Glen-L.com

Hello all - My son and I are looking into building a sailboat. I have built kayaks, and am looking forward to moving into sailboats. I am located in Iowa. My question concerns the wood recommended for the sailboat plans for the Glen-L 12 or 14. I have a source for the recommended plywood, but am having difficulty locating suitable spruce or mahogany solid wood - particularly the longer lengths. Can anyone recommend a source for this, or suitable substitutes that may be available in this part of the country?

Thanks - Mark

Hi Mark.

Others will chime in, but you can use shorter lengths and scarf them together....perfectly fine to do this

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Few things that might help confuse you further. Do you intend to use your boat in salt or fresh water. What type of fasteners are you considering using and will the boat be kept dry most of the time, left open in the yard or left in the water.

Of fasteners, there are galvanized (hot), bronze and stainless. Are you going to paint the inside or epoxy encapsulate everything. If you use oak, then you must be careful about fasteners and salt water. If you are leaving the boat open or in the water, then you should use a top quality wood.

Mahogany is a good choice for battens and maybe the keel but if its not going to be wet all the time then I would not encourage using it exclusively. What you use in the bottom of the boat is important, the rest, not some much. You may not need to use teak exclusively.

Scarfing pieces together has to be done sometimes but on a boat the size you're building, I would expect you could find something close to the lengths. Butt joints are also workable on battens and laminating a few pieces together will allow you to put strong bends in such as sheers. I would laminate before sharfing in some cases.

While you can get wood at the lumber yard, I suggest your best source is to look for a specialty supplier of which there are more than a few listed on the internet. Sometime you can get a good price and this will offset the cost of shipping.

Stuart

Read this

Trivially simple way to scary wood to make longer sticks.

http://davesboat.blogspot.com/2008/12/l ... ticks.html

Also, I used oak for my glen L-14, but there is an ongoing argument about white oak & epoxy.

Some say it sticks fine, other say not, and Oak is HEAVY, and HARD, (planing white oak by hand means no need for a Gym Membership)

If you have not already started, I'd be inclined to go with something else, Douglas Fir

If you do go with white oak, pre drill everything, and test the size of holes you pre-drill on scrap. It's is more or less impossible to nail or screw white oak with bronze nails/screws without pre-drilling. Also, dip the tip of the screw in soft wax to lubricate it. Prevents the screw from sticking and the head from shearing off. Bronze is a lot softer than steel.

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Hey - thanks to all for the quick responses. I really appreciate it. To answer a couple of the questions, this boat will be used in fresh water only , and will not be left sitting in the water when not in use. I wondered about the weight of the oak, although it is more readily available around here in Iowa.

Could I use fasteners other than bronze, or should I do it right once and be glad of it? I'm just trying to gather my facts before we begin this project.

Thanks again - Mark

On the Oak, it must be White Oak.

Bill

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From my experience DO NOT use fir for any battens. It will splinter and cause nothing but aggravation and probably ultimate replacement.
It is fine for frames tho and glues up well.
Doug

Red Oak rots.

Oak is often sold waney edged. Ie right out to the bark.

The outside bit, often 2 or 3 inches is sapwood. It is USELESS. I have scrap oak left in the damp. The sap wood eventually rots to the consistency of hard mud. The rot stops dead at the line between heartwood and sapwood.

The difference appears to be that in the heartwood, the "veins" of the wood are blocked with what amounts to the trees pooh. It's toxic to most stuff that eats trees, and it stops water running along the veins.

In red oak, and in white oak sap wood, the "veins" are open, you can cut a small second along the grain and suck water through it. This is bad for rotting.

Read these

http://davesboat.blogspot.com/2006/11/t ... -inch.html
http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread. ... is-sapwood

See the "holes" on the light coloured wood on the right.... sapwood

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