Bulwarks Rot

[Doug_Beu]

Unfortunately I have discovered more rot in my mahogany bulwarks. I found some rot there when I purchased the boat 7 years ago and had a local woodworker fair in a short piece. Now I think it’s time to replace it all. Looking back through the archives I noticed another boat with a similar problem and they were going to replace theirs. The construction manual I got a few years back indicated that 13/16" X 2-1/2" boards were used. This is also the dimension of the piece I cut out. Whereas I would like to remain original to the boat 3/4" Mahogany is much easier to find.

I would like comments from the group before I jump off and purchase the wood.

Thanks in advance,

Doug Beu

s/v Fritha

[Douglas]

Hi Doug, I have had to repair some rot in my Hondo hull-deck coverboards under the vertical 2 x 2 bulwark stansions. This repair can be viewed on the Anderson Boatworks web site, www.andersonboatworks.com , look under “photos”, “Calliste” .

After the Asian Tsunami, and flush with the insurance money, I had all the coverboards and bulwarks including the taffrail replaced with Teak. It was NO small project, but I am partially happy with the results.

Mike Anderson, when he was making the rot repairs, suggested switching to bronze bulwarks stansions, and he suggested that we fill the inboard rounded edge gap between the two horizontal boards and the bulwarks cap strip. This would make it easier to paint, he said, and I found he was right with both suggestions.

Those horizontal 2 1/2" bulwarks strips are not straight then bent into shape, they instead are cut in the needed curves from wider stock.

The 1/16 th inch less in thickness, (3/4" vs 13/16") probably won’t make much strength difference or even look much different, and yes we know that 3/4" stock is much more available as a industry standard size, But, the thicker stock gives a chance for greater screw cover bung thickness, which means less bung fall-out as the years pass.

Good Luck, expect it to take a lot of time, and hopefully your boat will be on the hardstand so that you can work at chest level .

Douglas

[Stan_R]

We also had some rot in our mahogany bulwarks and covering boards after 20 years. Sam had put the covering boards on originally but the bulwarks were installed by us.

Then in '98 we got some damage in Hurricane Georges while in Puerto Rico and took the boat south to Trinidad where we completely replaced all the exterior woodwork …covering boards, bulwark and walestrake… with teak, including the stantions.

In doing that I opted to reduce the height of bulwarks to 7 inches using two 2 1/2" strakes with a 1 1/8’ cap rail and leaving a 7/8" opening at the bottom. The slightly larger opening at the bottom makes painting easier I felt.

I also bevelled the wider strakes where the edges meet both inside and out. I think this looks much nicer but more importently it disguises any missalignment between them which can occur.

I certainly wouldn’t be concerned about 1/16" difference in thickness of the strakes.

[bob_lois]

Stan
We would like to do our walestrake in Mahogany to match the bulwarks. I have not been able to see a BCC to get an idea on how they are fastened. Any help on this would be appreciated. I have some ideas but would like some opinions before I break out the drill.

Bob

Jolie Brise

[Doug_Beu]

Stan,
Thanks for the reply. I only wish I could replace mine with teak. The only thing more expensive than teak is gold as far as I’m concerned. I tend to agree about the 1/16" less thickness but it’s nice to have a second opinion, thanks.

Doug
----- Original Message -----
From: BCC Forums
To: bccforum@samlmorse.com
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2007 6:21 AM
Subject: [BCC Forum Post] Stan R: Re: Bulwarks Rot

Author: Stan R
Username: Stan R
Subject: Re: Bulwarks Rot
Forum: BCC Forum
Link: http://www.samlmorse.com/forum/read.php?5,5700,5703#msg-5703

We also had some rot in our mahogany bulwarks and covering boards after 20 years. Sam had put the covering boards on originally but the bulwarks were installed by us.

Then in '98 we got some damage in Hurricane Georges while in Puerto Rico and took the boat south to Trinidad where we completely replaced all the exterior woodwork …covering boards, bulwark and walestrake… with teak, including the stantions.

In doing that I opted to reduce the height of bulwarks to 7 inches using two 2 1/2" strakes with a 1 1/8’ cap rail and leaving a 7/8" opening at the bottom. The slightly larger opening at the bottom makes painting easier I felt.

I also bevelled the wider strakes where the edges meet both inside and out. I think this looks much nicer but more importently it disguises any missalignment between them which can occur.

I certainly wouldn’t be concerned about 1/16" difference in thickness of the strakes.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a301/p1martin/newWWshot-1.jpg

[Doug_Beu]

Bob,
I know you asked Stan but I thought I’d chip in here. My walestrakes are through bolted.

