Thread: Hello, new GIS build by Simon in ST Pete FL

Thank you, email sent.

The learning curve has reared up and smacked me in the head.
I know you are supposed to use BS1088 rated Okoume marine ply. So I ordered 6 sheets of the stuff from a very large, local, supposedly reputable distributor. They had a fantastic price on the 6mm at $50 a sheet. I double checked with them that it is BS1088 and they assured me it's the right stuff. I picked it up and it looked fine as far as I knew. Once I got it home I realized that one side was A grade but the other had some footballs here and there. At this point I should have realized that this ply was more BS than 1088. But the footballs were few, the real stuff is $80 a sheet and returning this lot would be a pain. So I decided I could lay out the parts such that any football was on the inside of a buoyancy tank or underside of a seat. I forged on and cut out all of the pieces. Everything went as planned and I did not find any voids in the ply, so far so good. I was always a bit puzzled by the look of the grain but never let that get in the way of cutting out parts and making progress. While staring at the pile of cut parts I decided to do a test on some scraps to see what this stuff will look like once epoxy coated.

Some of the sheets are a red-brown with nasty splotches and others are closer to the golden color I expected but still do not look all that good. Long story short I'm scrapping the whole lot and starting over. The boat would be perfectly sound if built from this stuff and would look great once painted, but it's not acceptable since I'm finishing the interior clear.

After doing much research it appears that the ply I have is a China imitation of BS1088 and like many products made there, buyer beware. The glue is probably made from dog poo. To be fair it is pretty OK stuff, especially for the price. Five ply with no voids, the outer veneers are a bit thin but OK, just don't expect to finish it clear. The search is on for a local or within reasonable driving distance supplier of Joubert brand BS1088 Okoume or equivalent.

Simon ... what a pain!

They should accept the sheets back if they are not real BS1088. I don't think they will argue about the intact ones.

MIK

Are you on facebook ... I can put you in touch with the guy in Florida who built a Beth.

MIK

Yeah, not much fun. I should have returned this ply but now it's all cut up so I'll just have to eat it. That's the price you pay for getting off the couch and learning new stuff. I've screwed up worse The pieces are big enough that I should be able to use most of it for other projects.

I'm not on Facebook, but if I can't find a source of the real stuff I'll sign up just to get the contact. Thanks.

IT is Ok ... no need for facebook ... I will fish up the contact.

It was a while ago, and things change quickly in the plywood scene at the moment.

I have your email.

Just sent the question off to David.

MIK

Originally Posted by SimonLew

I have now been through the plans a bunch of times and I can't, for the life of me, find the page with the rudder and daggerboard templates.

I have the page with the big "Sample only read note at top" print but not the actual template page...

That's the page you are looking for. The Sample Only caution is there so you aren't tempted to use it as it came out of the printer. It might need an adjustment in size, thus the caution.

BTW--when I printed it from a PC it came out small but when I printed from a Mac it came out exactly right.

Thanks, I finally figured that out after an email exchange with MIK.
My PC printed the foil template perfectly but you have to make sure it is set to print 100% or "no scaling". If it's set to "fit to page" then it will print a bit too small.

I just got some very nice Joubert okoume plywood from Forest Plywood out on the west coast. Fortunately for me they have a warehouse in Vero Beach so shipping of 14 sheets in a variety of thicknesses came to just $115.

Noah has better prices than Forest but shipping from the great white north country would probably eat up most if not all of the savings.

The Joubert okoume is 98 1/2 inches long, BTW, a nice plus.

Thanks for the tip. Does this mean there is no one in the southeast US who stocks this stuff? I'd love to look at it before picking up, based on my prior experience

When ordering blind do you have any worries about the sheets being too different in color to look good when pieced together inside a boat. Or is the Joubert so consistent in appearance that it does not matter?

The Joubert stuff is the best I've seen--uniform color and it truly meets the spec. It is made in France.

The stuff Noah is selling may well come from China--their price was within a few dollars of what you paid for the junk.

I had no problem buying blind because of the Joubert brand but if you have to see it just cross over to the other coast and go to their Vero Beach warehouse.

As far as other east coast distributors, there is one in West Palm beach but I forgot their name. Their price was higher than Forest Plywood, though, and it wasn't Joubert. AFAIK that's it. There was a place in Charleston SC that sold me the okoume for my Goat but they went out of business about a year ago.

The Joubert stuff is uniform in color but don't expect to get the grain to match. Since it's all rotary cut the grain has a lot of variation. With 6 sheets to work with, though, you should be able to avoid gross grain mismatches if you are careful while laying out the parts.

When starting my Goat I went through the sheets and chose the most uniform grain and color for the transom. After that there isn't a whole lot you can do except try to avoid splicing an end with lots of curving grain with an end with very straight grain.

I cannot tell the difference between the sides on the Joubert stuff. It's probably AA/A or A/B but I can't see any appreciable difference--both sides are as perfect as wood can be.

I'm not too concerned about matching the grain. It is, after all ply so grain will not be as nice as timber.

From reading, way too much about Okoume, it appears that the color can range from light golden brown to pinkish. All of the Okoume boats I have seen have a nice golden brown look, like Joost's masterpiece, and I really want to achieve that appearance.

I went to another local lumberyard here in St Pete and they had 4 sheets of BS1088 stamped ply which looked very nice. I'm pretty sure it's the real stuff, although not Joubert. However two of the sheets were rather pink, like a well cooked salmon, and the other two were beautiful light tan.

I'm now gun-shy and would hate to mail order this stuff and get two pink and 4 tan sheets. Although I'm not finding many people complaining online about this so maybe just splitting hairs.

From your experience, it sounds like Joubert is definitely the stuff to get.