shipworms

[MyLadyII]

We just found drill size holes in the hull of our boat. We were told these are toledo worms and need to haul. Can anyone recommend a reputable boat yard in Fort Lauderdale/Miami, FL that is an expert in hauling wooden boats, 53' Matthews.

And is anyone familiar with these teredo worms, anyway to temporary stop them till we can haul and treat the problem while boat still in water?

[nedL]

The only way I know of to get rid of them while in the water is to move to fresh water for a while (couple of days at least I think). With this in mind, I suppose you could pull a BIG plastic 'blue tarp' under her so all the edges of the tarp are above the surface of the water, drop a pump inside the tarp to pump out the salt water & put a garden hose inside the tarp to put fresh water inside the tarp (could even throw a couple of gallons of regular laundry beach in). This would have the boat floating completely in fresh water & would kill them. - A good bit of effort, but it would work.

[Thorne]

Well worth a search of the Forum for "teredo worm" as the topic comes up frequently and we've gotten some good info.

http://www.woodenboat.com/forum/arch...hp/t-1094.html

I find the internal Wooden Boat Forum search engine to be pretty limited, as it doesn't seem to allow Boolean searches.

I find that the Google Advanced Search ( http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en ) works much better. Just copy and paste the Forum's URL ( http://www.woodenboat.com/forum/ ) into the last field named "Search within a site or domain:", and then put in search strings like "tow dinghy bridle" or whatever.

[Figmental]

I have hauled out at Crackerboy Boatworks in Riviera Beach. They have double straps for the Travellift and an excellent experienced crew running it. They too are one of very few do it yourself yards on that coast. Not cheap but who in that business is?
How big is your boat? Where did you haul last?
David

[nedL]

They said 53' Mathews, that's why I said BIG blue tarp.

[MyLadyII]

I'm ashamed to say we haven't hauled her since we bought her 8 years ago, but the previous owner hauled her out up north some where we were told by the seller. My husb said he is afraid to haul due to the slings and in addition most marinas down here don't want to mess with a wooden boat.

I like the tarp idea though.

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

I don't like being the bearer of bad tidings, but if hou have not hauled the boat for eight years, in tropical waters, and you have found teredo worm holes, you should be preparing yourselves for the fact that you probably no longer have a boat.

Teredo navalis tends to enter the wood through any small bare patch, as a larva, a fraction of an inch long, and will tunnel lengthways along the strake of planking. The entire fabric of the boat can be absolutely riddled in three years, let alone eight.

There is no such thing as one worm hole; if you find one you should assume there are many hundreds.

How badly is she leaking?

[nedL]

Yes, unfortunately be prepered for what Andrew said. Eight years is a long time down there.

[zertgold]

Here is a do-it-yourself yard that will lift anything 60 feet and smaller.
http://www.saltcreekboatworks.com/

This yard of course is a little out of the way being in Tampa, but the yard master there knows wooden boats. He did my bottom job, and found a few worm wholes. He patched them with some West System products, and said there was no problem. (I only had a couple.) His recommendation for a wooden boat in Florida was a haul out every year, and new bottom paint.