Fixing The Broken Crossbeam

Last time she went aground the rudder lifted off the bottom two pintles, sheared off the top pintle and split the crossbeam along the grain. A pretty easy fix as it’s usually a fairly low-stress area considering the size of the beam. Just bog the broken sections back on with some strong microfibres mix. The reinforcing bar on the underside was also coming adrift, which I think was more to do with old glue than stress so I’ve prised it off and filleted it back on with some more bog.

A couple of snaps of the broken beam and the hardware I removed:

Transom crossbeam, split along the grain

Hardware removed from the beam - note the sheared pintle

So what’s bog? I’m not really sure why it’s called bog, it’s a Cherub slang term probably as people tend to call it all sorts of different things. Basically it’s epoxy resin mixed with a filler such as microballons, glass bubbles (good for fairing), or microfibres (good for strength).

Painting A Wooden Boat

I’ve been thinking about paint lately. I know a load of people who are obsessed with epoxy encapsulation, but ever the cheapskate I’m just not convinced. Boats have floated for thousands of years without epoxy and suddenly all wooden boats will apparently disintegrate on contact with the water.

Granted, it depends what you’re doing with your boat. But few spend the whole year in the water and many small yachts especially spend their time on drying moorings so why wouldn’t traditional paint be more than up to the job? Maybe it’s just because people don’t want the hassle (and potential expense) of repainting their boat every few years. After a very short dig around I came across a no-nonsense article on boat painting by Terry Buddell of Dolphin Boats. He covers a lot of good points about preparation, correct paint usage and technique. Definitely worth a read.

Glue Joints

I’ve just been reading a really interesting (and practical) article about repairing glue joints and extends to the usability of various adhesives in a marine environment. Thanks to Bob for taking the time to do the tests and write everything up.

You can read the glue joint article here.