Several years ago, we had to deliver a boat that had been caught up in a double murder in Mexico.  The husband had been murdered, the wife had flown home to recover and sort out her future. Unfortunately this was her second marrige and the boat was not registered jointly in her name. Nor was she signed on as Captain. Her husbands will stated, as many do, that she would inherit his possessions if she survived him for 180 days. That left the boat ownership in complete limbo. We had a really difficult time arranging for clearance so we could take possession of the boat and head to sea. (We discuss this in a lot more detail in the next edition of Capable Cruiser which should be available in December 2009). From that experience we learned we needed a document to cover either of us should a similar situation occur. We keep a current copy signed and witnessed and with a notary’s signature in our shipboard files. It is important to have this document both witnessed and notarized as in some parts of the USA two witnesses are required for any document which could be involved in the estate of a deceased person.

As many of you may already know, Lin and I have long been concerned with the over reliance on Epoxy as a wood adhesive, either for wooden boats or for wooden parts used on the exterior of glass boats.  The three pages from the 18 page appendix in my book, Details of Classic Boat Construction, which are shown here, give you just a brief introduction to my concerns. In it we show the research we did over a 20 year period and the conclusions we reached. Just a few weeks ago we received an email from an amateur boat builder in Finland who asked, “It has been a few years since you wrote that appendix, do you think epoxy adhesives have been improved since then? And where can you get the resorcinol adhesives you talk about?”

I did some research and can definitely say that nothing much has changed. Epoxy still would not be my choice for any structural member of a wooden boat, nor for any joints on deck which will not be heavily protected by paint or varnish. Furthermore, I have used resorcinol in conjunction with fiberglass cloth successfully (eight years of constant exposure to sun and rough sailing so far) and would consider using it instead of epoxy with unidirectional fiberglass cloth or S cloth if I wanted to sheath a wooden hull or to lay over a laminated deck or plywood deck.

Resorcinol is not as easy to find as epoxy, but here in New Zealand you can buy it at any Carters building supply store. In Canada it is available on line from www.aircraftspruce.com/canada.html. In the USA www.Chemical-Supermarket.com run by DGR Industrial Products, Livermore California 1-408-221-7122 can supply not only DAP brand resorcinol, but two others with slightly different cure rates and temperature tolerances, G-1131 and Aerodux 500 which sets to full strength in temperatures as low as 59 degrees farenheit.

Click here to view the excerpts from Details of Classic Boat Construction.