Spoon test for boats

Spoon test for boats

You can find old boats real cheap these days. You need to check them out very well before you buy them…you usually get what you pay for. An old metal soup spoon is a great tool to help check out a boat. It’s a great tool for a boater.

Wood parts on a boat can often become soft and damaged in the boat. When you are looking over the boat, first look for discoloration of wood parts and signs of water leaks or areas where water could have collected and sat for long periods. A water stain may not mean much, but it could. An old soup spoon is a great testing tool.

You can tap on areas with the bowl of the spoon, and the sound it makes lets you know if it is solid or not. Solid areas have a crisp sound when taped. If the sound is a thud and surface dents when taped, that is not good. By tapping, you can outline the damaged area to see how far it extends. The handle of the spoon can also be used to poke in to an area to see how soft it is.

You can also tap fiberglass panels with similar results. For example: on a transom, wood is often covered with fiber-glass and if the wood under the glass breaks down and becomes structurally unsound the rear of the boat can break off. The spoon tap test can quickly uncover a problem here. I would not want to put an outboard on a bad transom and have it fall in to the water.

Tapping panels can give you a good idea of what is behind the panel, IE air space or structural supports. Tapping a seam where two panels join can also show up problems.

An old metal soup spoon is great tool for a boater, both as a testing tool and a tool for mixing things. 8-) A riggers knife, a multi tool and boat deck-matetool can also come in handy.