I dilute it with a bit of acetone, catalyze the hell out of it, and paint it on to roughed up wood so that the wood absorbs the resin well, and so that it won't just flake off again. A rotary tool with a grinder head or sandpaper drum head is an extremely useful tool for dealing with this sort of thing. In order to seal the wood, you have to have a good, clean surface to make your sealant stick. It's a waste of time trying to seal dirty or wet wood, but getting old, oily wood clean often isn't possible. In that case, resorting to painting on a wood preservative may be the best solution.
People often ask what to do about glass over wet wood stringers.
My Rx is to use a hole cutter and cut through the outer laminate and expose the wood to let it dry out. If it's real wet, you can try pulling a vacuum with some poly film and tape. On really wet wood, that will pull a lot of water out fast. When going through your boat, look carefully at all those places where a hole cutter was used to cut limber holes. See photo below.