Thickness for rear seat and floorboards in 14 dory?

[Thorne]

I'm getting ready to build the rear seat and floorboards for my Chamberlain dory skiff -- any suggestions on what thickness of fir to use?

The boat is fir over oak, and I'd like to stick to fir for the rear seat and floorboards.

The rear seat will be made of 4-6 planks running fore and aft, the center ones recessed in a curve and the two side ones running forward to the support rail and sawn frame. I'll probably use a turned post to support the seat in the front and oak braces onto the transom frame in the rear.

The floorboards will be narrow boards (maybe 2" wide?) sitting on 1" thick blocks near each end -- in other words, they will sit on/over the floor cleats (blocks) and run up against the sawn frames. Where needed I'll attach blocks underneath to support them.

I don't have access to a planer, and all of the decent local fir is 3/4" or 7/8" thick. Won't use ply as the rest of the boat is solid wood.

http://www.luckhardt.com/dory1.html

Any suggestions?

[Thorne]

Brian -

Thanks! I've already got 7/8" fir thwarts, and with a decent oil finish and varnish they are well-behaved. So to keep the boat true to her "workboat" heritage, I want to keep her oak and fir if at all possible.

At outrageous expense I can buy so-called 1" thick fir at the bigbox stores which has been kiln-dried to just over 1/2" thickness -- but I'd rather buy from MacBeath or Handloggers.

Just not sure what to do about the thickness issue -- 7/8" fir seems extreme for the rear seat planks, and WAY too thick for floorboards.

Here's a view of the inside of the boat last month -- the floorboards will sit over the cleats but be cut at the sawn frames, probably supported by blocks at the ends the same thickness as the cleats, so they should be able to be 1/2" thick or so.

http://www.luckhardt.com/cb-case3.jpg

[ 01-18-2006, 04:05 PM: Message edited by: Thorne ]