by Ray Klebba, Building Director
My telephone has been very busy the last few weeks-spring fever has hit the building community. The month of May is a good time for many garage builders to put their winter dreams into reality. I enjoy answering the many questions I get from callers who are ready to start a new project. Please feel free to give me a call if you need help in any facet of boat building.
Many of the recent callers wanted to know how to select the right wood for their boat. In selecting wood for your strips, the primary considerations are the weight, workability, color, size, and aesthetic appeal. When selecting the wood, check each board carefully for weight, knots, and color texture. Different species of wood vary tremendously in their weight, strength, and workability. Sometimes I have gone through a whole pallet of lumber looking for just one perfect board. To me this is one of the fun parts to building your boat, lumberyards are wonderful places. Your choice now will determine your boat's inner and outer beauty. Beauty, like art, is largely a matter of the unification of contrasts; while variety is essential to the concept of beauty. Builders who overlook the color variations not only pass up a real potential for beauty, but often detract from the good lines of their boat, with mismatched colors of red, brown, pink or white.
The lighter the board the less moisture it will have. After picking up a few boards, you will notice the weight difference right away. This is important for two reasons: the overall boats weight and the application of the fiberglass resin. Since the fiberglass resin seals the strips from moisture and therefore the air, rot resistance is not important. However, if the wood is too wet, it will give you difficulty when applying your epoxy resin. One caller asked if he could use old telephone poles for his strips. Yes you can-but be careful about selecting a wood that is too dry for boat building. On one hand, if the wood is too dry it will absorb more resin therefore making it a little stronger; on the other hand, the wood may have a tendency to crack upon impact. It does not matter whether it is air or kiln dried, although the latter is a little more brittle and expensive. The wood you buy should have no more than 12% moisture content, since dry wood is stronger, stiffer and lighter than wet. Also, dry wood will cut cleanly; while wet wood will fuzz as it goes through the saw, plugging up the teeth of the blade, believe me - it can be a real hassle.
The lumber normally used is western red cedar because it is the least expensive, can be found in long lengths, and is readily available. Select your boards in "D" grade or better if all possible. These boards will have fewer knots and they are not overly expensive. Northern white-cedar, redwood and sitka spruce are also desirable woods to use.
All of these woods have a good workability and a great strength-to-weight ratio to them. When you are done picking through your boards, remember to leave the wood stacked in a neat and orderly manner.
