What now?

by Tim Rowe
(Glendalough, County Wicklow, Ireland)

1950 timber boat.
Removed cover board and small parts of deck and epoxy cover.
What now?

I have a 1950 built Robert Clarke cutter called Right Royal, previously shown on this web site.

I received great information last time from the owner of a sister ship so I am hoping for advice this time.

The deck and hull are western red cedar and Honduras mahogany respectively.
They were sheathed in epoxy.

A split developed at the junction of the cover board and the top hull plank.
This has resulted in the mahogany cover board deteriorating due to rain water ingress.

The damage has spread to a small amount of the deck.

I have stripped back the epoxy and bad timbers; and low and behold the frames deck supports, in fact all the structural members are perfect, beautiful dove tail joints.

Because of previous minor patching and a variation in the appearance of the cedar deck from port to starboard It is impractical to restore the deck to a timber appearance.

There has been some plywood patching that has held up well.

So I am intending re patching in a good quality marine ply and re covering in epoxy.

Western red cedar has an integral oily feel to it.

What is the best advice as to achieving a good bond?

Tim Rowe











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Comments for What now?

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May 09, 2014
 Maybe try these guys
by: Harry

Maybe try these guys, http://iqraisa.com/en/

I believe they are near you.

Maybe wholesalers only? but they may be able to direct you to a retailer.

Good luck Tim.
May 09, 2014
 The boat is in Valencia
by: Tim

Harry,

Thanks for the info. I think I am blessed because of the good quality of the underlying frames.

No rot and nice and dry so I want to keep it that way.

I am now trying to source epoxy, glass and Appropriate fillers in Spain.

Any ideas anyone.

The boat is in Valencia?

Regards,

Tim
May 09, 2014
 Western red Cedar
by: Harry

Hello Tim
I think Mike pretty much covered it all with his post.

Western red Cedar actually glues well with epoxy.I have built a strip planked canoe using WRC , and used epoxy glue as the adhesive.It stuck tenaciously.

I would prime the underlying wooden structure with epoxy resin to prevent a glue starved ( too dry ) joint ,then glue on your plywood deck using barbed silicone bronze boat nails.Seal deck well with epoxy.

Good luck Tim.
May 09, 2014
 oily woods
by: Mike

There are Epoxy Glues that are suitable for oily woods such as Oak and Teak that supposedly can cope with the resins and oils without compromising the joint strength.

You can degrease oily timbers with a volatile solvent such as pure acetone.

And a thorough sanding across the grain will open up the timber face to improve the bond strength.

If you lay the plywood in two layers the first layer can be glued and screwed or nailed to the beams, thus eliminating the problem of adequate clamping.

The second layer can be offset to cover the joints in the first (and the fastenings) and held down with lots of sandbags until the glue has cured.

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