Which wood would you use?

That sounds awesome! Would love to witness such a performance.

I forgot to mention, you could also use a flexible caulking that is suitable for marine use.

There is no perfect way to build a boat. It's all a trade-off factoring intended use and lifespan, budget, and materials + labor available.

You have a great privilege in felling your own lumber and turning it into something of beauty and use to you.

I am a strong advocate of wood as a material for just about anything. If it was me I would go all white pine and use the oak for beautiful furniture or build a nice cottage, keeping with historical techniques

 

Given a choice that includes maple, I always go with maple.

 

birdseye maple is my favorite for furniture and cabinets. Prettiest wood I've seen.

 

Funny how every bit of sycamore/rock maple I've ever seen exposed to salt water goes black.....

 

cheap ebony

 

Pretty maple

I really like working maple as well. So much so, I would have put it in a boat, had I not been advised against it by countless people who really know what they are talking about.

I am sitting on a bunch. Once it dries its destined to become a nice solid dining table.

 

Maple doesn't belong in boat building (other than maybe a bit of interior accent trim). It is heavy and has very little rot resistance.

 

What about the use of red oak for laminated frames? The frames are generally dry (except for the occasional bilge water) and can be fully encapsulated in epoxy.

 

check out corruven.com. you may be able to laminate maple onto those.
Could even do curves with thin maple skin. I like maple too, but for fire burning ... and maple syrup , our family is producing alot. I am looking at laminating thin wood skins onto fluted polycarbonate , why ? because in the flutes i will be able to run water for flooring radiant heat (at the same time it can hold 900 liters of shower waters distilled of course)
the only radiant heat possible with wood. I have not tested with electrical radiant.
So far, epoxy seems to work with wood and pc. I looked at running small water pipes like in some bathroom projects i saw in Massachusetts, into those corruven. I found i would save weight and costs. Not sure either if Rehau piping would react with polycarbonate. I am also evaluating to replace okoume plywoods with solid and fluted pc.
There is an ulterior motive to this idea, but i need to do more testing. Fluted linear panels show many advantages . The squeletton would remain a composite of glass/carvon and yes wood for above water line. I trust Joubert Okoume we had success in small projects with it. I dont know about asian okoume, but i had good references on indonesian from a friend. Needs more investigations before trusting chinese or other asian plys.
What i like about PC is the fact it can be large panels, and no sanding . My cross beams would remain in wood / glass composite.
food for discussions.

 

With modern coatings, rot resistance is not a concern. Otherwise, boats built with balsa and honeycomb would not be possible.

 

Personnaly i prefer wood boats, we had many "carte postale" crisscrafts in the past, i was the polisher man. The sound is cozy and i hate the smell of fiberglass. I am not an expert but i expect good wood structures to last longer flexing than composites. I feel that polycarbonate has an acoustique potential and could be well hybrided with wood squeleton. PC only to be used as the skin substrate. (hulls, walls, roofs (solar))
It has an elongation factor to consider. But really good impact resistance. Needs to be protected (even uv treated) from elements , salt one of them, other syntetics as well, but i think less than bare wood for water (salt or not). Anyway, each boat program varies according to end user.
Okoume seems to be still the ply of choice , 3mm scarfed and CM , vacuumed with epoxy. Balsa is a light wood of choice and honycomb are included in my design.
Why the hell can't we find good cheap ply in China ? Do BS stamps mean nothing ?
i need 1000 (3x1200x2400mm) plys. With PC skin , i would need half the wood. But my friend is interested also. He is more on the auto-piloting and auto sail trim algorthym interest. Soon, sailboats will cross the oceans via satellite steering. Water drones i guess. Dolphins will soon text us they dont like foils ... hydraplanor better idea ? with a kite ?
I called the nano wood fiber project (to be 3 times/w stronger than carbon fiber ... ?) people, conclusion, not ready yet.
At least for now i can enjoy my friend's Leopard 44 with frontal access... not as fast as a Gunboat ... Gunboat should enlarge their front cockpit, more private in stern docked marinas ... a winner with my wife and friends. cheers
Mike

 

Dude, can you please translate this into English?

 

I have to brush up on my english i guess. sorry if people dont understand.

 

White pine has been and still is employed in planking. Often it's eastern white spruce, not pine, but a lot of the common names get jumbled up in general use. If it's clear and straight grained, it may well be a pine, as the spruce is getting hard to find clear, in longer lengths.

This soft pine is quite prized for it's lightness, which on dories, skiffs, sharpies, etc. is a decided advantage. I has dubious durability, especially if plantation grown (most of it is now), but encapsulated this shouldn't be a major issue. I use a lot of white spruce for spars.

Of the "whites", live oak is the better choice, because of it's interlocking grain, which resists checking, splitting, etc. It's also tougher and denser. The "reds" are also quite commonly used in boat building, but because it's not as tough or dense and it's lack of rot resistance, has it relegated to deadwood assemblies on moored or berthed craft or structural elements relatively high up in the frame work. It's often used in sacrificial pieces, such as keel strips or rubs, because by the time it starts to rot, it's beaten up enough to need replacement anyway.

My question isn't about this solid wood choices, but why you'd prefer to use them over plywood. Using plywood will certainly be cheaper. One sheet will cover 32 square feet in a single panel and it's stable, unlike solid wood. It would make a barge or jon boat shape much easier to build too. If the boat was taped seam built, rather then plank over frame it'll be lighter, more water tight and much more dimensionally stable as well.

 

Perhaps in Florida.

Here, carpenters know the difference between species of wood, and can tell the difference between Acer macrophyllum and Acer saccharum.

The Pinaceae, in contrast, are easy.