The Wood Used
The woods I used on our sailboat
This page lists the various types of wood that I used on the sailboat, why I chose them, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. This was a tough part of getting the materials since there are so many types of wood and I was not sure which ones were safe for marine use.
One thing I did notice from posts around the internet was that pretty much any wood can be used if you resin it to death. That makes sense. If you use enough resin, the wood will never see water or air so decay can not happen.
I purchased 6 sheets of marine grade plywood from Dick's Lumber and had them delivered. They look just like any other plywood except that they use water proof glue for the laminations, and they meet a certain criteria regarding the number of allowable gaps inside the plywood. These were purchased for $50 a sheet.
The reason I used this is because I had some laying around the house from previous projects. This is not marine grade so it was very important that wherever I used it, I applied a heavy coat of epoxy resin. The main areas on the boat that I used this plywood was for structural supports. Plywood on edge has almost no flex.
I bought a bundle of these at Rona Revy. The cedar strips were about an inch wide and a quarter of an inch thick. Using the table saw I was able to get various widths and thicknesses which I then laminated using contact cement. The reasons behind using cedar strips were: ease of use, flexibility, rot resistance.
For the keel of the boat I needed a very stiff wood that could handle moisture. I was considering teak or white oak however when I was at Windsor Plywood they suggested I look at some treated deck material that they had on sale. It looked like teak but was a bit heavier. The wood was VERY stiff and even when I sawed off a thin piece, there was very little flex. Perfect for what I needed and only $20 for an 8' board compared with the $10/foot for teak.
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