Getting Wet

                                                       Getting Wet

The goal for 2018 is to get the boat in the water.
This might always looks simpler then it actually is, lots of loose ends to be completed which normally always takes longer then one expect.
All wood needs to be sanded from the deck housing and treated again with Owatrol D-2 and in some placed D-1 and D-2.
Deck needs to be washed and checked for any spots which ended-onto the deck by completing other tasks as well as the caulking needs to be checked for agian.
But the biggest challenge is of course when the boat get's wet.
The complete hull has been cleaned inside and protected again with linseed oil and the bilge has been painted.
The planks have dried out over the years and there are big gaps between them, enough to get concerned when the boat get's into the water and how do I keep it afloat.
When the boat does get in this condition in the water it will fill up rather quickly with water resulting that a reasonable pump is required to prevent the boat from sinking.
The risk is that there will be a power outage, pump failure and resulting that the boat still might sink .
Not a pleasant though after all these years of getting it ready.
Thinking outside the box, I decided to fill up the boat with water before I will put it into the water, this way I was hoping that the planks would close again.
Well I was partly successful lots of water poured into the boat which ran out overnight again.
Did this a few times but the gaps would hardly close.
I was then informed about a product called Ettan Grease used by wooden boat builders, it claims that it sticks to anything, indeed it did, difficult to remove from your hands, product is water resistant.

It is  a greasy product which smells like tar , old wooden boat smell, not unpleasant.

The good thing of this product that it can be rather easy pushed between the planks, if the weather is not to cold .
Well after putting this Ettan Grease  between the planks I filled up the boat again, and to my pleasant surprise only some drips of water came out which could be easily closed with some additional Ettan Grease.
Over the time a week to several weeks I could see that the gaps between the planks were closing.

The Ettan grease was pushed out between the planks and could be scraped off the bottom.
It total took around 4 months till all gaps were closed and no water came out of the bottom anymore.
It took the longest time for the hull shaft penetrations to close which can be expected due to the way this penetration is build up from different types of wood in different layers.