Will Wood Rot in Saltwater?
Jim Rojas
Jim
sue...@erols.com wrote:
> I have been told that a wooden boat will not rot in saltwater.
> Is this true?
>
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Andy
even more. Take heart though, wood is a love you cannot shake if you let
it get a hold of you. All the truely beautiful boats are wood. Just more
work. Believe it or not, there are even critters that eat FRP! What
keeps a wooden hulled boat from rotting below the water line is the
protection of a good coat of bottom paint and a yearly haul out. What
keeps wood from rotting above the water line is keeping the deck
fittings tight and all the wood varnished or painted.
Andy
sue...@erols.com
MastNMate
Yes this is true, but there are many little creatures that like to eat it.
GaryW http://www.mastmate.com
Mel Haylock
>
> I have been told that a wooden boat will not rot in saltwater.
> Is this true?
>
condensation and standing water on the inside.
Mel Haylock
MastNMate
It was and is a common chore to swap the wooden decks of a wooden boat to not
just clean and beautify but rather to let the saltwater get to the areas where
rain water and rot spores have collected. Same reason why old ships stuffed
canvas bags filled with salt up under the sheer clamp, to turn the leaking
fresh rainwater into saltwater
GaryW http://www.mastmate.com
macnaughton.com
Moist wood can rot under circumstances where there are no preservative
coatings, I don't mean paint, or there is poor ventilation. Given good
ventilation, tight decks and appropriate ventilation there is no reason wood
will not last essentially forever. Some species are more rot resistant than
others. In the old days of trunnel fastened wooden boats they were salted to
prevent rot and salt water is much less likely to rot your boat than fresh.
However salting a metal fastened wooden boat will increase corrosion and
make the interior damp.
By the way contrary to one comment above there aren't any critters that eat
fiberglass. This idea started decades ago with a spoof article in SAIL about
the "polyestermite". This was a very funny article. However, some have no
sense of humor and believed it. This has been going around for a long time
now but there's nothing to it. Every material has ways that it can
deteriorate however so no boat owner should kid themselves that they own
Madison Avenue's proverbial "maintenance free" boat.
Tom MacNaughton
Naval Architect
http://www.macnaughtongroup.com
sue...@erols.com wrote in message <6up8h3$ifq$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>...
>I have been told that a wooden boat will not rot in saltwater.
>Is this true?
>
Cletrac
>By the way contrary to one comment above there aren't any critters that eat
>fiberglass. This idea started decades ago with a spoof article in SAIL about
>the "polyestermite"
Are you also going to tell me that the Nauga's that I just bought from a door
to door salesman will not make me rich when I sell the naugahide?
Jo
homes along the Naugatuck river in Conn. Our children used to look for the
little naugas when on their way to Grandma's house!
Cletrac <cle...@aol.com> wrote in article
<19980930190320...@ng80.aol.com>...
Classic Boatworks of Maine
to remember that article about the polyestermites. One of the reasons we
decided to stay with wood boats was due to the poliferation of those little
critters.
--
Good Luck and Fair Seas
Marshall and Jo Duhaime,Jr.
Classic Boatworks of Maine - We build and restore classic wood boats.
http://www.nemaine.com/classicboatworks
Cletrac
>I hope that you got a certificate assuring you that these came from their
>homes along the Naugatuck river in Conn. Our children used to look for the
>little naugas when on their way to Grandma's house!
>
I was born in Derby and grew up in Seymour and also watched for them on the way
to the Watertown Drive In on Saturday night. Although they hid quite well in
the bushes and were hard to see I was renewed in my belief when Don Imus (wNbc)
talked about attack furnature made from Naugas raised along the banks of the
Naugatuck river.
CaptReed
>Tom, I think you and Marshall are the only ones on the newsgroup old enough
>to remember that article about the polyestermites.
Not true - my Santana 27 was built before those bugs mutated into
polyestermites, so it is not affected by them. I have no blisters where they
lay their eggs.
Mark Anderson
> Moist wood can rot under circumstances where there are no preservative
> coatings, I don't mean paint, or there is poor ventilation. Given good
> ventilation, tight decks and appropriate ventilation there is no reason wood
> will not last essentially forever.
<mor...@usaor.net> wrote:
> You need three things for rot to occur besides the rot spores
> themselves: water, air, and temperature.
What's the relationship between the first conventional wisdom, praising
ventilation, and the second statement, (also made by Gougeon) that rot
can't occur without air.
--
Mark Anderson
Riparia
"The trouble with good ideas, is that they soon turn into
alot of hard work." Anon.
Mike Goodwin
western toredo worm gougeoneous ', known to devour epoxy coatings below the
waterline. Apparantly it was traced to the ballast water of a Japanese
collier that had picked up ballast water in the Strait of Juan de Fuca , a
known breeding ground for this terrible marine borer. The ship had pumped
ballast near Thimble Shoal on its way to Newport News Va. to take on a load
of West Va. coal. The tide was incoming and swept the larva up the bay as
far as Stingray Point , on the west side, and Tangier Island on the east
side of the bay.
"All boaters are advised to haul their boats at once if their content of
epoxy is in excess of 12% total volume related to all natural or synthetic
resins used in construction or repair. " this statement was issued 10/02/98
by VIMS ( Virginia Institute of Marine Science ) the watchdog of the lower
bay.
These critters are reputed to be twice as voracious as the polyestermites
that have long plagued the owners of production fiberglass boats and are
attracted to epoxy of high resin to catalyst formulas ( 3:1or higher )
apparantly passing up 1:1 ratio epoxy if others are available .
All boaters heading south are recommended to sail offshore from Delaware Bay
leaving Bermuda to Starboard turning west at a point 380 nautical miles SE
of Cape Hatteras and re-enter the inland waterway south of Charlston S.C.
Good Luck and Good Sailing
CaptReed wrote in message <19981003223037...@ng69.aol.com>...
Dr...@rotdoctor.com
It's a tradeoff. Gougeon has an interest in selling epoxy (as do we) and so
makes the valid point that wood COMPLETELY sealed with epoxy resin will not
rot. This is true -- as long as the wood does indeed remain sealed. Any
puncture of break in the epoxy allows in the air which with a little dampness
may be all that is needed to interest the fungal spores already on/in the
wood.
Most boat owners are not dealing with wood completely sealed with epoxy, so
the correct conventional wisdom has promotes ventilation to help keep the
moisture content of the wood less than what is required for rot to flourish.
In addition, us wood-boaters make the effort to keep the moisture content
below what the rot requires as well. It's a battle. This is why in days of
yore the ship-keepers used everything from salt to coal tar, plus
ventilation, to help create an environment which the rot fungi could not
tolerate.
The Rot Doctor
http://www.rotdoctor.com
E-mail: dr...@rotdoctor.com
Phone: 206 783 0307
Fax: 206 783 0582
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