Wooden Boats

Older wooden boats that have a good maintenance history are becoming harder to find. There are some excellent wooden boats in New Zealand crafted by skilled boat builders, and although relatively few new builds in timber are commissioned, discerning buyers of wooden boats often look to New Zealand builders for repairs or new work.

Wood as a construction medium for boats does have a higher maintenance requirement than GRP, but there are boats that were built from timber at the beginning of last century still being used today.

Modern plywood construction with epoxy glue and resin is a huge improvement over the urea formaldehyde glues previously used.

Surveying a wooden boat usually takes a lot longer than say a GRP or Alloy boat. Dependent on the method of contruction, a 12 metre yacht may take two days to complete, especially if any rot or corrosion is uncovered during the survey.

Older carvel planked boats need to be handled with care and the use of travel lifts without using extra slings can cause damage to the hull. We are happy to advise on slipping requirements.

Wood can also be prone to destructive rot either from fungal spores or from incorrect cathodic protection. The so called process of 'over-zincing' weaken not only the fasteners in a hull but also the cellular structure of timber around the fasteners and other metal components in the hull.

Older boats that have not had satisfactory maintenance can be very expensive to repair.