Owning and sailing a wooden classic dinghy is a bit different to having a soul-less, modern plastic boat. The rewards are much more, you become attached to the damn thing, it becomes part of the family….but on the other hand you have to put a little more effort back into the boat….without your love and attention, the boat will fall apart.
When everyone had a wooden boat, and they all did their own maintenance, there was lots of knowledge around about how to look after them. It’s harder now, there just isn’t the same amount of boat maintenance know-how around.
This is just a few hints, picked up by CVRDA members on how to go about looking after wooden boats. I hope that, together with the posts under repairs and renovation and the collective knowledge of the forum, they help.
- Fairey Hull RepairsAdvice on repairing Fairey hot moulded hulls.
- Idiot’s Guide to VarnishingVarnishing is easy, honest, but I have to admit it took me quite a few years to work out how to do it….easily….and in that time I have got it wrong so… Read more: Idiot’s Guide to Varnishing
- Painting a plastic boatIf the boat already has paint on it, you need to find out what that is. Or more correctly whether or not you can paint over it. Try the M.E.K. test, take… Read more: Painting a plastic boat
- Seeing Where the Sun Don’t Shinecan’t see inside? ….grab a phone or digital camera… Sometimes you want to see under the deck, inside a bouyancy tank or storage compartment and the problem can be that there is… Read more: Seeing Where the Sun Don’t Shine
- Using Cyano-Acrylate“Why they call Cyano-Acrylate super” Or superglue to everyone else…..cyano has been available to the model aircraft builders for many years and they have been using it to good effect; the beauty… Read more: Using Cyano-Acrylate
- Wrapping up/ laying upI have more classic wooden boats than I should….can’t help it…..just addicted. Unfortunately this means that until I win the pools and buy some big storage, I will have more boats than… Read more: Wrapping up/ laying up