Thread: hardwoods

Now hang on Shane. You took a 50 ft pearler, redesigned her as 28 ft, then built her as a CANOE :eek:

Man, you've got to stop drinking that home brew.

Richard

aaahh see now many wouldnt think so mate... I mean it was a ply canoe... it only took a weekend to "build"... so some would say it was just whacked together in a head rush brainphart sorta way... which it was... but it did float and paddled rather well kids loved it and so did yours truely so tis only really from a personal viewpoint that I say Im a boatbuilder...

The only other thing Ive done is to restore an old 13ft ply fishing dinghy that was given to me by a mate on hot weekend... did a fine job to I reckon... but her highness me loverley missus decided that she would make an aweflaminsome flower bed so with assistance from the mighty mouse Joshy they attacked all me good work with HAMMERS!! :mad: so now the poor ol girl is sitting up the back waiting for a hole to be dug so she can plant flowers or vegies into my beautiful babys belly!! sheilas eh?

As to bein a designer well I took the lines of "Trixen" {the old Broome Pearl Lugger that was restored and now resides inside the WA Maritime Museum in Freo) and considered how she would look smaller and with my initial enquiries was told flat out that I couldnt do it... A challenge I could not refuse... so I redrew the thing down to 40ft too big so I redrew it down to 30ft still to wide to trailer so down she went to 28ft bloody near perfek!... a lot of tweeking emailin between West Aussie, Nova Scotia, Maine, Seattle, NSW, Vic, England, Germany and a French NA in Vietnam and Id got her looking rather spiffy then I wondered about the weight factor... lead on keel? lead bars in the bilge? how much? gawd strewth I near had a hartphart!! :eek: I failed kindergarden maths for gawds sake!! (mmm and I was 30 at the time )

So a few more emails back and forth and finally three NAs agreed 1000lbs of lead would do it... some division was then occuring as to how to distribute it... I settled the arguement by deciding that 500 fixed outside and 500 inside with 600 being made in bars so that once the stability point is found the extra weight would be removed... the inside 500lbs could then can be laid in epoxy and set in the bilge

Anyway that all took about 5 months or so till I was pretty happy with the numbers and her look was just right... then I did the real bright spark thing and sent the whole shammozle over east when a mate came to visit a parting gift sorta thing... I HAD THOUGHT Id kept the plans or at least a copy of the offsets... but nope ... so anyway a couple of years later there was this storm see and the bloke over east decided I needed some reading material so he gathers up a whole mess of scans of old magazines and sends em over... right smack in the middle of that pile was... me offsets!!

She is one Im considering building just to prove to meself I was right and stick it to those flamin snooty nosed NAs and other gits who said I couldnt do it... But! It would be a bloody expensive stuff up if theyre right and Im wrong eh? :eek: Man I would be just ssssssssssoooooooooooooooo quiet!!!

Yous blokes: "Hows that luggar goin Dingo?"
Dingo: "Well ahem aaahhh welll shes doin okay"
Yous blokes: "When you launchin?"
Dingo: "Well ahem aaahhh well see I really gotta do this or that"
Yous blokes: "Show us some pics mate"
Dingo: "Well ahem ssee well its sorta like.. mmm the cameras buggared?"

SPLASH DAY

"Waaaaahoooooooooooo shes launched and we took her for sea trials today bloody ripsnorter bobbydazzler I DONE DID IT!!"

or else

Yous blokes: "Hey Dingo you launched that luggar yet?"

........

Yous blokes: "Oi Dingo yer mug yer launched yet?"
.......

Yous blokes: "Bet yer hes out sailin her eh"
More yous blokes: "Yer reckon he woulda told us about her?"
Yous blokes again: "Comeon Dingo howd she do?"
.......

The silence from the Dingo one would be deafening

Then again...

Howd the launch go Dingo?
Man it went a bloody ripsnorter
Really?
Yer mate flamin ripper of a day... backed the trailer down the ramp slowly launched her into the drink... sun was shinin seagulls screamin hoons muckin about... poured some champers over her bows drunk the rest evey one scampered aboard and set the sails! whaaaaaaaaaaahoooo bloody brilliant mate"
Excellent Dingo!
Yer was mate... till the wind picked up the foresail ripped its length the missus went assovertit tryin to gather it in 2 of the hoons jumped overboard to help her but forgot to take the lifebouy then the mainsail tore down its lenght so sent Aaron scamperin up to pull her down but he got his gronicles stuck in the topmost boom so had to send meself up to get him uinstuck then the boat continued along at a leasurely pace on her own...
Well least yer all were alright eh mate?
Yer guess so sept poor bloody Aaron ended up in hospital the missus is suein me the other hoons have decided theyre gonna enter the Perth to Rotto swim race
Didnt the motor start up mate?
Motor? What bloody motor! I was doin the great seafarin thing an sail on sail alone none of them pussy motor things for a sailorman... still wouldnt have helped I guess
Why what else happened mate
Well after I got young Aaron down and settled him and after Id let all sails down and tied to the booms I went downstairs to have a gander and send out the sos for Jo who along with the other nippers were some miles behind us... but well the cabin had turned into a swimming pool or fishin tank wasnt quite sure wich actually...
So whatdidyer do mate?
What did I do? what every sailor man does... tossed the liferaft overboard hurled the young fella on board and went down with the ship to davey jones locker

Have a goodun mates!!

I'll bet the plans are US ones, where "hardwood" is anything except conifers. So Meranti (pacific maple) is a hardwood by US boat building standards.

Except for things which must be stiff (centreboard and rudder) or which will take hard knocks (stem, gunwhale, leading edge of centreboard and rudder, mast housing), I use Meranti. Don't like western red cedar too much as it splits easily, but it would be OK for frames.

I like to use Baltic Ash for those hardwearing edges, and I fit them so they can be replaced when worn or damaged. Often they will only be a few mm thick.

Remember that in plywood boats, the strength is usually in the ply skin. the solid timber framing generally provides only the framing, and a gluing surface. So it does not need to be thick, but does need good cross grain strength.

Ed T