Wood options for building sailing dinghy

[sailordwc]

Hi folks,
My daughter and I are preparing to build a small sailing dinghy. The exterior will be glassed and then painted. Not sure yet what we'll do with the inside surfaces....I expect she's going to want to paint them too (probably lime green!! She's 11 yr old). It will be stored dry.
The plans call for mahogany to be used for the keel, chine logs, etc.....is there a suitable alternative that won't hurt my piggy-bank so much? Douglas Fir, oak maybe? I love to hear your thoughts.
Thanks!
Dennis

[paladin]

something that size I suspect that good fir is usable, I would personally laminate the various parts from fir strips....whatcha building?

[Bruce Hooke]

If good douglas fir is hard to find in your area, which it may well be, then WHITE oak would likely be a fine substitute. Poor quality fir with widely spaced growth rings and too many knots is hell to work with. Fir with nice straight grain and closely spaced growth rings is a very pleasant to work with. It's like they are two different woods! Other woods like red oak are plenty strong, but very rot prone and so not as wise a choice. I take it the sides and bottom are going to be plywood?

[Mike Vogdes]

Welcome aboard Dennis...

I wouldn't think twice about substituting doug fir for mohogany, good mohagany is hard to come by anymore. And if you can find decent mohagany your gonna need a home equity loan to get it.

If your useing marine fir plywood you may want to glass the inside as well to prevent the face veneer from checking. If you opt for okume ply for sheathing, you can eliminate the glass on the inside and slap that pretty lime green paint right over the plywood. Good luck and have fun...

[NormMessinger]

Take a look at SuperPly if you can find it in your area. It is made by Roseburg Forest Products, tropical hard wood face veneers and fir interior plies. It is much better than fir ply but not as good as 1088 marine ply.

[sailordwc]

Wow guys! Thanks for all the info! We're building a Sabotina and using okume plywood for the hull panels. I bought the hardware kit and sail from Ken Hankinson and we're doing the rest! I've got a 19' 70s vintage fibreglass production boat that I learned to sail in and have taught my 11 yr old to sail using. She says she wants her own small boat, so here we are. She loves to help me build things in the shop, so we'll have a great time building this dinghy.
So it sounds like my best options are to use either tight-grained douglas fir or white oak. I think I can find good fir easier and cheaper, so that's probably the way we'll go.
I was starting to lose a bit of my enthusiasm once I priced mahogany, so thanks very much to you all for the advice -- now I won't have to take out a second mortgage on the house!
I'll keep you posted on our progress.
Dennis

[Bob Smalser]

Call Highland Hardware's tech folks up in Decatur and ask them if they know any nearby sawyers having airdried Sassafras, White Oak or Black Walnut.

Was a long time ago, but I used to buy airdried Black Walnut in Dahlonega for $.60/BF when the storebought price for kilned stock was 3-4 bucks.

All would work very well for your purpose and last long enough for your daughter's child to also play with that dink some day.

[ssor]

You might also be able to find cypress down that way. It would serve, someone else can say if the thickness would need increasing.

[ 04-09-2005, 11:02 AM: Message edited by: ssor ]

[Captain Pre-Capsize]

I would highly recommend brightfinishing the interior of the Sabotina. My skiff is painted on the outside (to cover up all my goofs!) and then brightfinished on the interior and I'm tellin' you it sure helps to cut down on the glare when under way. Oh yea... it does get the comments at the dock too when everyone sees all the wood finish. :D

[Frank Wentzel]

I agree with SSOR. You should easily be able to find a local sawmill cutting cypress. Here in Florida I asked at a local mill about clear, straight-grianed cypress. I was told "We only got one grade". I went out and looked at what they had. Almost everthing was clear and straight grained. With a little looking I was able to find plenty that was tight-grained as well. Prices around here run about $0.75 a board/foot. Cypress' only fault is that, if it is allowed to, it will soak up water like mad. But a painted, dry-sailed boat won't give you any problems.

/// Frank ///

[ 04-09-2005, 07:07 PM: Message edited by: Frank Wentzel ]

[paul oman]

Post pictures of the boat in progress. We're all real or armchair boat builders and talkers here! You'll make our day!

paul oman

[Bruce Hooke]

Can anyone who is recommending cyprus speak for how cyprus compares in strength with mahogany? I'd be a little careful about substitutions just to be sure that the substituted wood is as strong as the wood specified on the plans. I have not worked with cyprus so I don't know how strong it is. I know white oak is stronger than mahogany so that is why I felt safe in recommending it...

[ssor]

If you can get Honduras mahgogany, it will be wonderful. cypress is strong and not brittle. I would put it close to redwood. Cypress is used for silos and water tanks and for the buckets on the pump wheel on the old locks on the Chesapeake and Delaware canal.( it is a sea level canal now) Also for the interior of Bietzpadlin. It is pretty.

[JimD]

I would personally laminate the various parts from fir strips....I second the motion for this idea if you don't mind the extra work. Laminated fir will be plenty strong and reduce some of the checking and splitting problems fir can be prone to, especially if what's available isn't the greatest quality which is often the case.

[raymacke]

I built a Sabotina from SuperPly and Southern Yellow Pine with PL Premium Construction Adheisive. Polyester & glass cloth inside and out painted with latex trim paint.

http://www.egyptian.net/~raymacke/stuff/sabotina.jpg

[jonsailr]

I was astonished at the price of mahogany when I looked at Boulter Plywood last spring, and found, instead, the mahogany for decking and the clear fir for decking, both in 1x4, to be more than adequate as my daughter and I built her Argie 10 last summer.

Good luck,

Jonathan

I am building a Dudley Dix, Argie 10 for my daughter. Check it out:
Buiilding the Argie 10 (http://home.comcast.net/~jonsailr)

[Thad Van Gilder]

In my experience, good doug fir costs at least as much as hondoras mohaghany. I've been paying about $4.50 a bf for Hondoras mohaghany and about $6.00 for decent doug fir. If I was in Georgia, I'd hunt down some Long leaf from a little mom and pop sawmill.

Thad