Inspect and Strighten Hull
The first consideration is to determine whether the hull is straight,
plumb, and level. Hulls that have sagged, twisted, or spread are said to
be "hogged." Having repaired more than 100 wooden hulls, I
have never seen one that did not need to be pulled or pushed into shape
somewhere. This is not surprising given that these wooden boats
have outlived their intended lives by many decades, most without minimal
care. Even proper blocking will distort a hull if it sits there
for decades.
I have heard many times from people who have found a boat they want
restored and proclaimed proudly that the boat has been "in
storage" for 20 years, as if this has somehow preserved it.
On the contrary, phrases like "long-term storage" ring alarm
bells. All boat hulls are designed to displace water in order to
support their weight. This means that the hull was built to be
supported at all points of its bottom surface. Out of the water,
hulls are inevitably supported at a few points.
Temporary winter blocking, as directed by the factory owner's manuals,
generally puts all the weight on three points of the bottom. If
left to long in this position, the weight of the transom, fuel tank, and
running gear typically causes the stern to drop, creating a longitudinal
concavity in the supposedly straight planing surface. When run in
this condition, the bow is forced down and can cause plowing and
dangerous attitudes when cutting across waves or wakes.
If the support blocking is set farther aft to support the transom and
left this way for years, the weight of the engine causes the center of
the bottom to drop creating a longitudinal convexity in the supposedly
straight planing surface. When run in this condition, especially
at higher speeds, the boat keeps trying to climb up on it's curved
planing surface only to reach a point where the weight of the vessel
drops the bow back down, over and over again. This performance is
usually referred to as "porpoising" or
"hobby-horsing," which is not only maddening, but leaves you
half out of control and unable to see over the bow. Many have
tried to correct this condition by adding wedges or shingles to the
after-edge of the planing surface at the transom to force the bow
down. This method works to some extent but is analogous to using
water brakes and really only creates the concave planing surface
previously mentioned.
If your boat has an original bottom and frames and is more than 20 years
old, even a single season of improper storage could cause these
conditions to appear. These are just a couple of reasons why it is
so very important to properly address the framework of the hull when
restoring a boat. With the boat upside down and the bottom planks
removed, frame repair is about as easy as assembling Lincoln Logs with
screws. These boats are merely large model; think of them as
such.
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