Damage/Filler Advice

[Guy]

Unfortunately my beloved Flying Dutchman has been damage by a spar from an adjoining boat being removed by its owner without due care and attention.
The damage amounts to two indentation into the beading strip that runs around the outside of the fordeck.
All options are under consideration from professional repair to scarfing in and filler.
One of the indenation may be shollow enough to take filler.
Any advice on products but more importantly how to repair effectively whilst blending in to look original are gratefully recieved.
Many thanks in advance
Guy

[Brookesy]

A picture would be a great help Guy.
Am I right in thinking this is the rubbing strake?

[Ed]

Yup, need an image really.

if it is very shallow, you might be able to bring back by wetting and heating with steam iron......

or ....

build up the varnish in that area so it is flush.

if it is not too big an area, you can use a filler, but in my experience it rarely looks like a nice repair afterwards.

the best way to fix and much easier and better fun than you would imagine is to scarf in a new bit. the only real challenge is always going to be finding a nice bit of wood that matches in. That can be a challenge, but well worth it.

cheers

eib

[Rupert]

Agree with Ed about filler - if you call the boat your beloved, then filler is always going to show up to you. Personally, I have no problem with it - boats are supposed to be fast, and I'm not too worried about the detail, but your post makes me think you think differently, and I suspect if I owned a pretty wooden FD, I would perhaps feel the same!

[Guy]

Many thanks for your posts so far
OK so beloved is a litle over the top but I was a bit hackd off at the time I sent the post
I'll try and get an image up.
If I do go down the filler route. What is good and what is not?
Cheers
Guy

[Ed]

best filler?

any that is the right colour! which is much harder than you might imagine.

personally, I don't think the quality really matters too much....you don't want it too hard, so any epoxy filler (unless very soft - brown glass balloons?) is a bad idea.

Again depends on size....you 'may' want to get a little epoxy in the hole first to seal it before putting in the filler...but I would just go for a cheap soft filler...

Brummer is a favourite, but others will do.

You may need to buy two colours so that you can mix them a bit to try and get as close a colour as possible.

good luck

cheers

eib

[Ancient Geek]

You do not say exactly where these dents are or who built the FD.

If it is a Bob Hoare boat and it is fwd of the shrouds or aft of the helmsmans position, it will be quite thin no more than 1/2" and almost certainly in Bob's prefered lightweight erzatz mahogany khaya which may help colour match, (Note Bob used to stain his boats in the bare with cold tea to achieve a constant colour!) scarfing in a new bit is easy if you plane across the chord of the curve and just glue on a flat piece then plane to shape two ways starting from the middle towards then ends of the new bit thus avoiding planing against the grain. If you are lucky a blind man would be glad to see it!

[Guy]

FD Damage 001.jpg

Herewith the image of damage, as an attachment
Sorry for the delay
When I look at it now I wonder what I was worried about.
No on the the other hand. I'm still furious.

Cheers

Guy

[Rupert]

Filler would look terrible, but would be easy. A scarph with matching wood (though as the boat will be faded, you might have to wait a few years before the match gets exactly right!) would be a ltttle more tricky, but far, far more pleasing to the eye. I suspect the slight damage to the ply could be filled with a little Brummer stopping without it showing a great deal.

[mercury]

I`l take my tool "round rubber centre and a sand paper tube on it" put it in my black and decker and make a shallow round "hole".
Then skulpture a pair of perfect fitting and matching mahogony bits, and glue it in place.
Then sand paper it down and don`t be to worried about the colour.
Becauce there is a lot of different mahogony cloured "paints" to put on a towel and vipe down to the correct colour.
Having trouble whith the correct words becauce I`m from Sweden.

sten

[JimC]

If the rest of the boat is as nice as that bit looks he really ought to be buying you new gunwhales... But it would be trouble getting an insurance company to agree to a matching pair I suspect.

[Rupert]

Difficult to take the gunwales off without damaging the deck - do you think the insurers would go for a new deck, too?!

Mercury, do you end up with a curved dip when doing the job your way? If so, how do you then match the piece going in? If there is an easy method I'm missing, then it could be a neat way.

[Ed]

Don't be too upset.

these are the war-wounds that are impossible to avoid if a wooden boat is taken outside....and god forbid....sailed. You will always notice them, but others won't.

Filler is pragmatic and easy and if you intended to remove the gunwhale strip....or re-deck in near future, I would do that, but if you are planning on keeping the decks for longer term (and I don't think this damage would in any way necessitate new decks etc), then a little insert will look much better.

First thing you have to do is really dry it out and see if there is any damage to ply of deck, I suspect looking at it that the black marks may well dry out.

Putting a baby scarf in would be easy enough to do. There are only two challenges to it. Finding a bit of wood that is a good match...and getting the angle of grain to match.

I would cut, or chisel out a little dip with straight edges (easiest way for small bit like this would be to just use stanley to mark a line around edge or steel rule - keep the angle of both cuts the same but mirrored), then just slowly shape a bit of wood to fit back in. This is so small that your adjustment/shaping will most probably be best done on by holding the bit and rubbing on a sanding board. Remember the bit can be much bigger than the hole....as long as it fits! You can plane/cut/sand off the extra afterwards.

must dash,

being called down for cake

eib

[Ancient Geek]

I am sure Ed is right - good advice- the very uniform ply / solid wood colouring suggests it was stained at birth as it were, which may help matching if you know what stain if it was, Bob Hoare it was almost certainly cold builders tea (Without milk!) if European then they mainly use(d) a waterbased mid mahogany type colron or similar. The little bit of black suggests a bit of damp that will need drying out

[Brookesy]

Guy,
I assume this is 233 the ex John Truett boat.
If so , it would be worth speaking to Tony Lyall and he will almost certainly be able to point you in the direction of the chap who restored it to its current condition.
It was a Hein hull, so I do not think cold tea would have gone near it originally, and I believe the ply is original. I must say I would be upset too, I have picked up a couple of small battle scars on 350 but at least I did them myself.