Doug
----- Original Message -----
From: BCC Forums
To: bccforum@samlmorse.com
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2007 8:47 AM
Subject: [BCC Forum Post] bob&lois: Re: Bulwarks Rot

Author: bob&lois
Username: bob&lois
Subject: Re: Bulwarks Rot
Forum: BCC Forum
Link: http://www.samlmorse.com/forum/read.php?5,5700,5705#msg-5705

Stan
We would like to do our walestrake in Mahogany to match the bulwarks. I have not been able to see a BCC to get an idea on how they are fastened. Any help on this would be appreciated. I have some ideas but would like some opinions before I break out the drill.

Bob

Jolie Brise

[Doug_Beu]

Douglas,
Thanks for the reply. It helped a lot. I really hadn’t thought about the bulwark strips not being from straight boards and bent into shape. Back to the drawing board.

Doug
----- Original Message -----
From: BCC Forums
To: bccforum@samlmorse.com
Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2007 7:26 PM
Subject: [BCC Forum Post] Douglas: Re: Bulwarks Rot

Author: Douglas
Username: Douglas
Subject: Re: Bulwarks Rot
Forum: BCC Forum
Link: http://www.samlmorse.com/forum/read.php?5,5700,5701#msg-5701

Hi Doug, I have had to repair some rot in my Hondo hull-deck coverboards under the vertical 2 x 2 bulwark stansions. This repair can be viewed on the Anderson Boatworks web site, www.andersonboatworks.com , look under “photos”, “Calliste” .

After the Asian Tsunami, and flush with the insurance money, I had all the coverboards and bulwarks including the taffrail replaced with Teak. It was NO small project, but I am partially happy with the results.

Mike Anderson, when he was making the rot repairs, suggested switching to bronze bulwarks stansions, and he suggested that we fill the inboard rounded edge gap between the two horizontal boards and the bulwarks cap strip. This would make it easier to paint, he said, and I found he was right with both suggestions.

Those horizontal 2 1/2" bulwarks strips are not straight then bent into shape, they instead are cut in the needed curves from wider stock.

The 1/16 th inch less in thickness, (3/4" vs 13/16") probably won’t make much strength difference or even look much different, and yes we know that 3/4" stock is much more available as a industry standard size, But, the thicker stock gives a chance for greater screw cover bung thickness, which means less bung fall-out as the years pass.

Good Luck, expect it to take a lot of time, and hopefully your boat will be on the hardstand so that you can work at chest level .

Douglas

[Stan_R]

Doug Beu and bob & lois,

Well, replacing the bulwarks, covering boards and wale strake in Trinidad took about five months with just my wife and I.

The only change we made in the bulwark when replacing them were the slight size difference mentioned above.

However the stantions themselves we did a little different. The stantions we installed back in '77 were thru-bolted using half-inch stainless all-thread rod instead of actual bolts…the reson being economics since the rod is much cheaper…so long as you don’t count the labor involved to cut it to size and weld a nut on one end as a bolt head.

These heads were countersunk into the top of the stantion and plugged but one problem that kept appearing…The plug outline kept showing through the paint over time(out bulwarks are painted white).

In the new stantions I drilled only about four inches into the bottom of each stantion piece and literally tap-ed the hole to accept the 1/2" rod. This eliminated the need for a plug on top. The rods were threaded into the stantions using WEST epoxy to prevent any problems later.

IN removing the original walestrake I found that the yard(Sam) had beded them in 5200 and screwed them to the hull with self-taping s/s screws. It took a LOT of work to remove them.

When I replaced them I beded them in Dolphenite.

It is correct to ‘spile’ these planks to get an easy fit to the hull. However, since I had not allowed for this by ordering wide enough stock I was stuck with trying to bend them into place. We were able to do it but it took some pretty rough engineering of weird looking bending tools to force the 2 1/2 " planks into an edge-bend to fit the shear.

They are still there however, held in place with a couple of hundred stainless #10 self-taping screws with plugs over.

[Stan_R]

Doug Beu and bob & lois,

Well, replacing the bulwarks, covering boards and wale strake in Trinidad took about five months with just my wife and I.

The only change we made in the bulwark when replacing them were the slight size difference mentioned above.

However the stantions themselves we did a little different. The stantions we installed back in '77 were thru-bolted using half-inch stainless all-thread rod instead of actual bolts…the reson being economics since the rod is much cheaper…so long as you don’t count the labor involved to cut it to size and weld a nut on one end as a bolt head.

These heads were countersunk into the top of the stantion and plugged but one problem that kept appearing…The plug outline kept showing through the paint over time(out bulwarks are painted white).

