CHAPTER VI

THE CARE OF BOATS

Every boat, no matter how small, requires a certain amount of care and attention and this is a matter which is all too often neglected.

The larger the boat the more care it will require, while boats in salt water need far more attention than those in fresh water.

If a boat is pulled up on shore, or is placed in a boathouse when not in use, it will require less care than a craft kept in the water at an anchorage or moorings, but even when thus hauled out there are a certain number of things which must be attended to.

Boats in the water are subject to the action of the water, the depredations of marine animals, the growth of marine plants and to the dangers from storms. Unless these are guarded against and overcome a boat will soon be worthless. In fresh water the effect of the water upon wood and metal is far less injurious than in salt water and the troubles from animal life and water plants are almost negligible. When in salt water these things are among the most important matters to be guarded against and constant care and watchfulness are necessary if a boat is to be kept in good condition.

Salt water corrodes and rusts iron very rapidly and hence boats with plain iron fastenings and fittings should be avoided for salt water use. Copper or brass fastenings and brass or bronze fittings are far better, but these are expensive. Galvanized iron is therefore adopted very generally for salt water use on boats.

Even when a boat is well painted and the iron parts are thus protected, the salt water will corrode and destroy the iron work and just as soon as the paint becomes old, thin, worn or chipped off, the parts go to pieces very rapidly. For this reason boats should always be kept well painted and varnished at all times, and whenever a bit of paint is rubbed or knocked off, it should immediately be touched up with fresh paint.

In salt water, too, marine animals and seaweeds attach themselves to every submerged portion of a boat’s hull and grow very rapidly.

Not only do these growths hinder a boat from sailing well and rapidly, but they also destroy the paint and injure the wood beneath it. This paves the way for the water to soak into the planks and timbers and rot them and corrode the metal fastenings which hold the various parts of the boat together.

Still more injurious are the shipworms or _teredos_. These are marine animals which are not really worms at all, but are a species of mollusc related to the common clam. They do not _eat_ the wood, as many people think, but merely bore into it to form their homes or burrows, and wherever they go they line their holes with a thin coating of lime or shell.

The shipworms are very small when they first enter the wood and as they increase in size they bore larger and larger holes until they riddle the wood with burrows and completely destroy it. No signs, however, save a few tiny holes, may be visible externally. So rapidly do they work if unchecked that large ships have been sunk by them in less than a year and there are several records of such catastrophes occurring.

Teredos seldom attack wood which is far below the surface but work mostly at or near the water line. For that reason small boats of shallow draft are often more seriously and rapidly injured by these pests than larger and deeper boats.

Moreover the shipworms seek spots which are out of sight for their depredations and unless the boat-owner is very careful he may overlook very serious injuries by the teredos without dreaming that they exist. The cracks between keels and sternposts, between keels and garboard planks and the interior or centerboard trunks and cases are favorite spots for teredos to bore and quite often the timbers in such situations are completely destroyed and the boat is rendered worthless before one realizes that teredos have attacked the boat at all.

But even without marine growths and teredos the planks and timbers of a boat may become rotten and useless through the action of the water. This is particularly the case where a boat rests upon a muddy bottom at low tide, for the mud contains gases and chemicals which destroy the paint and this allows the water to penetrate and rot the wood.

To guard against these three principal dangers every boat should be hauled out at frequent intervals, the bottom should be scrubbed, scraped and cleaned, and should then be allowed to dry thoroughly, after which it should be freshly painted with some reliable and good anti-fouling bottom paint such as the various copper paints. Large boats are usually sheathed or covered with copper plates below the water line in order to protect the wood, but small boats depend upon a coating of copper paint.

Whenever a boat is hauled out to be scraped and painted it should be examined carefully for rot or worms and the various planks, the keel, stem, sternpost, centerboard, centerboard trunk and case and in fact, all the woodwork below water should be tested for teredos or rot by probing with the tip of a knife blade. If the wood is sound the blade will not penetrate readily, whereas if the wood has been injured by worms or is rotten the blade will enter very easily. When this occurs a thorough investigation should be made to determine the extent of the damage.

If the spot is small it may be dug out by a chisel or gouge and the cavity may be filled with white lead or marine glue and painted over, whereas if there is a large area damaged a new plank or a new piece of timber must be fitted. In any case every hole, crack or crevice should be carefully plugged with white lead or marine glue before painting, for if this is not done rot and worms will be almost certain to find the unprotected spots and will commence to destroy the wood.

If there is a stream or body of fresh water near at hand a great deal of time and trouble may be avoided by running your boat into fresh water and allowing her to remain there for a day or two at a time. Marine growths and teredos cannot live in fresh water and any which have become attached to the boat will die and drop off when the craft is left for a short time in fresh water. To be efficacious the water must be really fresh and _not_ brackish, for many marine plants and animals _will_ live and thrive in brackish water.

