What planking to replace?

[Ben Gaspar]

Hi all. I'm looking for advice on what planking to replace in my 1944 Old Town 50 lb. I'm almost finished with stripping the varnish and would like to order some wood to keep the project going. There are the obvious spots that have holes, but what about these other spots where there is just cracking? Do those spots also need replacing?


I'm also trying to assess whether the bow and sterns need any work. I'm leaning towards thinking no, but not sure if that's just due to my inexperience.
Bow:

Stern:


Thanks for any knowledge you can lay on me.

Ben from NC

 

[Dan Miller]

Your stems look fine to me.

Since you have to replace the bits with holes in them, I would go ahead and replace the planks that are cracking - you'll be mixing and matching stain anyway. The planking on the 50-lb model is thinner than the usual, and so is a bit more fragile to begin with. If you can get the flaps to lay down tightly, you could possible glue them back down using some sort of jury-rigged clamp, but you'll probably always notice the cracks later. And besides, there's probably too much varnish, dirt, fish scales, etc. beneath the flaps to get them to lay nicely.

 

[Ben Gaspar]

Well that's some good news. I'm really happy to hear that I won't need to do any stem work.

As for the planking, you're exactly right. It is on the thin side at 1/8 inch and I don't think I'll be able to get those spots to lay flat. Although I do wonder about the quantity of fish scales