In the new stantions I drilled only about four inches into the bottom of each stantion piece and literally tap-ed the hole to accept the 1/2" rod. This eliminated the need for a plug on top. The rods were threaded into the stantions using WEST epoxy to prevent any problems later.

IN removing the original walestrake I found that the yard(Sam) had beded them in 5200 and screwed them to the hull with self-taping s/s screws. It took a LOT of work to remove them.

When I replaced them I beded them in Dolphenite.

It is correct to ‘spile’ these planks to get an easy fit to the hull. However, since I had not allowed for this by ordering wide enough stock I was stuck with trying to bend them into place. We were able to do it but it took some pretty rough engineering of weird looking bending tools to force the 2 1/2 " planks into an edge-bend to fit the shear.

They are still there however, held in place with a couple of hundred stainless #10 self-taping screws with plugs over.

[Stan_R]

Doug Beu and bob & lois,

Well, replacing the bulwarks, covering boards and wale strake in Trinidad took about five months with just my wife and I.

The only change we made in the bulwark when replacing them were the slight size difference mentioned above.

However the stantions themselves we did a little different. The stantions we installed back in '77 were thru-bolted using half-inch stainless all-thread rod instead of actual bolts…the reson being economics since the rod is much cheaper…so long as you don’t count the labor involved to cut it to size and weld a nut on one end as a bolt head.

These heads were countersunk into the top of the stantion and plugged but one problem that kept appearing…The plug outline kept showing through the paint over time(out bulwarks are painted white).

In the new stantions I drilled only about four inches into the bottom of each stantion piece and literally tap-ed the hole to accept the 1/2" rod. This eliminated the need for a plug on top. The rods were threaded into the stantions using WEST epoxy to prevent any problems later.

IN removing the original walestrake I found that the yard(Sam) had beded them in 5200 and screwed them to the hull with self-taping s/s screws. It took a LOT of work to remove them.

When I replaced them I beded them in Dolphenite.

It is correct to ‘spile’ these planks to get an easy fit to the hull. However, since I had not allowed for this by ordering wide enough stock I was stuck with trying to bend them into place. We were able to do it but it took some pretty rough engineering of weird looking bending tools to force the 2 1/2 " planks into an edge-bend to fit the shear.

They are still there however, held in place with a couple of hundred stainless #10 self-taping screws with plugs over.

[bob_lois]

Stan
To spile or not to spile. You used Teak to replace your walestrakes. I am thinking that Mahogany will bend much easier. How thick is the stock that you used for the walestrakes and did you have to scarf material to get the length ?

Bob

Jolie Brise

[Stan_R]

We used the same 3/4 for the walestrakes. They were spliced together from two 10’ and one 8’ planks(as I recall) so the lengths could be manipulated to stager the scarfs.

You are probably right in thinking that mahogany would flex more than teak in bending them into place. On the other hand an old San Francisco wood boatbuilder advised me never build anything ‘in tension’…i.e. it should be steam bent or spiled. (Wonder if the walestrake is trying to straighten out my shear?)

The scarfs are supposed to be 12 to 1 ratio ideally but despite my best efforts the glue joint turned out to be almost a 1/4" wide…I think the ratio was such that even a 1/32" thick glue line ment you got a the 1/4" exposure of glue.

In any case I wasn’t satisfied with the result. My unorthodox solution was to put a one-inch wide by 3/16 deep
dutchman at each exposed glue-scarf that showed. This resulted in a much thinner glue line that mostly disappeared to the eye.

I had wanted to use Resorcinol glue for the scarfs but could find non in Trinidad so instead settled on WEST epoxy.

[Stan_R]

We used the same 3/4 for the walestrakes. They were spliced together from two 10’ and one 8’ planks(as I recall) so the lengths could be manipulated to stager the scarfs.

You are probably right in thinking that mahogany would flex more than teak in bending them into place. On the other hand an old San Francisco wood boatbuilder advised me never build anything ‘in tension’…i.e. it should be steam bent or spiled. (Wonder if the walestrake is trying to straighten out my shear?)

The scarfs are supposed to be 12 to 1 ratio ideally but despite my best efforts the glue joint turned out to be almost a 1/4" wide…I think the ratio was such that even a 1/32" thick glue line ment you got a the 1/4" exposure of glue.

In any case I wasn’t satisfied with the result. My unorthodox solution was to put a one-inch wide by 3/16 deep
dutchman at each exposed glue-scarf that showed. This resulted in a much thinner glue line that mostly disappeared to the eye.

I had wanted to use Resorcinol glue for the scarfs but could find non in Trinidad so instead settled on WEST epoxy.