boat made from wood
Are you looking for some inside information on wooden boat? Here's an up-to-date report from wooden boat experts who should know.
what about those little chips and dings in the gelcoat?
Many books have been written on fiberglass repair and it isn't the intent of this article to cover the subject in any depth but many small repairs are well within the reach of a fairly skilled do-it-yourselfer. Like anything else though, if you have never done it before, "consult an expert."
I've been building and repairing in fiberglass since I was 14 and while the first wooden boat I glassed was water tight and lasted a good many years, it was far from pretty. The small investment you lay out for expert repair now will pay big dividends when your boat sells at the price you want.
In the Emerald Coast region the standard fees for compound/waxing run between $15.00/ft. and $18.00/ft. for the topside (rub-rail up) which includes a thorough cleaning and treatment of the vinyl, windows, isenglass, and metal. In other words, for the price of doing the "hard" part we'll detail the entire topsides and leave it in "ready-to-show" condition. Hulls (rub-rail down) run about $8.00/ft. but, of course, the boat must be out of the water in order to do it. (This walking on water with a hi-speed electric buffer in hand is still beyond me, but I'll let you know;-)
Most of this information comes straight from the wooden boat pros. Careful reading to the end virtually guarantees that you'll know what they know.
Fiberglass repair runs from $45.00 to $65.00 per hour and in general as with most everything else, one gets what one pays for. The up side to this is that when approached in a professional manner the dents and dings of ten years hard use can be repaired and made to look like new in an amazingly short time.
All too often we have seen people save $300.00 or $400.00 on a detail only to loose $Thousands$ on what their boat could have sold for. Then too, our local marinas are clogged with many examples of boats with "For Sale" signs which were never given the least bit of attention to make the passer by want to stop and think, "Hey, I wonder what it would be like to call that boat mine." Some of these boats have sat for years when all they ever really needed was a little T.L.C.
You'll want a work area that's adequate. The larger the table or work area the better, and it's always nice to hang your plans for easy referral. You also need good lighting with no shadows. Your work area should be broken into areas such as preassembly, working on, and waiting to dry. It will make the process much easier.
Always read your plans in advance of starting to work on an area. That way you'll know exactly where you are headed. It might take a couple of reads to makes sense of the directions, but be patient – you'll get it.
There are all kinds of model ships – tall ships, cruise ships, sailboats, speedboats, wooden boats, and antique boats are some examples. So whatever you fancy, you'll find plenty of model ships to choose from.
There's a lot to understand about
wooden boat. We were able to provide you with some of the facts above, but there is still plenty more to write about in subsequent articles.