When boats are first placed in the water they are dry and often leak badly, but as the wood swells with the action of the water the seams tighten up and often a boat which leaks like a sieve when first launched will be perfectly tight after a few days’ immersion. For this reason you should not be discouraged if your boat leaks when you first put her in the water, but if she still leaks after two or three days you may be sure there is something wrong which should be attended to at once. By bailing out the water and wiping the inside dry with a sponge you can usually find the leak, and if it is small it may be stopped by pushing caulking cotton into the seam or crack with a thin knife blade or a putty knife. Very often a small leak may be caused by a nail hole and this may be stopped completely by driving in a tiny wooden plug.

If there is difficulty in locating the leak from inside the boat, if the leak is large or if there are several, the boat should be hauled out on shore and partly filled with water. Then, by watching the outside of the hull, you can easily find where the water runs out. The spots should then be marked, the water drawn out by means of the boat plug (a wooden plug driven into a hole through the planks near the keel), and the seams where the leaks occur should be cleaned free of all putty, paint and old caulking and should be recaulked.

It is an easy matter to caulk a seam if a little care is used, the only implements and tools required being a small caulking iron, some caulking cotton and a hammer. Unravel a strand of the cotton, roll it between your palms until it forms a strand a trifle larger than the width of the crack to be caulked and then press the end into the seam with a corner of the caulking iron or a knife blade. Catch the strand of cotton lightly into the seam in this way all along the seam and then with the caulking iron and hammer drive the cotton well into the opening. It is impossible to describe just how to use the iron, but it is a knack soon acquired and is accomplished by a sort of rocking motion with the iron as the tool is struck lightly with the hammer.

Drive the cotton well below the surface of the wood but _don’t_ try to force in too much and _don’t_ drive it in so hard that it spreads or starts the plank. When the seams are well filled with cotton press white lead or marine glue over the caulking and paint thoroughly. _Never_ use putty on a boat, especially below the water line, for it will crumble and fall out very soon and is no better than nothing at all. Use pure, thick white lead and linseed oil or the best marine glue. The white lead may be pressed in with a putty knife but marine glue must be run in by means of a hot iron; full directions accompany the glue when purchased.

1—Caulking mallet. 2, 3, 4, 5—Caulking irons. 6—Caulking hammer.

Before launching your boat in the spring all the seams should be cleaned free of old paint and lead, and if any of the old caulking is loose or hanging out it should be removed and replaced with new and all seams, rough spots and nail head holes should then be filled with white lead or marine glue before painting.

_Don’t_ drive the caulking too tightly into the seams when the boat is dry and _don’t_ fill the seams flush with the glue or lead. Leave a little hollow along every seam as otherwise, when the boat swells in the water, the caulking and filling will be forced out and will either flake off or will present rough, irregular surfaces to the water and will thus take a great deal from the speed of the boat.

It is a good plan to pour a quantity of water into the boat a few days before launching as this will swell the planks and if any leaks exist you can find them before placing the boat overboard.

Before painting any part of the boat, all the old, loose, dry or rough paint should be scraped and sandpapered smooth and if it is in very bad shape it should be burned off by a torch, or removed by some good paint- and varnish-remover until the smooth surface of the wood is exposed.

Use only the very best paint and varnish for the boat, for cheap, poor paints and varnishes are worse than nothing on a boat, and the very best is the cheapest in the end. Use very little turpentine and still less dryer in the paint, for while paint mixed with oil alone may dry slowly, it will last far longer than paint with a great deal of turpentine or dryer. Haste makes waste in everything connected with a boat.

Aside from the care of the hull there are the masts, sails and rigging to be looked after. The masts and spars should be scraped and sandpapered, varnished with two coats of the best spar-varnish and allowed to dry thoroughly.

Standing rigging should be overhauled. Any frayed or worn parts should be renewed, the metal parts should be cleaned free of rust or corrosion and painted and new running rigging should be rove through the blocks if the old ropes are frayed, rotten, worn or weak. The blocks should all be looked over; broken ones should be replaced and sheaves should be oiled and turned until they move easily on their bearings.

The sails should be spread out; all torn or frayed spots mended and if reef points, earrings or other ropes on the sails are ravelled, frayed or worn, they should be replaced.

If the sails are mildewed, dirty or discolored, they should be scrubbed with good soap and water and bleached in the sun. Finally all stays and other rigging should be tightened up.

The boat’s equipment should also be overhauled and put in first-class shape. A good time to attend to this is while the paint and varnish are drying.

Every boat, no matter how small, should _always_ have an anchor on board with enough anchor line to allow you to anchor in fairly deep water—usually from fifty to one hundred feet of line according to the size of the boat and the depth of the waters where you sail. If the boat is small and a long anchor line is in the way the anchor may be attached to a comparatively short line and another line may be coiled and tied neatly and stored away where it can readily be reached if needed.

