questions

greetings after some time of reading and thinking about what i want in a ship design, iv a couple of questions , there anything wrong with building a ship out of one kind of wood? in paticular western red cedar or doug fir?
2 would thin stainless cariage bolts w washers and stop nuts be apropriate modern lapstrake seam fastners?..and heavy'r ones for rib/plank fasteners? instead of piercing and riviting?
3 other wood and fastener reccomendations would be welcomed
4 i pretty mutch want to clear coat the upperworks and anti foul paint below water i like wood
5 since im figuring on haveing to process my own beam and plank,which i dont really have a problem with i think id mutch rather know her construction from the ground up..any reccomendations on seasioning methods i found a note mentioning sinking logs to 200m in cold nortern water for 2-3 monthes before drying ,however that being sort of impratical these days perhaps a cold saltwater tank though?

 

What is the size and type of boat you are thinking of building? Most stainless hardware is a bad idea in wooden boat construction. If you are building a traditional type boat I would use the proven fastening methods. If a new design it depends on the type of construction.

Gary

 

actually its pretty easy to describe though i am loath to give a actuall dimensions til i can post the drawing but she might be properly be described as a Jekte pretty mutch,http://home.online.no/~joeolavl/viking/vikingshipclasses.htm
so why would stainless be bad? its used extencivly in modern navel hardware
and if classical fastners are to be prefered, who supplies them and at what cost?

 

Yah, the Navy uses stainless hardware, and look how many wooden boats they have left. ;-) Sorry I couldn’t stop my fingers from typing that. It mostly has to do with chemistry and nobility subjects I know very little about. A hardware store stainless screw sunk in wood is not able to oxidize (make a hard shell on its exterior) so when it gets wet it loses or gains electrons which causes the metal to change and become worthless. So if you want fasten a wood boat with stainless, use monel or inconel, even galvanized steel will last longer than 300 series stainless. Again it all depends on construction and how long you want it to last.

Gary

 

hmmm so stainless exposed to saltwater rubbing agianst it suffers from metal fatigue thru polarized electron stripping, interesting, and yea id like to have it last a long time, so i guess my next question then is what should be used for fastners then? most classicly build wood boats are rivited but iv never mutch liked rivits.

 

If you don’t’ want to use clench nails or copper rivets, maybe wood would work for you. Trunnels are the wooden equivalent of rivets. Of course if you want get out of the dark ages I have one word, EPOXY, used correctly it is stronger and longer lasting than most other fastening methods.

Gary

 

well its like this i dont like or want fiberglass sheathing nore do i want to lay up a moulded hull and i doubt your talking about just glueing the strake planks to the ribs... so please elaborate.

 

Here is a small boat built with plywood and epoxy and no glass and no ribs.
http://www.grapeviewpointboatworks.com/caledonia1.html

 

i think we are misunderstanding scale of things here .
i have this maxim" hole on water must pay for itself, therefore i doubt plywood is suitiable for said project, a full size Jekte runs 40-60m length and 4-6m beam and 3-4 m draft......the one i have a plan drawing im working on has a cargo hold 10'wide 80' long 8' high, a real ship not just a pleasure boat,
and 4 deck cabins 10x15 w a commen area gally/salon 10x20 topside forward of the mast rear pilothouse and masters cabin seperate from the ondeck cabins 85' R O knuckleboom sheaf crane 15 ton just aft of the midship cargo hatch....iv been working on the plan a while i found this site while looking for a sutiable sailing rig...and came across brians aft mast gamefisher...which i found entirely apropriate to what i wanted.
i intend to double hull her and compartment things w high pressure air lines leading to every comp in case of difficulty

 

Misunderstanding is an understatement My guess is of the hardware available the strongest and most corrosion resistant would be monel.

Gary

 

id like to be able to stow 50-100 tons 2-3 semi trucks worth see..and double hull dosent need any explination i think we all hate that sinking feeling. unless its cargo= money going aboard ehh. as for prefering wood over steel ,well ya know if there are trees that means there is wood avaliable for fixes...steel sheet is kind of hard to come by in some areas...yes wood can be labor intensive but so can a steel ship be far more so..and less forgiving.

 

Why are we not talking silicone bronze?
If it is strength you are after just design with more fasteners!

 

silicone! bronze might be a little limp there Grouch....however silicon bronze screws i looked at, i wasent trying to skimp on fasteners btw, are awful darned expencive and my experience with wood screws as sutch in any material hasent been that great , if they came with a drywall pattern thread id be 10 times happier

 

Ha - you can see where my mind is! Didn't mean to make a BOOB of myself!

They manufacture bolts in silicon bronze as well.