tar deck seams

[Ace Ford]

We have an old fishing boat with fir decks and tar in the seams. One guy wants to reef everything out and start again, another wants to leave it for a while and melt what is in the seam with a soldering gun or fill it with roof patch and get at it in the spring. Leaving it until spring would be good but we want to seal it for the winter. Any short cuts?

[Bob Cleek]

Heat gun on the seams should soften the tar enough for it to flow into the open seams. Stay away from "wet patch" roof cement for this application. It doesn't harden much and will create a huge mess.

[Lucky Luke]

Hi,
How old is your boat? American or English? What sort of tar in the seams? "Yacht" or still fishing boat? Is the deck badly opened?

If it happens that English Jeffry's or other similar proper ship's deck glue (tar) has been used, nothing will do better than the same again....but you may have a job to get some....As said hereabove, avoid any roof crap thing.

You can "refresh" glue (tar) with a hot iron, but better pay up the deck again. Avoid, if the boat will stay "by itselt" for a long period of time, to have rain water seeping through the deck and causing the beams to rot. Best is to cover the boat if so, to rig a nice "tent" over her. Otherwise, yes, better "refresh" the glue by a little heat. Be careful not to overheat and have the glue running through the open seams....

[ 08-19-2005, 04:54 AM: Message edited by: Lucky Luke ]

[T.A.R.]

R&W ropeware house has jefferys . I've used and found it works very well.

[William R Roche]

Bad news from this month's UK sister magazine, Classic Boat. Company that makes Jeffries seam glue has folded, so buy up what you can now!

[Ace Ford]

The boat is on the west coast of Canada. She was built in 1927 and has been recently retired. No one was seriously going to plop in roof patch. I assumed the tar in the seam was similar to the roofing tar for flat roofs and readily obtainable.

[Bob Cleek]

What's in the seams may very well be 3M 300 (I think that's the designation) roofing tar. Many boats were built using it, which isn't to be confused with "wet patch" (Henry's) which is fine for luting keels and ballast, but not seams. In fact, I believe Gannon and Benjamin just built a big schooner with decks payed with hot roofing tar.

[Ace Ford]

I'm assuming that since this was an old wooden fish boat, she is in fine condition by the way, that, considering the state of the fisheries in this end of the world, they would have used the cheapest materials possible. That is why I was considering roof tar rather than something in a tube bought at a chandlery. The heat gun technique to melt what is there back into the seam appeals to me and with winter and higher humidity coming I expect the planks will expand back.