woman caught up with me as I was tieing off the last bits of line to the roof rack on my car. She had taken a pic of me over taking them, and told me the speed..

The pic is on line if you wish to see it...

http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/mac_muz15/lst?.dir=/My+Photos+of++works&.src=ph&.order=&.view=t&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/

I like that pic.... The mast is bending, the canoe is 1/3rd out of water, and almost plaining. This is a sort of round bottom canoe and is doing faster than hull speed they say.... I don't know a thing about hull speed, but I was not digging a hole in the water for sure. I was scared though, as I have encountered a few hail storms in this canoe before and they are NO FUN at all.

All the sail rig and steering are home made. The sail cloth is 1926 vintage pillow ticking, the mast now is the 2nd one and wood. The rudder is the third one as the 2 others are at the bottom of Sebago Lake somewhere... The Lee boards are ply wood, and pinned up or down with pine tree twiggs, so if I hit any object the twiggs snap off, and the boards can move.

The boards are mounted on a oak dowell that cloth of some sort came on as a roll. The dowel is held by U bolts and wing nuts. The upper mast step is similar, made from mahgony dresser drawer fronts and held in place by 2 carriage bolts with wing nuts. It takes 20 minute3s to set up the sail rig.

One strange thing to me is that the boat will move forward and steer with no sail up and in no wind, with both lee boards in the water and a rudder..... I have no idea why... This happens and is slow, but it does it... I can do figure 8's all day long this way.... Wind of course helps, and makes for a dashing ride....

Sorry this is so long..... I tend to be a bit long winded...... Mac

[brian.cunningham]

Nice rig
That dory is something else!

Thanks for the adice.

I need to the the floats built ASAP
They can easily be put up on saw horses after that.

About getting through good wood, the black spots.

I got this advice:

Since the wood is so thin sanding to good wood doesnt seem like that great
and idea. If the plywood is not checking or bubbling or delaminating, best
not do anything. At the most sand through epoxy, use heat gun to dry it out
and coat well with epoxy. Get some paint on it soon since the winter is
coming and then forget the tarp . Or build a frame for it so it will quit
falling down.. I have found that a very steep pitch will shed rain and snow
without pooling in the tarp. Try a 2x4 A frame at each end and a 2x4 ridge .

[Mac_Muz]

I don't know about not trying anything..... I might try ordinary hydrogen peroxid on a rag.... This is the stuff you might put on a infected cut.. I bleach animal skulls with it, and they have stains and algae sometimes... Most of these are found walking in the woods, and not to pretty when I drag em home in the first place...

So this may work at killing molds on wood as it does on bone... I figured if I said this you would think I was just nuts at the begining...

While it is true I am likely nuts, I like it.. LOL

I am into the old ways big time, and so the skulls are just a small part of that.... Note I never said I tried this, so do so with reserve and all due caution..... I believe that these stains are on top and maybe in the finish and not directly on wood. Is that correct? I for one would not settle for the stains, and would find a way of getting them off....

That boat will be really nice looking when your done and the stains simply won't do!!!! Mac