Light Weight Plywood

Hi all,

I have been looking at ply for a multihull build, most likely a Crowther Buccaneer Tri, the benchmark seems to be the Joubert Gaboon, but I am wondering what are your thoughts on this stuff ? It would appear to be about 20% lighter again.

Goldcore Light: Quality Lightweight Plywood. Plywood for Marine, Motor homes, Construction and Commercial interiors.

Assume all exterior surfaces to be sheathed in epoxy and 4oz S glass.

Cheers,
RR

 

There are hundreds of brand name plywood products world wide. Can you offer a spec sheet or PDF for this product? This product was discussed earlier this year, but no speices information was available then from Goldcorelight.com.

Some communications with industry insiders has revealed it's 1 mm Ocoume faces with inner cores of Alstonia. It has low resistance to shock loads and poor stiffness. It's been designed as a substrate for cabinets and serves this function, but wouldn't be recommenced in small craft construction.

 

"It has low resistance to shock loads and poor stiffness." That is what I needed to know, thank you Par.

 

By the time you use an expensive gaboon, glass it, add stiffeners blah blah blah, would it maybe be more cost effective to use something like http://www.polycore.com.au/index.php or http://www.highpointtimber.com.au/products/stripplanking.html you can buy solid panels as well

 

One NA I have spoken to has done a number of tests on Plywood in Australia, and recommends Kakoda Brand Marine Ply for true lightness and quality. Some local builders have also added their endorsement.

Joubert Gaboon was well over the 'quoted' weights on the test sheets he bought. One boat designer found his boat kits were well overweight from Joubert Ply.

PS - Port Phillip Plantation Shutters in Melbourne is supposed to have the best prices on Kiri

 

:idea: Get a set of scales and a stack of ply would and weigh each sheet you will be amazed at the differance in the weight of sheets from the same stack .

 

Out of the 100 sheet delivery I just took, the Meranti was within 5% of it's spec and the Okoume was within 7%. If you toss out the odd ball sheets, both figures are half this, so the published data is accurate, though it might be wise to weight sheets in weight sensitive projects.