We are heading back to Leros and Lakki Marina this weekend to Survey and Value this lovely old Wooden Gulet. You can still buy these older wooden Gulets for about £15,000.
This one looks a a beauty, but would you be sailing away with a bargain or a never-ending drain on your bank balance?
Catch up with next weeks BLOG, images and information on this Inspection.
Surveying Wooden Boats
I have owned lots of wooden boats over the years, I can count atleast 20!!
Gulets are very appealing to newbies to boating
because for one reason they look like a real boat should, and also because of
all the room that's available. The biggest reason buyers like them is the cost.
You can quite easily find a six berth for under 10K.
Lets start with the point that there are many Surveyors who
are no longer in the business after performing pre purchase surveys on wooden
boats. I almost gave them up myself years ago because surveying wood boats is
fraught with risks.
Lets begin: Concealed areas within a hull are always a
problem but, most wooden boats are constructed in such a way that not enough
access is available to make a fair assessment. I always pull up all the floors
and remove enough paneling that I can get a fairly good glimpse of the bottom
and the lower sides. Carrying an electric screw gun is a must in order to do
this quickly and effectively.
My biggest job is removing all the internal fittings. That
means I have to move a lot of mattresses, bedding, carpets and empty out
lockers, etc. Once the interior is opened up as best possible, Im ready to
begin.
Three important tools are a slim light crow bar, the sort
used for pulling nails. A light hammer and a standard blade screwdriver. I
check the joints between planks and frames visually, looking for gaps or any
sign that the plank is not tight against the frame. I then use the screw driver
to test the wood for softness on both plank and frame near the mating surface.
You should be very careful with your screwdriver or spike as they can be
destructive! Many a Surveyor has got into serious trouble after the boat owner
found thousands of spike holes in the bottom of his boat!
I occasionally try to slip the crow bar under a frame and
pry gently. If the frame moves, there is a fastener problem. I do this at every
opportunity along the hog (internal keel) or chine area. Often the frame ends
are split or soft, repairs are usually necessary.
Weepage is a process of very slow leakage, very often
involving the capillary effect in addition to just water pressure from outside
the hull. Weepage is not referred to as leakage because the rate is so slow
that the water evaporates nearly as fast as it enters the interior. It can
occur with no sign of wetness, but inevitably leaves some trace of its
existence such as stains.
Certainly its not feasible to go through the entire hull
testing all frames and planks in this manner, and fortunately it is not
necessary except for the keel area where this needs to be done wherever
possible. Further up from the keel, I can limit the physical testing by looking
for signs of weepage. Anytime there is evidence of water migrating through
seams, corrosion of fasteners has to be suspected. Weepage shows up in various
ways, often depending on whether the wood is painted or bare, its age and so
on.
Use the screwdriver for testing the hardness of the inner
planking, particularly in the deep bilge or any place that is wet or looks
suspect. The screwdriver blade is just the right tool, and if it goes into the
wood, you know for sure that its deteriorated. Poking around like this is quick
and easy so that most vulnerable areas can be quickly covered.
The two most common areas for sprung planks to occur is the
garboard and the forefoot area. The forefoot planking is difficult to check
because this is the point where the planks narrow into the stem. But, again,
signs of weepage or leaking is usually present when fasteners are wasted and
planks are loose. Use the screwdriver and insert the blade into the intersect
of plank and stem and push hard. This should be done on both sides in every
area that can be reached. Again, this does not take long if the area is
accessible and will readily show up rot and looseness. Get inside the chain
locker if possible or strip out the forward berth. I always want to get a good
look at the inner stem and hog and where they are scarffed together. If the stem
or hogs rotten then the front of the boat may have to be opened up! (major
job!).
The intersect of bottom and side planking to the transom is
yet another area where leakage and deterioration are prevalent. This area is
also often difficult or impossible to reach, being obscured by fuel tanks and
exhaust pipes and whatnot. On larger cruisers you can strip the aft berth out
and get in, but on Yachts you may only be able to see the inner corners by
using a mirror or camera, unless your very small and you can climb in through
the transom hatch and around the rudder tube. If reachable, probe the wishbone
transom frame from both above and below. Probe from the intersect of bottom
planks and frames, and transom plank and frame. If the wood is at all soft, the
problem is serious and needs further opening up and investigation. Examine the
intersect all the way up to deck level. Is there water leaking in from above?
If so, what is it doing to the wood and fasteners? Check from the exterior: are
there open seams and signs of rot on the corners? If you see it above the
waterline, what's going on below? Remember that open seams are allowing rain
water in, and fresh water can be disastrous.
Keel bolts are always difficult to inspect or comment on.
Check these major structural members for signs of working. Look for unevenness
of scarf joints or any other signs of movement or working. Probe the keelson
with the screwdriver for evidence of softness. Check the intersects of
transverse frames for signs of rubbing or chaffing that indicates movement.
Check visible bolts and bolt heads for corrosion. Also check for discoloration
around the bolt heads. If the wood appears white and soft, this is an
indication of weepage. Be careful about diagnosing this as
"electrolysis." Its probably not. I always suggest the removal of at
least two sample structural keel bolts for examination of the fastenings and
adjacent timber material. This task is obviously difficult and sometimes
impracticable and should be approached when convenient.
If there is water getting at the bolts, serious corrosion
must be suspected. The only conclusion is to draw the bolts and inspect them.
