THE SEAL

Seems like too many seams

The pounding of our caulking mallets echoes off of the buildings across Cambridge Harbor just barely as a tap some days and resonantly on others, creating an oddly soothing, old-fashioned rhythm of getting things put back where they should be.

Days of pounding cotton.

The echo of those mallets, like so many other things in my life, depends on the weather and the wind. That sound, the whole complicated, time-consuming, muscle-building process, is caulking; (regionally, also referred to as corking). Note that, as in much maritime terminology, the same word is used for completely different things (don’t get me started on the word tack). The whole lengthy process of filling the seams with cotton is caulking, and the product used to actually seal the seams is, in our case, caulk. Some folks choose traditional Seam Sealer but I had to laugh out loud when a an old-timer reaffirmed what we already knew, that it took “a year or two” to cure and become sandable. If we chose that, I would have to spend winter in the Florida Keys, volunteering at the sea turtle hospital, immersing myself in clear water and tickling lobster.

Here’s our seemly (seamly) math: STEADFAST has approximately 2,550 feet of seams, all of which need to be sealed with caulk, but only(lol) ~1890 feet of which need cotton. (There are a few that require oakum, mentioned previously). We tuck and then pound an average of three strands of cotton into each seam, with hardening (firm pounding) in between to ensure a proper seal, but not so much (or so hard) that there is not room for the wood to swell. Per foot, we are experiencing an average of twenty minutes for the cotton and another fifteen for the caulk (taping/prepping takes the most time).

Her port (right) side is sealed.

We’ve completed all the new seams created when we replaced the stem, knee and thirty-one planks near the bow, 870 feet; there are ~1020 more. I decided not to calculate the man hours. (Keith, I know you’ll come through for me here). I haven’t included the time it takes to paint the interior of the seams prior to adding cotton and then coating the stuffing after completion of that task. We use standard primer (Epifanes) above the waterline, and those below receive protective red lead primer treatment from our friends at George Kirby Jr Company. That red lead is brilliantly colored, tenacious and seems (pun intended) to end up on a whole lot more than my between-plank cracks.

Wish I had invested in 3M long ago; they have the darndest array of stuff that holds other stuff together, all of which command startling prices.

It’s remarkable that we can utilize the forty-year-old cotton (…natural materials!…) on a considerable portion of her newly exposed bottom; that saves a tremendous amount of manpower and resources, but we still have to reharden the old, sand, clean and seal each of those seams. SPARRING WITH MOTHER NATURE’s protagonist on December 8^th of last year led me to comment “we are definitely in high cotton, regardless of the setbacks and the enormity of the task compared to what we originally thought we were going to be doing.”

HIGH COTTON

That was prior to last week’s REVEAL. Now we know that the TRUE enormity of our task was not clear until long after my naïve story hit the presses. We’ve purchased twenty-four pounds of that amazingly soft stuff and I’ve been rolling it into strands; no small task in a brisk breeze!

One pound, ~210’ awaits rolling; we’ve processed almost a mile: 4800+’.

Gratefully, our outdoor workspace was ideal this past month until the region got whacked by a tropical mini-hurricane-looking miracle of Mother Nature that re-drenched all of our northeast-facing, beautifully dried planks. It’s the first time I’ve felt STEADFAST’s forty tons quiver on the jack stands, but quiver she did when those big gusts came through. I was replacing sound insulation in the engine room, the heart of the vessel, and was reminded of the mighty forces of nature.

Weather Channel Radar

This stunner sunset occurred the night before the storm and called into question (once again) the commonly held wisdom “Red sky at night, Sailor’s delight.”

The buildings lower left cause our echoes.

Thanks for staying aboard during our wooden boat repair explanations….I truly appreciate it. Feel free to ask questions; your support makes my week better! Until next time, I’m a’rockin’ & a’rollin’. ~J