Bofisco's Garboards
by
Daniel B. MacNaughton
One of the toughest repair jobs on a traditionally built wooden boat is the replacement of garboards with a severe twist in them. Sure they weren't too hard to steam and bend into place originally when there weren't any other planks present to interfere with clamping the garboards into place. To replace them is another story and can be expensive all out of proportion to the small amount of planking being replaced.
This article describes in detail how we solved that problem when we were asked to repair a 65' sardine carrier, the Bofisco. With the information in this article you should be able to create beautiful garboards with no panic parties, redone work, or structural compromises. We were told that this repair entirely cured this heavily used work boat's leaks.
Further, every time she hauled out in subsequent years we would take a look at her underbody and were very pleased to see that they looked always looked perfect. About a year ago, with this garboard repair having been done about a decade and a half ago and the vessel having subsequently fallen on hard times we came upon her in a yard well down the coast apparently being worked on to some degree but needing it. Everything was looking a little care worn at that point except those garboards which still looked as smooth and perfect as the day that we relaunched her after installing them. I can highly recommend this repair method. (tm) $10.00