Caulking or Corking?

This is why we took a class! The Center for Wooden Boats offered a caulking/corking class last Spring so John and I went to see more of what we are getting ourselves into. Caulking is the process of filling in the spaces between the planks on the hull of the boat. This is done with a caulking iron and cotton batting. The technique is pretty simple: the caulker holds the batting in one hand and the iron in the other and basically used the flat edge of the iron to wedge the material where it needs to go. It is reminiscent of yarn crafts like crochet or knitting, which might be why I was declared a "natural". Of course, things are much easier in a class where the examples are designed to produce successful students. On our boat the planks are much closer together and so the process of getting the 'caulk' neatly positioned will be more difficult.

Before any caulking happens though, one must first reef out the 60 year old cotton that is already there. There is another iron for this. That's right, its called a reefing iron. Basically, its an iron hook that you wedge in between the planks and just get that stuff out of there.

We haven't done any of this on our boat yet. But its one little thing that we now feel qualified to do that will bring us one step closer to the dream.

Oh and, whether you say "caulking" or "corking" depends on the region you are in. Another reason this class was so helpful!