Caulking the Deck

Sealing the Decks for the Summer One of the best things we can do to keep everyone comfortable on board the J. & E. Riggin is keep things dry. Especially in the cabins. The best way to keep the cabins dry, is to make sure there is plenty of material in between the pine planks that form the deck. The gaps between the planks are called seams and they are packed tightly with cotton and oakum before being sealed with a layer of hot pitch. As the boat sails, it bows and flexes in the water, causing some seams to loosen up over time and begin to leak. In the winter, we do our best to identify problem spots and remove wet material between the planks before replacing it, and sealing it with fresh pitch. This process is called caulking. Captain Schaefer spends a lot of time each winter crawling across the deck fixing seams, so we joined him on deck for a demonstration.

The Right Tools for the Job Capt. Schaefer makes his way down to the boat with a milk crate containing caulking cotton, oakum, an assortment of caulking & reefing irons of different thicknesses and lengths, and a caulking mallet. The cotton is just very loosely spun fluffy bales of cotton. Oakum is loosely twisted hemp or jute fiber wet with pine tar. The irons are meant to drive the fibers into the v-shaped gaps between planks when struck by the caulking mallet. A caulking mallet is a wooden mallet designed to minimize damage to the irons and to the joints of the user by absorbing the shock of each impact.

Probing and Reefing the Seams Capt. Schaefer begins by poking the seams with the tip of his knife. If the knife fails to penetrate the seam he knows it is still densely packed. If the tip of the knife sinks right in, he knows he has identified a problem spot. He then uses a reefing iron and a rubber mallet to dig into the seam and extract the rotten fiber. Once all of the rotten fiber has been removed, it is time to start filling it again.

Packing the Seam Capt. Schaefer chooses the right iron for the seam by inspecting the size of the seam and where it is located. “When I am driving cotton I use a thinner iron to start” he says. He lines up a long strand of cotton and systematically pounds it into the seam, driving it in in small arches that overlap slightly. He will then go back after this initial pass and drive the cotton deeper into the seam. Once the cotton is in place, he makes a pass with a layer of oakum. “If I am driving oakum, I will use a wider iron which matches the width of the seam I am working on. I even have irons that are slightly bent for those seams that are against the side of a cabin house.” In the same way he drove the cotton, he drives a thick layer of oakum on top so there is only about a quarter of an inch of space from the oakum to the top of the plank.

Sealing the Seam Now that the seam is packed with fresh fiber, he is ready to add the pitch and seal it. Captain Schaefer, chisels off a few chunks of pitch from a brick. Pitch is a viscoelastic polymer which is derived from coal tar in the process of its distillation. The pitch is put in a can and heated until it is a liquid. It is poured over the seam and left to harden and cool. Sometimes the word pitch is used interchangeably with the word tar, but tar is generally a bit thinner than pitch, while pitch hardens into a solid. Once the pitch has hardened any excess is scraped from the surrounding planks. Hopefully, with the problem seams identified and replaced, we will stay cozy and dry in our cabins throughout the summer!

Things Are Getting Fancy

While the main cabin house is getting it’s makeover, the navigation station is also getting a total renovation.  Those of you who have sailed with us for a while will remember Mouse, a long-time crew member who has, over the years, become a skilled carpenter and shipwright.  He’s back in school for naval architecture and on the weekends we get his good, smart self in our shop.  This beautiful nav. station will grace our cabin house this summer!  Capt. will get to look at all summer long as he stands back by the wheel.   Here’s some photos of the progress.  We’ll post when it’s all on board and installed too.

Isn’t it pretty?!

Photos by Alan Castonguay

Cabin Refresh

Details in the galley.  Details on deck.  Details in the cabins.  Some years we’ve got big projects which cause the little projects to be relegated to the bottom of the usually long list.  We’ve had a couple of those winters in a row, so things like peapod repair, settee cushions, and new navigation stations have taken a back seat to the big stuff that most people don’t see, but is part of being good stewards of a National Historic Landmark.  These would be things like planking and framing, iron work, rig replacement, new sails, etc.  When these big projects are part of our budget in a year, they matter.  It just means that the other (usually more visible things) need to take their turn and wait a little longer.  This is the year of details.  

Among the many details being tended to over the course of this winter are the cabins.  The little details in the cabins which make your home for a week (or 4-days) nicer, a little more special.  This year all of the cabins are getting a going over – new paint, new varnish… new sink skirts.  

In cabins 1 to 4, these beautiful skirts hide the plumbing to the sinks and add to the charm of the cabins.  This beautiful craftsmanship was done by Tyler King with an assist by Chloe Finger.

Photos by Tyler King