Wooded

15 Nov 23:

I learned a term years ago, "wooded, which referred to a level of coating removal. Sometimes on a wooden boat we can sand or scrape a little bit of an old coating of varnish or paint, to fair the coating smooth enough for a fresh coat. We had hoped that would be the case with the little Bahamas Dinghy HENNING. It will not be the case.

There are at least 3 coats of paint on HENNING, 4 in most areas. Previous attempts at removing paint have left high and low spots in the coating, with wood showing in a few areas. Now there was a thought to just scrape off a few flakes and brush on a new coat of paint, but as the Bahamas wood started to peek out from under the paint, it was decided to wood the boat. 

One coat of stripper per layer, followed with some scraping and sanding. A variety of scrapers, chisels, hooks and picks are being use to get stubborn lumps pf paint released. The wood is very hard, so 80-120 grit on a random orbital sander is being used to remove the last opaque layer of paint.

In this photo the bulk of the old coatings are removed on the port side back to the third frame. The upper mast thwart riser was removed to get better access, but the fasteners in the lower seat riser (the Mother In Law seat) would not budge, so we'll leave those alone.

The wood is beautiful and unlike any we've seen before. Grown crook frames, we are thinking they are from local corkwood trees. Not the cork I imagined when I first read the term, but light weight in the pounds per cubic foot sense compared to an oak or mahogany frame. Rot resistant like cypress. And a small shrubby tree with a lot of crooks, along the lines of coastal live oaks, prized for their boat part shaped crooks and base flares.

The plank grain looks like pine, but it is much harder, which checks the block for Bahamas pine, another species we were unfamiliar with. The copper rivets (nails) are put in from the outside of the plank, a tight fitting washer (burr) goes over the nail. The rivet is nipped a little proud of the burr and peened over to hold the plank to the frame. And there are a lot of them. I sanded lightly over a few rivets to remove paint, but that is not a good thing to do as if I sand the rivet down too far, there will not be enough rivet left to grip the burr. On future frames I'll be more patient with stripper and use picks or a small scraper on the paint.

Speaking of small scrapers, this Master one inch scraper has worked very well. I wish I remembered where I picked it up, because I bought it for Skipper and I'll need one too.

Log of HENNING.