soft wood in garboard

[david clack]

I am fitting out a small traditionally built mahogany clinker boat and have found a small patch of wood in a garboard plank that has some surface softness and is slightly fiberous.( about 2.5 inches by 3/4 of an inch in size)
Probing with a sharp spike shows that the softnes is surface deep i.e. around a tenth of an inch deep.
The oak in the keel to which the garboard is fastened is hard as is the rest of the plank.
What are the best ways of preventing any further softness developing?
I have thought of removing all the soft wood and epoxying in a patch then planing it down to shape.
Or filling with red lead putty and pianting over.
The soft wood is not in way of any fastenings.
What do you reckon!
Thanks David

[Thad]

Best to go with the Dutchman and chisel out past any rotten wood before glueing in a piece.

[Ian McColgin]

I agree with Thad about Dutchmen, which your glue and plane idea approxomates. I've used lots of different shapes depending on the problem.

You describe it as surface soft. Reading in from your account but not necessarily accurate, it sounds as if the spot is on the outside. Odd. Surface problems are more likely inside the bilge.

You see, if outside, this could be anything from the result of a little surface erosion on the beach to a sign of worm intrusion. If on the inside, why there and not elsewhere and how sure are you that it's not traveled?

Whatever it is, simply red lead and/or putty is unlikely to be a cure unless this is incredibly thin superficial.

So please, we really need to identify the cause of the problem before pontificating too much on the cure. As you pile on description, perhaps one of us will hit on the likely cause.

G'luck

[david clack]

ian and Thad,
Thanks for the replies. As far as I can see the softness is very localised on the outside of the garboard plank next to the keel and a few inches back from the plank end at the sternpost.
The inside of the garboards look and feel fine.
I usually give them a good dose of Cuprinal when I lay the boat up for the winter.
I shall strip of all the antifouling and primer on the garboard and see if there is any further degradation. I suspect ( and hope) not. But better safe than sorry.
David

[Ian McColgin]

Take a really careful look. I've never seen anything like that that was localized on the surface. Especially as it's near the plank end, I'd suspect that rot has traveled back and out from the fasteners in the stem. This is a problem that's rarely detectable from inside.

If that's the case, you'll want to expose all the plank ends up to the waterline to check.

Depending on the extent of the damage and the shape of the planks, this may not be the world's most onerous repair. If the stem is sound and the planks don't spring out when the screws into the stem are removed, I've got by with a dutchman that lands short of the first frame abaft the stem. I think WB Store has Bid MacIntosh's book on stem repair, if it's worse.

Hoping for the best, Courage & G'luck