Raja Laut

Once the idea of building a boat is in your mind, probably one of the first thoughts that one obsesses over (obsession is pretty standard when it comes to boatbuilding) is "what material do we want to make the hull from?" After all, the hull is more than just the "foundations" of a boat - it's the foundation, the floor, and the walls.

And while boats can be built out of almost anything (one chap famously created a boat from recycled plastic bottles), the fact remains that boat building materials were not all created equal.

Mother Nature created the ultimate material for boat building: it's called wood. Wood is the material to use for a classic schooner, and not just because its "traditional". More importantly, wood is durable, strong, and simply beautiful. Great to live with and on - it feels heavy, solid and safe - most sailors will tell you no other material can beat the feel and ambiance of a wooden boat, especially a carvel-built one.

These are romantic reasons, but there are very good, practical reasons for choosing wood:

1. Wood is high in tensile strength, durable, workable and combines stiffness with light weight in a way that is more structurally efficient than just about any other material, including high-tech-laminates. Mechanically and physically its simply right for boats and that is why we have been building ships out of wood since the beginning and continue to do so today.


2. Steel or aluminium hulls are strong, have many advantages, and are the better materials for certain vessels, but they carry little charm and lots of vibrations. In the long term steel will corrode and aluminium will oxidize and plenty of maintenance and care is still required.


3. Fibreglass is less maintenance and when first invented people thought it might be the "miracle" material. Unfortunately they were wrong. A fibreglass hull weakens over time, water penetrates the layers by osmosis, spider cracks form over the glass, on impact with a harder material it will shatter, it is difficult to repair and unpleasant to work with.


4. With the right type of wood and proper maintenance the well built wooden boat lasts longer than its fiberglass counterparts. In part this is because wood is able to absorb and release water so a wooden boat will actually get less condensation and dampness in it than a fiberglass one. Furthermore, thanks today's technology wooden boats are less maintenance-intensive than they used to be, while regardless of technology, a fiberglass boat will deteriorate persistently with age and there is little that can be done to prevent that.


5. A longer life span is just one of the reasons that also makes a well-built wooden boat the more environmentally-friendly choice. Today's consumer culture uses wood in products with no lifespan: cheap furniture that lasts for a few years before seeing the rubbish tip. A well maintained wooden boat lasts for decades. Time enough to renew the resource. Furthermore, other materials used for building boats, steel or aluminium for example, are not renewable resources and, unlike fiberglass, wood is biodegradable so that a sunken or disposed of wooden boat is not as damaging to the environment.


6. Finally, a well built wooden boat can appreciate in value over time!

The spirit of Raja Laut is here in Borneo and, as luck would have it, so are some of the world's best hardwoods. The availability of the exceptional "Borneo Ironwood" (species name: Eusideroxylon Zwageri), known locally as Belian or Kayu Ulin, made the choice of wood easy. Belian is one of the worlds hardest and heaviest woods: harder, heavier and more durable than Teak, Ebony, Mahogany or Iroko, and one of the most exceptionally naturally durable hardwood species in existence.

In the Australian Standards report on Timber Preservation and Durability (AS 5604 - 2005), Belian achieved the highest durability ratings out of all the woods studied (including Burmese Teak). In the same report Belian was given a "marine-borer-resistance" life expectancy of 60+ years in southern waters. This resistance estimate is for untreated/unprotected timber, and we understood that with proper maintenance a well-built Belian hull could last for 100 years.

Other wood used in the construction include:

Deck: Burmese Teak. Undoubtedly, the world's most valuable and versatile hardwood, it has properties which make it the only wood that is ideally suited for the construction of the wooden deck of a boat.

Deckhouse & Interior: Selangan Batu. Selangan Batu comes from the family of Dipterocarpaceae with a given botanical name of Shorea spp . Other known given names are Tekam, Kowan Darob and Balau. It has excellent durability and is usually used for exterior construction, marine and wharfs, even piling, and boat hull construction.

Interior Floors: Merbau. Merbau wood comes from the tree with botanical name Intsia Bijuga. The tree grows in the lowland tropical rainforest near the mangrove swamps, rivers or floodplains. Merbau is a very durable and termite-resistant wood which makes it a highly sought after material for flooring and other usage.