Friendship Sloop

[Arbuckle]

Hello and blessings to all.
My wooden boat journey has begun, this summer a friend and I purchased a 26 foot, strip planked, sloop. We are going in blind, learning along the way. We have lots if carpentry/woodworking experience between the two of us but we don't quite know how that translates to boats yet. I am really hoping to pick some brains here and hopefully avoid too much undue work.
so my first questions for the group are.

1: the Friendship has been on the hard for at least 6-7 years, dry as a bone. there are 1/8th, 2/8th inch gaps between most all the ribs and the planks, will these gaps close and the planks sit flush to the ribs again once it's wet again and swells? or are we talking about re fastening (seating?) the planks to the ribs so they are snug before going back into the water?

2: We have what seems like considerable damage ( previously repaired with some epoxy type stuff) to the plank ends at the transom. We would like to fix this boat properly, and so are considering a) replace via scarfing all the planks that are running aft to the transom with planks with solid end grain and rebuild transom. or b) Cut off all the damaged end planks and rebuild transom, making the boat 2-3 inches shorter.

3: There are nails running vertical binding the planks together that are exposed, ( proud of the planks) how can we fix these?

Well that's probably enough to get us started eh!
thank you all in advance for your help and I am looking forward to the many conversations and headaches to come
God Bless.

[wizbang 13]

I could use some better pictures god damit!

[timo4352]

Not much of a friendly welcome there....
Maybe I can do better.

Welcome to the forum and wooden boats.
I will not offer you specific advice about how to go about repairs to your new toy....as I am not an expert there...
But just want to stress that you keep in mind that any repairs should be done with a mind to your life and family/friend's lives may depend on those repairs... Think about that as you proceed.
You are in a good place to learn and get help.

[WI-Tom]

I could use some better pictures god damit!

If you can provide them, wizbang knows an awful lot about strip-planked boats! He will probably have plenty of useful ideas for you.

Tom

[wizbang 13]

We know almost nothing about the boat.
planking and frame material. looks like a clapped out oak keel for starters and second growth yellow pine planking,but ummmmm bad photos
planking and frame style and type and size
The boat may have been built dry, with nothing between the planks, and relies only on swelling from seawater.
The age of the boat could help here , epoxy became popular in the 70’s, very popular in the 80’s.
Not much rust to be seen, hopefully she is not full of ferocious metal (rust)
Is she still green or has she been sanded bare?
Whatever else is going on, the frames should not be separating from the hull .
The vertical nails popping through would indicate an amateur build.
Bruce

[jonesmatt1957]

Very cool! Looking forward to watching this build.

[David Satter]

I agree, not a good welcome. It's going to keep people away from a great forum.

[debenriver]

However it's really very difficult to see what's going on without better - bigger - photos

Cheers -- George

[wizbang 13]

I agree, not a good welcome. It's going to keep people away from a great forum.

When people drop their religious dogwhistle words , I tend to talk back

[J.Madison]

Doesn't look like a friendship sloop to me.

The frames will not seat against the planking when the boat swells. That should be fixed before launch. Very strange that they all pulled away. Did the wood give up, or the fasteners? There is a lot to wonder about. Is it the tip of nails that broke through the planking, or the head? Did someone take a power plane to the hull and remove a bunch of wood?

[wizbang 13]

Yea now that you mention it Johnathan, the green boat don’t look like a Friendship . More like a Vertue from that angle .
The vertical nails should pass through two and a half planks, and with a tall
thin plank, that can be tricky, especially drilling and banging 30/50
nails per plank

[Toxophilite]

Maybe Arbuckle could use one of the relatively easy picture hosting sites (imgur?) to post lots of nice big clear pictures of the whole boat and all the problem areas so boat ninjas like Whizbang can properly wield their razor sharp intellects and offer some irreverent, but to the point advice.

[wizbang 13]

… even irrelevant.

[Bruce Brown]

It appears that a really needy forumite has gone elsewhere. Whose needs are served by that?

[johngsandusky]

Welcome aboard!
I own a strip planked ketch, but it's never been out of water long enough to dry out.
Probably any problems with yours can be fixed, but you'll have to decide how much effort and material you want to put into it.
Good luck, keep us posted.

[Larks]

Kinda difficult to understand what we’re looking at in those small photos but if the boat has been out of the water for six years and is otherwise solid it might be a candidate for glassing over...???

I can’t see how swelling when wet would close up the gaps between the frames and the hull. I’d have thought that any tangential shrinkage in the planks would have opened up gaps along the glue lines or split some planks, rather than pulling the hull away from the frames - unless perhaps the frame timbers were very damp when the hull was laid up and they’ve shrunk away from the hull...????

[Arbuckle]

Thanks everybody for the replies, a couple good points already that have helped with my research.

I am told it is Pine planks
laminated oak ribs
it is 27 ft long
there appears to be what I can only assume is epoxy between all the planks and there are no gaps anywhere between the planks except for where the last plank and the keel meet.
She's called the "Friendship" so that's been confusing for me as I just assumed she was "a" friendship also. looking at pictures it does look to be a Vertue, it has a flat transom.

Now the going concern is that it appears that the planks have pulled off the transom, (as I have read is common of strip planking) the framing behind the transom planks if quite rotten, and it's been back filled with all sorts of different stuff.

There are also 6-7 broken planks and 1 broken rib where one of the jacks is resting. the rib on the opposite side also has a crack in the same place in the top layer of the laminated rib.

I really need some help understanding why the hull would be separated from the ribs unevenly throughout the whole boat, big gaps here, little gaps there but there are only a few places that they are married up nicely.

I'll appreciate any advice and patience as I am really new to this and I am just learning how to ask the right questions. Any suggestion to point me in the right direction to having a better understanding of what I am trying to ask you all about will go a long way.

Thanks again.
Blessings!

[heimlaga]

I wonder if the builder was a bit careless with the seating of the ribs or if the fastenings are too far apart. They look like they are fastened only with small woodscrews and such have a tendency to work loose. Copper rivets are much better. There is never ever a perfect fit between hull and ribs but it could be better.

From the pictures it looks like the plank ends are bad only close to the keel and good further up the sides.

A friendship sloop is a completely different type of boat. This was apparently just someone who decided to call his boat Friendship.

Disclaimer: I am not a boatbuilder. Only a carpenter doing some boat repairs now and then.

[wizbang 13]

There IS a way to make the frames fit perfectly to the hull, epoxy them on !
Thanks for returning Arbuckle, I thought you were an AI bot .
If the only gap in the planking is at the “garboard”, then your problems may be less than first stated . Many amateurs tended to set up for carvel planking, then switch over to strip. A crappy connection to the keel is sometimes the result. Strip planked boats are not well served with a rabbet.
The frames appear to be just two lams , not really what I call laminated , again, an amateur way to make em … see Acorn to Arabella.
I’m concerned about the funky ass black oak keel . Check that out carefully . Douse a part of it with Ospho .. see if it looks any better in a few days .
More photos please,floor Timbers, lamp construction , technical photos… and especially the way the transom is built.., that vertical planking looks goofy as ………
Izzat an outboard well ?
Bruce