Painting carvel planking

[seabird]

Hello..I built an 18ft keelboat with carvel planking.I caulked the seams (planks of pitch pine)in the traditional way with cotton and payed the seams with whitelead paste and putty mixed.Primed and painted with one pot polyurethane.I expected the seams to squeeze over the first season and crack the paint as they did. Hopeful of a good finish this year I sanded primed and painted but am dismayed to find paint cracks appearing on some seams again.She was raced hard last season but remained completely watertight so there is no undue movement in the hull.Can anyone advise...how long does it take for a hull to settle to enable a good paint finish to be obtained?

[Jay Greer]

Be aware that, in traditional built boats, it is customery to do a bottom and topside job once a year.
JG

[emichaels]

Hence the tradition............

Eric

[westinghouse]

What Jay Greer said - also keep in mind that all 1 part polyurethanes are not equal. IMHO, Petit's Easypoxy is the best and if that's what you are using then you are doing all you can. That's the beauty of the annual painting - you get to do your own longitudinal product comparison study. G'luck, and props to you finishing a carvel 18 ft keelboat.

[DanO]

Ahem...where are the photos? What's the design? I need inspiration!

I'm fairing and puttying my 17' 3" full-keel Buzzards Bay 14 and am interested to hear how your painting saga ends up. I also am caulking with cotton and paying the seams in the traditional way.

Dan

[Lew Barrett]

Like Westinghouse, I like Easypoxy; I used Brightsides years ago, it was OK, but it seems to me Easypoxy has covers better. It retains gloss well (in case you skip a year) is reasonably flexible, sands easily "the next time". A nice product.
Lew

[seabird]

Hi Guys, many thanks for the comments..I used International Brightside and the result is ok but I guess I was expecting too much too soon!
The boat is a Waverley..the class started here in Belfast Lough in 1903 and six boats still race every season,many of course have been repaired and rebuilt over the years. There is a web site recently started www.waverleyclass.com (http://www.waverleyclass.com) for those interested.
Here in Ireland the climate is mainly on the wet side so no danger of the boat drying out completely,I suspect over a few seasons she will stabilise and gradually improve.
Cant figure out how to attach a photo..thanks guys,
Alex

[KNOCKABOUT]

This is easily the most hysterical reply on this forum, as well as the most wise.

[Canoeyawl]

Waverley Class ...I like it!
http://www.waverleyclass.com/graphics/lines.pnghttp://www.waverleyclass.com/graphics/sailplan.png

[DanO]

Wow...lines are similar to the BB14 I'm building! This drawing is from Chip Flanagan's website:
http://www.chipboat.com/buzbay.gifDan

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

Beautiful boat...

I use Easypoxy for everything except the hull, it's done in Imron. (hull is batten fastened)

It's very very hard to stop a carvel boat from cracking the paint lines.

[Jeremy Burnett]

I was surprised that so many suggest the use of epoxy or one pot poly for painting traditional carvel planking.Over here I think most would use ordinary enamel.Epoxy is regarded as too hard and lacking flexibility for this job.It may take some years for the hull to settle down,but if sanded and painted annually a smooth non cracked surface should eventually be the result.

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

I agree with Jeremy. I commend Epifanes conventional alkyd enamels, if you are in Belfast.

Other points to consider - does your cover extend down to the waterline in winter?

Pitch pine is "all over the place" compared to teak or iroko - and is notorious for taking a very long time to "take up" if allowed to dry.

I should think that Mirelle's teak planking is settled down by now but I get slight cracks along the seams if I am slow getting her afloat. They seem to disappear once she is in the water.

[JormaS]

IMHO, polyurethanes, acrylics and even alkyd enamels are way too "good" paints for a traditionally built hull. They provide (when applied normally, without softeners) a hard and rather thick coat. They inevitably crack at the seams in a boat that is hauled for a longer period. A mahogany or teak planking may be an exception, but other than that, I would consider cracking as the default situation.

The way to handle it is to use a paint which is easy and quick to prep for repainting. You guessed it: Oil paint.

The 40 ft hull of our Colin Archer used to be painted with alkyd enamel. Five years ago we switched to oil (house) paint. The hull has not been repainted since, but every spring minor repairs are done. I have never spent more than two hours on that job.

I find that oil paint is good enough for the wood. However, it does not provide much abrasion resistance, and it is not glossy, but in stead it is easy to sand down, and the repairs are hardly visible.[/SIZE]

[seabird]

Yes ,next year will use a standard oil based paint...the winter cover extends a few inches over the gunwale so hull gets the weather.
The other boats in the class have really good topsides but I think
the youngest one was built in the sixties so plenty of time to mature!
Cheers ,
Alex