There are many kinds of anchors, but the commonest form is the ordinary two-fluke pattern with a sliding “stock.” When not in use the cross-piece, or stock, is folded along the shank and thus occupies little space and when it is to be used the stock is held in position at right angles to the shank by a metal key. It is a good plan to seize the stock in position with a bit of line as well as by means of the key for the latter often works loose and allows the anchor to drag. There are also several good designs of folding anchors and for very small boats grapnels may be used if desired.

There is no use in carrying an anchor unless it is large enough to hold the boat in a reasonable wind and sea and for small boats the anchors should weigh at least two pounds for every foot of the boat’s water line length. Every boat over twenty-five feet in length should have at least two anchors, and one of these should be at least one-and-one-half times as heavy as the other. In addition to these real anchors there should be a _sea-anchor_ or _drogue_ in the boat if you ever expect to sail in any but the smoothest waters and lightest winds.

1—Common anchor. 2—Grapnel. 3—Drogue or sea-anchor. 4—Keg mooring buoy. 5—Iron mooring buoy. 6—Spar mooring buoy. 7—Mushroom anchor.

A drogue or sea-anchor consists of an iron ring or a strong wooden hoop from one to two feet in diameter which is often hinged or jointed so it may be folded up, and to this a conical canvas bag is sewn. If the drogue is to be used on a fairly large boat it should be strengthened by ropes, as shown in the illustration, and in any case the ring or hoop should be provided with a four-rope “bridle” as illustrated (_A_). To the small end a light line (_B_) should be fastened to “trip” the drogue when you wish to draw it in, and a cork float (_C_) is attached at the end of a line three or four feet in length (_D_) to prevent the sea-anchor from sinking or “diving.” Some people prefer a drogue with the lower or smaller end left open, but the form shown will serve for all-around purposes as well as any.

The drogue is used when “riding-out” a gale or “lying-to” in a storm or heavy sea and its purpose is to hold the boat’s bow to the wind and waves and also to prevent the boat from drifting too rapidly to leeward. It should be attached to a stout line twenty-five to forty feet in length and passed over the bows and if there is no sea-anchor at hand a bucket, a couple of oars lashed crosswise, thwarts, spare sails, cushions, or, in fact, anything which will float and will offer a considerable resistance to the water, may be used in place of a drogue.

Not only will a drogue hold a boat’s head on to wind and sea but it will also form a “smooth” for the boat and will often prevent the waves from breaking over the bow.

When riding to a drogue a close-reefed sail, or the upper part of the sail may be set to keep the boat steady if necessary, but most boats will ride very well to a drogue without any sail whatever.

Be sure that your boat has oars, oarlocks, a boat-hook, a compass and a lantern on board, for these simple things may save your life and they will come in useful scores of times. If you go on long cruises or sail any distance from shore you should also have a keg of fresh water in the boat at all times, for one never knows when an accident may happen and the boat may be kept out to sea for many hours at a time and if such an event _does_ occur you will give heartfelt thanks for your foresight in providing drinking-water.

Finally there is the ballast. If the boat carries inside ballast it may be in the form of iron or lead bars, cobble stones or sandbags and these should be looked over, cleaned and put in good shape. If the sandbags leak, mend them with strong thread and give them a good coat of paint; if stones are used wash them in fresh water and let them dry before placing in the boat, and if iron bars are used, chip off the rust and give them a coat of asphaltum varnish, or some good metal paint.

When pulling up the boat for the winter or placing her “out of commission” _always_ drain all the water out of the hull. All weeds, shells and marine growths should be removed from the bottom and the planks should be scrubbed off and the keel blocked up so that it rests on a firm support at several points, as otherwise it may bend or buckle from the boat’s weight.

The inside ballast should be taken out and placed aside; the running rigging should be taken down, coiled and hung in a safe dry spot; all the equipment should be taken from the boat and stored away and the sails should be soaked in fresh water, dried thoroughly, rolled up and stored in a dry loft or similar place.

A little care and trouble taken in such matters will save a vast amount of time, trouble and expense when ready to put the boat in the water, for dampness, dirt and rust will play havoc with the woodwork, ropes, sails and other parts of the boat if left alone over winter, while marine growths and old paint are far easier to remove from the bottom when wet and fresh than after they have dried and hardened during the months in which the boat is hauled out.

If you use a mooring this should be taken up in the fall and stored over winter, for ice will often carry away a mooring buoy and chain which will resist the most severe storms. If the stone, anchor or other object used as a mooring is too heavy to be taken up the mooring buoy should be taken from the chain and a cheap wooden spar or pole should be substituted. This will resist the action of ice and winter storms better than the keg or can buoy, and if it is lost it doesn’t amount to much and the chain can usually be picked up again by a grapnel.

In order that you may be able to locate your mooring, if the buoy is sunk or carried away, you should make a note of cross bearings (see