New glued-veneer boat planking material from Finland

Contact

There's a contact page, where you can send a message to them. For what I know, they are very open to new ideas and development of the product. http://www.vendia.fi/contact

 

Jarmo,

I have sent an enquiry.

Regards,

Perry

 

Today in the Finnish news they say that exports around Europe have already been shipped to various countries and that the shipping costs are not prohibitive. That might depend a little on the volume ordered, naturally.

 

In his book, "The New Cold-Molded Boatbuilding", Reuel Parker writes he uses T & G as the first layer of his cold moulded boats, followed by two diagonal layers of ply strips for the bottom & two thicknesses of ply for the topsides. He states the T & G makes it easier to shape the hull.

I had a reply from Lenka who sent me two links. Delivery into the UK is two weeks.

http://www.thetroublewitholdboats.blogspot.co.uk/

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzDjSGBYI5iBcHNzamZoa1ZoSmc/edit?pli=1

I shall ask if T & G is available.

Update,

Lenka has confirmed that T & G can be supplied if required, probably with a small uplift in cost.

http://vendiawoods-en.blogspot.fi/

 

Maybe you could make the T&G on a router table or resaw the edges? I've found that if you are making a 'custom ply' it helps to glue the first two veneers together off the hull to help hold the shape, when you create the initial bend. I will confess that I have been more concerned with the outer conformity of the shape.

To the extent of carefully ensuring that the waterlines are correct to those desired, and this is easiest with the boat upside down and level where you can actually measure directly, ie caliper, battens etc. I'm not averse to drawing with pencil on the ply/veneer to confirm, especially as wood construction tends to be a bit of a pyramid - in that it is ply/veneer on hog + keel etc or other configurations over the frames. So you need to keep your wits about you...

 

Reuel Parker explains his methods in his book "The New Cold-Molded Boatbuilding", how he uses T & G for strip planking the first layer. In chapter 7 he describes how his 3 person team took 11 days to prepare the worksite, built the strongback, set up the frame & built the backbone & longitudinals for a 44 footer.

They completed the hull & turned it over 19 days later for a total of 40 days. He writes that the T & G is self fairing from plank to plank. No scarfing is necessary but the butts & T & G must be bedded in thickened epoxy & stage nailed to the moulds after being drawn up tight with cramps to the previous plank. There are 34 chapters, which deal with everything from lofting to launching & for $19-95 + postage, it's a bargain.

http://www.parker-marine.com/parkerlivro.htm

It's the bottom of the boat that gets this treatment, from keel to chine. The majority of the topsides are created with 2 thicknesses of staggered sheets of 8 x 4 plywood. The photos are worth a 1000 words. To complete the bottom he beds 2 more diagonal layers of plywood strips in epoxy. These have to be cut & it would appear that here, the Vendia planks may offer advantages, if speed is of the essence. You pay your money & make a choice.

I recommend buying the book, because it's cheaper than grabbing the wrong end of the stick. It costs about the same as 2-3 planks. Take a look at his gallery. He's had fun.

http://www.parker-marine.com/parker2_2.htm

 

About the glue and impregnation

As a reply to post #8, I'll quote Vendia's blog: "The MUF adhesive is a two-component glue including adhesive and hardener. It is Weather Boil Proof (WBP) glue and meets the requirements of British Standard 1088 for marine plywood. The glue has passed the boiling test, which means that the glue must withstand boiling of 24 hours."

About different impregnation methods, they say: "In addition to boiling test, we have also made the absorption test of impregnating agents. In the test we had Owatrol, Hempel and linseed oil mixed with zinc naphthenate and it proved that all these impregnating agents were absorbed well also through the glue layers."

These tests were made in accordance of standard Cobb24h and Cobb168h -tests. The report is attached, in Finnish only, but the results are obvious. Tested agents were: Owatrol Marine D1, Hempel Wood Impreg, Cold pressed linseed oil with zinc naphtenate (Avotrade co.) and Pine Tar. Linseed oil and tar were thinned with turpentine by 50%.

Distilled water was used as a reference agent to monitor the differences in absorption, and birch plywood as a reference against Vendia Marine Plank. Five pieces of material were tested for each impregnation agent.

To get some sense from the graphs, here's some translations:
Page 7, Taulukko 1 = Graph 1, Massan muutos % = Mass alteration %, Akkuvesi = Distilled water, Pe-öljy = Linseed oil

Page 8, Graph 2: the results of Cobb24h-test, the green one is birch plywood, Pellavaöljy = Linseed oil

Graph 3, the results of Cobb 168h-test

For the pine tar, there was no significant impregnation through the first ply, and a tough film on surface was formed after 48 hours from the beginning of the test. The conclusion was thus that the added mass with tar was mainly becouse of buid-up of a film on the surface of wood.

 

Vendia Marine (Vendia Woods) planking and para-lam timbers are currently out of business, though some effort to continue production is ongoing. I don't know what this means, but it appears this log cutting company, ventured into a new, rather specialized industry, with a high end product, but demand couldn't keep the company viable. Current orders are anticipated to be completed, but after that, who knows. I would have liked to see some of this stuff get to the USA.

 

Paul,

That is sad news. Adrian Morgan used Vendia & Collano Semperoc to build one of Paul Gartside's elegant Bobs in clinker.

http://www.thetroublewitholdboats.blogspot.fi/

http://www.robbins.co.uk/Pdf Files/Collano Semparoc.pdf

Regards,

Perry

 

Shame to see the end of a potentially very good product. Trouble is with tupperware pretty much everywhere and relatively easy to produce, timber is often seen (incorrectly IMHO) as a complete irrelevance and needing continuous maintenance. Sometimes I think honest timber joints are preferable to what gelcoat can hide......

I note that the Collano Semperoc has a relatively low melt point at 120 deg C. Not bad but most marine epoxies are closer to 220-235 deg, I think I'd like a fraction more head room. Personal I admit and I'd need to test it, think Med or Singapore with a black paint finish for a few years....
For the northern UK, Scotland etc, not a problem.

 

Actually, the production of Vendia is not stopped for good, I ordered the planking for two of these boats a couple of weeks ago, and the delivery will be at the end of this month. I visited the factory yesterday to get some veneers for model boats, and they said that orders are still being accepted and delivered. So, to get some of this to USA, just place the orders in. It would possibly be wise to gather a group of interested builders and make a combined order to reduce the shipping costs. I dont know what it would be for USA, but for UK the delivery of 220m of planks is 135€.

Jarmo

 

Good news for boatbuilders. Hard times are over at Vendia (at least for now), and the production of Vendia Marine Plank continues normally. http://vendiawoods-en.blogspot.fi/

 

Nice looking boat. Interesting material.

 

Jamie,
There is a short video at Youtube about building that particular boat, in Finnish though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8NxchEC5x4