How does a wooden boat sink?

Question

I geusse I could see how one of the old wooden battleships could sink cause of all the ballast and cannon and rigging and whatnot, but wouldn't a wooden rowboat be able to stay afloat? (since it's more or less a piece of wood, just in an unusual shape!) thanks!

Answer 1

Wood for the most part is bouyant however if not treated properly can become waterlogged.

One thing to note- most  wood boat owners love their boats for maneuvability-theres something very stable about handling a hard chine vessel that runs circles around fiberglass.

Answer 2

any boat floats by weighing less than the amount of water it displaces... The opposite obviously would occur if it were flooded by say a popped seam..

Answer 3

They usually sink because of a whole in the boat that allows the boat to take on water.

The weight of the water sinks it, and it depends upon the boats' damage. (They usually sink pretty fast unless tied to a moring!)

The water will continue to go through the whole in the boat after it has sunk, until it starts breaking up, but it doesn't sit on the lake or ocean bottom.  It actually floats under the water!  P.S. There are a lot of things I don't know, I'm still reading, but I once took an underwater snap shot of a sunken row boat,

we thought the air bubbles were coming from a person!  lol

Answer 4

Wood boats sink the same way fiberglass, steel, aluminum or concrete boats sink.. they fill with water and they weigh more than the water they are sitting in.. so they sink.

Answer 5

wood and water do not necessarily mix well,  wood can rot when in the water, so a lack of maintenance would surely cause a wood hull to sink.  wood boats, in warmer waters have a tendency to have critters eat at them (worms, etc). boats ate typically not a single piece of wood but rather with frames with lap siding for the gunwales.  hope this helps somewhat.

Answer 6

Keels, hardware and engines want to send a boat to the bottom.  Good seamanship keeps a boat floating, bad seamanship sends the boat to the bottom.

Answer 7

Doesn't take much weight  to sink a piece of wood.  Most wood is coated with heavy paint and varnish that can help send it to the bottom.

Answer 8

a leak might get enough water inside it... doesn't take too much to sink it. one might find floating wood pieces but usually boats will sink.

Answer 9

you are on the right track..just wood will not sink....you can fill a wood boat up to it's top edge and water will flood in and the boat will float just at the surface.a condition known as "swamped" or "awash"...now if you have an engine, or ballast, or years and years of paint accumulation, yeah,  it could sink....

my boat ( pictured) is 37 foot and all wood..no engine, but 7,000 pounds of lead ballast!