Painting a small cedar boat

[Walcheren]

Hello. I need advice. I am building a Poulso Boat. This 16 foot carvel planked, round bottom boat was built from 1933 to 1965 in the Puget Sound area for sports fishermen.She was designed by Robert Young and built by him and his son. The Centre of Wooden Boats in Seattle described this boat in Volume 1 of a series titled "Traditional Small Craft of the North West".This boat is characterised by "its generous freeboard, springy sheer, flat oval transom all above water, more-than-average flare forward and tumblehome aft". She is powered by a one-cylinder air-cooled engine. The wood I am using is cedar planking, yew ribs, fir for keel and other places.I am as far as having the garboards and and the four broadstrakes in. The keel assembly and the first three planks on each side have been painted with red lead primer inside and out. The planks are fastened to steam bent yew ribs with 1" stainless steel screws.( bronze was too expensive). The screw holes are filled with red lead putty covered with more red lead paint. The bedding for the keel assembly as well as for the garboard is roofing putty as described in W.B. 74 page 17. Now I have to start thinking in more detail about the paints to be used.There are four main areas in an open boat. Outside under water, outside above the waterline i.e. the topsides, the bilge and the inside above the floors. Starting with the outside under water this is not a great problem I hope. I'll carry on with my red lead up to the waterline, use roofing tar or red lead putty for the seams. This in addition to the cotton of course. As long as the antifouling paint is black the tar won't be visible. Once I get above the waterline do I continue with the red lead as the primer using red lead putty for the seams? Or do I use another primer here and if so what. In the bilge it seems logical to use red lead but again do I continue with red lead right up to the shee r line or do I use another primer above the floors. What do I use over the red lead in the bilge. I have read almost all relevant articles in Wooden Boat from No.1 on but I am still confused and so seem a lot of people on the forum. The colours to be are black for the bottom, white topsides with a green shear and ?grey inside.

[Art Read]

Sounds like you're going about as "traditional" as it gets. I didn't want to go to the effort of using the original "home remedies", so I just went with some of the off-the-shelf "Interlux" above and below the waterline seam putty. As for the paint, it sounds like you're on the right track. The red lead should be fine as a primer anywhere you're going to eventually paint. Some might think it over-kill above the waterline, but that's what I used. (Mostly because I had it on hand) Not sure what problems you might run into with the roofing tar bleeding through, but I'd just go with whatever flavor of finish paint you prefer. Kirby's in New Bedford is my favorite. Might want to ask him what he recomends for the bilge. Hell, if you don't like the results, you'll be re-painting soon enough anyway! (Nice choice of boat, BTW...)

[ 03-20-2002, 05:14 PM: Message edited by: Art Read ]

[Stan Derelian]

I'm redoing an old fishboat. After the obligatory reading, confusion, and input from here, I've gone red lead putty on the caulked seams above the waterline, Interlux below. I soaked end grain with CPES then primed all surfaces with red lead primer, and paid special attention to faying surfaces, and the out of way places that might retain some dampness. I figure the lead has some antimicrobial action. I thinned it out for the bilges.
It certainly helped from observing that places that had had red lead originally were in pretty good shape after 70 yrs.