Work continues on Nanw - re-caulking

Finally got the replaced sections of planking fastened - the scarfs were glued, which worked well thanks to the repair sections being in the boat's bottom where there is very little curvature. New bilge keels were cut, shaped and fastened picking up the original screw holes which took time.

Repairs fastened and bilge keels fitted

Attention was turned to preparing the boat for re-painting.  The garboard seam was already open and sections of the existing stopping and caulking had been falling out.  I made a tiny seam rake to clean out the whole of the seam right up to and including the stem post.

Garboard seams raked out using specially made tool

New caulking was driven in. One side was more open than the other and took between 4 and 6 strands hardened up with a make-shift narrow caulking iron I ground up from a hacksaw blade.  One day I will come across or invest in some proper tools for this job and learn to do it properly, but each time I have had a caulking job - which is not often - I have made a custom tool.  Nanw's garboard seam varied between 1/8" and 3/16" wide only, opening to 1/4" or more at the stem seam.




Separating cotton strands from the roll/bale,
between 4 and 6 were needed in each garboard seam

Once the caulking was driven home and hardened up the seam was payed with Sikaflex.  Not traditional but a) Sika remains slightly flexible and b) I had an open tube of this expensive stuff left over from a job on the Finesse and I found that it soon goes off if kept hanging around. Next job is to finish stripping the rest of the old paint.

Caulked seams payed with mastic sealant