Hello again,

  I was going to tack this onto my last post, but decided it deserved a posting of its own;

  I'm going to actually start painting my boat at some point this year...the weather's almost consistently good enough to strip the last of the old paint off...but I've got a few questions before I go diving in;

  I've been told that aluminium, or pink wood-primer is the stuff to use first, as it'll soak into the wood and preserve it; is that a good idea?

  The planking has seperated by five or six millimetres having been out of the water for so long now;  should I put something in the gaps or leave them on the basis that they'll close up again once back in the water?

  There are a few planks that have split through damage over the decades;  were I to replace them, is it as "simple" a job as drilling out the rivets, fitting a new plank and then re-rivetting it?  What wood should I use?  Mahogany (which is what my boat's made of) is rather impractical to obtain these days...

  Any help will be much appreciated,

   All the best,

Paul

Thanks Don,

  do you put anything on the canvas between the planks before you put the new plank in place?

  I've read before about using nuts and bolts instead of roving - does that sound likely?

Paul

I'm all up for learning traditional skills :)

Doesn't the white lead paste get squeezed out when the planks expand in the water?

Paul

Hi folks,

the material used between the skins of D/D planking was ioled calico (calico soaked in linseed oil)

Regards,

Donald