Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/08/18

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Subject: [Leica] Wooden boat lifespan
From: r.s.taylor at comcast.net (Richard Taylor)
Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:33:48 -0400
References: <AANLkTinm9S9pWAGJo4kgrF7pC4Wgc47KO3YL=Z0SHQPx@mail.gmail.com> <AANLkTimDPHnmQZSNBPHE4Jkg6RTbSAU6_4JhpVLHZtt8@mail.gmail.com>

Yes, absolutely.  They have to be constantly renewed.  The "Constitution" 
here in Boston, has but a few slivers of the original wood and yet if even 
they went away, she would still be the "Constitution."  

I read in the New York Times yesterday about a new project to bring the 
"Charles Morgan" at Mystic Seaport back to sailing condition, too. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/17/science/17ship.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=charles%20morgan&st=cse
or
http://tinyurl.com/2a5fvy6

It's the same thing - restore, renew, use new techniques, even, but it's 
still the same boat.  

It makes them a bit human, I think.  I read somewhere, and one of the 
doctors on the list can correct me if I'm wrong, that none of us have the 
cells in our bodies we were born with, in fact none of the cells we had even 
a few years ago, yet we're still us.  

It's too bad wooden boats can't renew themselves the way we can.  Then we'd 
have a lot more pretty boats sailing around rather than the proliferation of 
fiberglas "Clorox bottles" we have on the water today.*  

Regards, 

Dick

*Then again, maybe not, maybe all the ugly wood boats ended up as landfill.  

On Aug 18, 2010, at 12:30 AM, Michiel Fokkema wrote:

> I regularly sail traditional oak wooden boats from the North of Holland.
> Some of them are close to 100 years. But they get  totally overhauled and
> restored around every 10 years.
> The oldest ones hardly have an original part on it.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Michiel Fokkema
> 
> On 17 August 2010 23:37, Lawrence Zeitlin <lrzeitlin at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Dick writes:
>> 
>> A friend just asked me offline if "Freedom" was really that old.  She is,
>> and was recently restored, viz:
>> 
>> 
>> http://www.woodenyachts.com/media/PDFs/EBrochure.pdf
>> 
>> 
>> http://www.woodenyachts.com/Media/PressLibrary/IYRS_RQ_SUM09.pdf
>> 
>> 
>> - - - - -
>> 
>> Wooden boats CAN last a long time if they are properly maintained. The
>> Charles Morgan, the whaler on display at Mystic Seaport is 100 years old
>> and
>> the Constitution, on display in Boston is over 200 years old. Of course
>> both
>> have had a ton of money poured into them. Typically, though, most wooden
>> boats live only 30 years or so before the cost of keeping them seaworthy
>> adds up to more than the boat is worth. Most of the great clipper ships of
>> the 1800s lasted only about ten years. They were sailed hard to make as
>> much
>> profit as possible then were scrapped or converted into barges. The lower
>> portion of New York's Manhattan had its waterfront extended by grounding
>> these old hulks, filling them with rocks and sand. Occasionally
>> construction
>> projects along the waterfront dig into the remains of these old ships 
>> while
>> excavating the basements. My old wooden boat, Cognac, was 30 years old 
>> when
>> we bought her and it lasted another ten years before the man we sold her 
>> to
>> let her smash on the rocks in a bad storm. It probably would have lived
>> another 20 years, not as long as the Morgan or the Freedom, but as long as
>> my Leica M3.
>> 
>> 
>> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Larry+Z/9_+Cognac+just+after+launch.jpg.html
>> 
>> 
>> Larry Z
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> Leica Users Group.
>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> --------------------------------------------
> Fokkema Fotografie
> www.michielfokkema.com
> michiel.fokkema at gmail.com
> GSM:+31 (0) 615569576
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
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Replies: Reply from mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner) ([Leica] Wooden boat's)
In reply to: Message from lrzeitlin at gmail.com (Lawrence Zeitlin) ([Leica] Wooden boat lifespan)
Message from michiel.fokkema at gmail.com (Michiel Fokkema) ([Leica] Wooden boat lifespan)