Maple in boats?

[planewood1]

Hello Folks. My name is Chuck and I am new here and new to wooden boat restoration. I have made bits and pieces of boat parts for friends and family in the past, but this is the first boat of my own I am restoring/modifing. I work with hand tools as a rule, because I like the quiet and thats how I was taught. I have a ton of questions for everyone and I hope to get well educated here within this forum. So, here goes.
Question: Is maple used on boats for interior work and cabin/deck work? And if not, why not? Weight? Moisture absorption? Strength?
Thanks for putting up with my questions. I'll have many more, I'm sure. smile.gif

[ 10-20-2004, 01:05 AM: Message edited by: planewood1 ]

[Bob Smalser]

Hard to keep it from getting moldy.

[Bruce Hooke]

The sugars in maple make it delightful food for the organisms that cause rot...or so I understand. Certainly, it is quite prone to rotting and similar problems. For interior cabinetry on a large boat it would probably work just fine as long as it was kept away from the bilge and kept out if hidden, enclosed areas where moisture might build up.

[mmd]

It is fine for interior joinery & trim, not so good for structural or exterior use due to its brittleness and low rot resistance.

[sdowney717]

Maple rots too soon.
White Oak is very good for strength but will also eventually rot.
Why not use pressure treated SYP. It wont rot, and your efforts wont go to waste.
If you use it, just beef up the scantlings in critical areas. Why buy expensive white oak. I just priced it for a floor at $4.80 per board foot. I bought a real nice 2 by 8 SYP with no knots at HD for 13$. 5 yrs ago I rebuilt my stern frames and all using PT SYP. Very solid. I even used premium deck boards for the planks that are below the waterline and Honduras Mahogany above. I can tell you it worked out very well and I am very pleased with it. They have not twisted, warped, rotted, cracked, checked, splintered etc... and are just like the day I put them in. You can even use SS deck screws from the HD any where above the water line, or where they will not be constantly submerged under salt water. There is nothing magical about wooden boat wood that I have discovered.

[kc8pql]

Funny this should come up. I was looking through Skeens the other night and ran across this under keels:

"Keels are generally made from oak, though where a boat is to remain in the water most of the time, maple is much better."

I think this is the only reference I've ever seen about using maple as a structural part of a boat. He gives no reason. He just states it as fact. Go figure....

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

We British used to use elm for keels where the boat was to stay afloat; same thinking. It rots out fast if alternatively wet and dry.

Mind you, our ancestors did some very strange things! The Vikings used...wait for this... beech for keels, and beech was still in occasional use as late as the end of the middle ages!

I've got a violin with a birdseye maple back; great for that purpose!

[Thad Van Gilder]

I still use elm for transoms.
White oak runs 90 cents a board foot here in the east, the used to be an old timer at the shore selling it for 50 cents a board foot. It's pretty cheap, and it lasts as long as most wood boats.

SYP, ( loblolly, shortleaf, etc) is rot prone , in my experience,as soon as the Copper Chromate Arsenic leaves the wood. Long leaf isn't, But then again If you had a piece of it, I doubt that it would take the CCA. I have yet to see a piece of long leaf planking rot. I guess its possible, but...

Thad
S/V IVY

BTW, didn't we crazy Amurkins use beech, birch, and red oak for the coasting schooners at one time?

[ 10-21-2004, 09:50 AM: Message edited by: Thad Van Gilder ]

[Bruce Hooke]

Originally posted by kc8pql:
Funny this should come up. I was looking through Skeens the other night and ran across this under keels:

"Keels are generally made from oak, though where a boat is to remain in the water most of the time, maple is much better."

I think this is the only reference I've ever seen about using maple as a structural part of a boat. He gives no reason. He just states it as fact. Go figure....Where is that in Skene's and in which edition? I just checked the places I know about in my copy where it talks about the materials to use for keels and I could not find it, so now I am curious...

[Dave Hadfield]

I just went to a lot of trouble last year replacing maple which had been used by a previous owner to rebuild the main hatchway on my ketch. It was rotten. The traditional woods well away from it were not.

In the bush, when a maple log goes down, it rots very quickly. Few species rot faster.

I personally will not use it in boats.

[Venchka]

A couple cords of maple were used during the construction of my boat...in the stove...to heat the shop...during the winter...in New Brunswick...to make the epoxy set correctly. :D

Wayne
In the Swamp. :D

[kc8pql]

Originally posted by Bruce Hooke:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by kc8pql:


"Keels are generally made from oak, though where a boat is to remain in the water most of the time, maple is much better."

Where is that in Skene's and in which edition? </font>[/QUOTE]It's in the 2001 Sheridan House reprint of the 1938 edition, before Kinney did his revision. It's on page 175 in the Construction chapter. Just now while I was looking for the page number I found another mention of maple keels on page 180 along with a section drawing of a 75' schooner
that has the keel timber labled "maple".

[Bruce Hooke]

Originally posted by kc8pql:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Bruce Hooke:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by kc8pql:


"Keels are generally made from oak, though where a boat is to remain in the water most of the time, maple is much better."

Where is that in Skene's and in which edition? </font>[/QUOTE]It's in the 2001 Sheridan House reprint of the 1938 edition, before Kinney did his revision. It's on page 175 in the Construction chapter. Just now while I was looking for the page number I found another mention of maple keels on page 180 along with a section drawing of a 75' schooner
that has the keel timber labled "maple".</font>[/QUOTE]Interesting. I guess Kinney must have dropped that reference, maybe because wood boats that would rarely be hauled out for any length of time were probably getting less and less common, especially in the New England waters that he seems to have been most familar with.

P.S. There's no 75' schooner in my copy either (8th edition).

[ 10-22-2004, 12:44 AM: Message edited by: Bruce Hooke ]