where do they rot?

[Ann and Neville Clement]

Hi

The truth is that all boats rot. Alloy boats corrode. Steel boats rust. Plastic boats get ossmosis. And wood boats rot. I have had one of each kind of boat and that is the truth. Even we get old! So it is good to know where to look and to keep ahead of it so all the little rotty places can be discovered and fixed before they get out of hand. Since we just had Peace out of the water with masts out, perhaps this is a good time to tell folks where to look on Tiki 46s. For the most part, Peace has done very well considering she is the prototype and all the later designs have had corrections for places where we had trouble. Saying that, we fixed our own troubles and that is mainly how the plans got corrected! Any way, here is the list:

The main mast had a little tiny place that was soft near the bottom aft and Nev dug it all out and put a small wood sliver in and bedded it with epoxy and I glassed it over. To prevent any further trouble with that, we sanded the entire bottom of the mast right back to clean wood and put three layeers of fiberglass there. We also put large epoxy fillets on each side of the little tongue that sticks out forward so now it looks bombproof.

There are scuff marks from the lifting strops the crane used so the crossbeams will need to be sanded back in those areas and repainted. These are quite large scuffs and I wonder if anybody else has any suggestions as to how to prevent them. We have the paint cans out now because of having just painted topsides so it is no problem. Just time.

Having just painted bottoms (five gallons of antifoul is enough) and topsides, we have inspected the boat completely at brush length and see she has no problems at all. None. that is reassuring indeed. I tapped everywhere listening to the sounds and it all sounded fine.

There was a tiny soft place in the oak mast step and Nev dug it out and replaced it with epoxy and we sanded and painted again. Scuffs on the mast case were sanded, epoxed, and painted.

It is amazing to me that the rudder lashings have not needed to be changed in over 30,000 miles of use and the halyards look good too. The little holes where the ropes go thru at the bows and in the rudders look good. No wear anywhere except on some of the strops we use to hold blocks in position which were short ropes and so cost very little to replace. I guess the Wharram boats can be a lot stronger than I had expected. If anybody has other places to look, I would be glad to know of them. I like to catch things early and get in control.

Ann and Nev

[George Ray]

The scuffs from the slings might be cured by putting several layers of slippery stuff at the 'rub point'. For example several sheets of plastic mylar with the inner surfaces lubricated with anything slippery. This way the inevitable sliding of the sling as it takes a load and shifts and stretches will move the plastic sheets and not the paint.

[Ann and Neville Clement]

Like maybe plastic garbage bags over some dish soap? I know the slings themselves should never have anything on them, but with the garbage bag protecting the slings, it would be ok. Cheap and effective. Thanks!

George Ray said:

The scuffs from the slings might be cured by putting several layers of slippery stuff at the 'rub point'. For example several sheets of plastic mylar with the inner surfaces lubricated with anything slippery. This way the inevitable sliding of the sling as it takes a load and shifts and stretches will move the plastic sheets and not the paint.

[Polinesio - Tarcisio Silva]

Hi, Ann and Nev,
Please, can you tell something about the polystyrene on your deck? Is it a low density type, like school meterial?

Best winds,
Tarcisio.

[Ann and Neville Clement]

Hi,
Our decks are made with polystyrene between ply as per the plans and it seems to be working out ok. We used the kind of stuff they make foam coffe cups out of. Perhaps a harder foam would be better...? The plans were not specific and that was the kind of foam insulation our building material store had. We have the 9mm ply, 20mm of foam, and 6mm ply underneath and everything was coated in epoxy with micro lite filler before being fitted together. We just followed the plans but we did add a 6 inch wide stack of solid ply in the galley area over stations 4 and 6 in the Tiki 46 plans. This was because we wanted more strength over that long span with no support under it like the port hull had in those areas. Instead of the big hatch over the sitting area, we have two hatches equal in size to all the other intry hatches in the boat and the solid strips of ply at station 4 are between those twin galley hatches. We made an extra hatch cover just in case one hatch was damaged during the trans Atlantic. The replacement hatch fits every entry hatch universally. I will admit to being skeptical about the foam decks, but it does work ok. That extra hatch has never been used, but it was a comfort having it aboard especially during the force 10 storm we had between Madeira and Canaries. We sail coastally now so it is in storage with family and they can send it to us if we ever need it.

All the best, Ann and Nev
Polinesio - Tarcisio Silva said:

Hi, Ann and Nev,
Please, can you tell something about the polystyrene on your deck? Is it a low density type, like school meterial?

Best winds,
Tarcisio.

[jim nichols]

Does it help to prevent rot by using treated exterior grade plywood?
thanks
jtn

[Brian Gartland]

I would think using treated ply would cause more problems than it would prevent. They used to use arsenic as the chemical agent but after several poisonings and lawsuits they switched to another chemical that eventually, and sometimes rather quickly, dissolves any metal fastener. It is especially good at eating aluminum and ungalvanized steel. It also does not take paint very well so I imagine you might have difficulties applying epoxy to it.

jim nichols said:

Does it help to prevent rot by using treated exterior grade plywood?
thanks
jtn

[Ann and Neville Clement]

epoxy and fiberglass will not stick to treated ply.