I'm building my first sneak boat and had a question about sealing it. I have searched online and most threads about sealing wooden boats have to do with leaving natural wood shown. since I plan to paint mine I wanted to know if anybody had experience with this? its mostly constructed out of plywood for the hull. I was going to go with a marine grade paint and use a polyurethane varnish on top, any other suggestions?

Go join duckboats.net There is decades of info on this if you dig through old posts. I have hunted wood hulled scull boats before and still own one. It has been part of my family history for generations. If I were to attempt an answer to your question it would be this.

Plywood hulls NEED to be sealed to work correctly. They do not swell like oak lathe hulls. They just separate. A thin layer of fiberglass will work. The wood hulls that are left natural are wood lathe and sealed normally with Oakum, pitch and linseed oil. Like the old school tall ships. Unless you are a history buff and want to hunt like the market hunters, you are better off going with up to date tech. Also, with plywood hulls you need to scarf the joints, not just butt joint. If you want true hull integrity. I got really into this with scull boats for years and it was awesome. But tons of work. Like I said, go join duckboats, and be really respectful. If you ask nice you will likely get answers directly from the guys in the industry that have built wood boats for years.

Good luck! And post pics!! Wood boats rock.

If you're on Facebook this page is really good.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1401321466609729/?ref=share

I used two part expoy on mine.

Keep an eye some times you can find two part exopy garage floor paint pretty cheap

What boat are you building?

I built a plywood boat many years ago. My boat was actually the first customer completed Gatorboats Duckhunter.

Plywood will eventually check and when it does it allows water intrusion. Even if you painted it, the paint can separate/check with the plywood and allow water in. The best way to seal your plywood boat is marine 2part epoxy and fiberglass encapsulation.

Before you paint your boat, I'd recommend the following:

-brush/roll the entire interior and exterior with a couple of coats of two part marine epoxy. The plywood will soak up or "drink" much of the first couple of coats. Lightly sand between coats knocking down the raised wood grain and the epoxy "blush."
-Once you have coated the boat a couple of times, the exterior should get a layer of fiberglass cloth and epoxy.
-After fiberglassing the exterior, you can coat with multiple thin coats of epoxy (sanding between coats) until desired smoothness is achieved.
-One final sand and then paint as desired.

This doesn't mean you can leave your boat outside in the yearlong weather, but with proper care and storage it will last a long time.

Epoxy is expensive. I haven't price checked in a long time but back when I built my boat, this was the most cost effective epoxy out there. I bought my epoxy and fiberglass from this place. I used the 3:1 "medium" epoxy.

http://www.uscomposites.com/epoxy.html


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thanks for all the info from everybody. I appreciate all the links and suggestions.

Good stuff

If you are near Fort Worth you might check with https://www.compositesone.com/people/about/locations/distribution-centers/fort-worth-texas/
About 10 years ago it was our best source of materials for fiberglass since we could pick it up at the warehouse.

I did a plywood using exterior grade 3/8" and it leaked a little but I just kept a sponge handy. I painted it olive green inside and out.

I used combo of exterior ply wood and Maine grade. Hull is exterior and cap marine. My layout/sneak boats over 10 years old.

Comes down to how well you seal it. Mine is glassed in and out. Marine grade is usually kin dried with a waterproof glue.

Only down to mine is it’s a tank weight wise and I should of went lighter all around