Don't rely on just tapping these bolts to see if they're loose. They may be
tight now, but may go loose when the hull is working. Bear in mind the forces
that operate on a hull while underway. Be wary of oily bilges and wood that can
obscure this evidence. Poke around in the wood surrounding the bolt head. If
its soft, you can be sure that there is weepage and the bolt is subject to
corrosion.
Inaccessible Areas: These are the areas that almost
invariably cause the surveyor his greatest problems for he can't get at them to
check. Frequently, these are the areas where structural deterioration takes
place because neither interior inspection or maintenance is possible.
· Outboard and
under fuel tanks
· Behind large
exhaust pipes and mufflers
· Under
refrigeration and freezers
· Under shower
pans
· Under lined
lockers
· Behind hulls
that have full hull side ceilings
There's one thing you'll notice about most of the above
listed areas and that is the potential for condensation and lack of air flow in
these obscured areas which is highly conducive to causing deterioration of wood
and metals. These obscured areas should be viewed with extreme caution. The
only acceptable conclusion is guilty until proven innocent. To prove soundness,
fasteners or planks must be pulled.
Ventilation has a two-fold importance in wooden boats:
removal of air saturated with moisture vapour, and introduction of unsaturated
(dry) air to permit drying of moist woodwork. It is not easy to ensure that dry
air circulates over all the woodwork in a boat. Whilst air may be circulated
into a particular compartment it may not circulate through out the whole area
unless points of entry and departure are correctly sited. Small areas are often
partially or completely enclosed so that air circulation is impeded. These are
the so called “dead-air” spaces in which pockets of stagnant moist air are trapped.
Often by drilling a few well sited auger holes sufficient ventilation can be
provided in what might otherwise be a small dead -air space.
Failed or improperly designed fuel and water tank
foundations are a common cause of catastrophic hull failure. Because of the
extreme weight of tanks, if supports fail, or were never properly designed in
the first place, the planking or individual frames could end bearing a major
part of the tank load. When this happens, hull failure usually results.
Be they cylindrical or square, tanks on saddles or on decks
not fully supported by hull girders must be checked and the entire load bearing
structure examined and evaluated. This is usually not as difficult as it might
sound, for anyone with a good knowledge of proper construction can quickly size
it up if the structure is accessible. If there is any doubt at all,
particularly on aging structures, then other means of evaluation must be found.
If the surveyor has done a good job with the interior, then
his work on the bottom is going to be the easiest part of the job. By this
time, he already knows if there are loose planks, bad frames, deterioration,
weepage or leakage and where all these things are located. Long before it comes
out of the water, he has a pretty good idea of whether this is a sound hull,
and in many cases he'll already know that it isn't, so there's no point in
hauling.
Nailing hulls is the common method on Gulets. Nails cannot
be pulled without causing much damage to the plank, if they can be gotten out
at all. Inspecting the heads only tells one the condition of the head, not the
rest of the nail. And tearing planks off means that they have to be renewed and
the cost far too high. Nondestructive methods such as X-ray are both costly,
difficult and not necessarily reliable.
Screw Fastened Vessels: Utilizing all the techniques
outlined above, along with removal and inspection of fasteners, can provide a
reasonable degree of certainty as to a hull's soundness. Moreover, screw
fasteners can be replaced if they have good holding ground, meaning that planks
and frames are not split or deteriorated.
To evaluate a screw-fastened bottom, first isolate the
likely problem areas, including all of the garboards, under fuel tanks, and so
on. One should not resort to the practice of laying out a pattern of evenly
spaced points and pulling fasteners in this method as it is strictly hit or
miss.
First examine for:
· Cupped or
warped planks
· Open seams
and weepage from interior after bottom is dry
· Planks with
split ends or splits anywhere
· Loose seams
· Sound planks
with heavy hammer for sound of looseness.
· Discoloration
around screw heads
· Special
attention to butt ends
· Under tanks
and engines - stress from heavy loads
· Damp
environments like under water tanks,etc.
All of the above areas should be marked and targeted first,
for it is here where the problems are likely to be. Then, if all these suspect
areas prove out okay, you may not even need to pull fasteners in the
non-suspect areas and this will reduce the work load greatly. The objective
here is to determine whether the hull has a general condition of wasted
fasteners or whether it is isolated due to the initiating factors discussed
above.
Remember you need permission from the owner to pull
fastenings. Tight fasteners should be hard or impossible to move. If it won't
turn, don't bother trying to force it because its okay. Fasteners that just
spin without backing out are bad and one needn't waste his time trying to get
them out.
I will get back onto this subject of surveying wooden boats
in the future, there are so many more areas left to discuss. Decks being one of
them. Ive been chasing a leak on the decks on my boat for about 6 months and im
still yet to find it! But hey, that's another story.
My services: For a wooden boat survey, the vessel should be blocked
off ashore as it is not possible to carry out a useful assessment of the
underwater hull during a one hour lift and hold in a travel hoist. The survey
will often require some dismantling in order to access hidden areas. Here, the
focus is on any decay or deterioration from rot, marine borers or electrolytic
action, and on the condition of the fastenings. It is important that I carry
out as thorough an examination as possible by getting good access to the hull
and frames. The costs of repairs can easily be beyond the market value of the
boat so it is vital for you to get the best possible idea of what you are
buying from the outset.
