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May 05, 2010

Raja Laut Story : Part 2 (The Nature of Wood)

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 for the hull? After all, the hull is more than just the foundations of a boat – its the foundation, and 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 is that not all boat building materials were created equal.

Mother nature is not easily outdone by man, and she has created the supreme materials for boat building. Its called wood. Wood is THE material to use for a classic/traditional schooner (its traditional!), but more importantly wood is great to live with and on as it feels heavy, solid and safe, and as 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 purely romantic reason, but the number of genuinely good, practical reasons for choosing wood are plentiful:

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, and to top it off it is difficult to repair and unpleasant to work with.

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

Its worth reading that last paragraph again because many potential boat buyers erroneously choose fiberglass over wood thinking it is less maintenance and lasts longer. But a survey around the world’s marinas will find hundreds of wooden boats built in the 1920s and 30s that are around today still in great condition.

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 wood is used in cheap furnitures, paper advertising, toilet papers, and other uses which have no lifespan and therefore an environmental waste! A well-built wooden boat should last for several decades at least. 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.

In short, for romantic reasons, practical reasons, and to adhere to the tradition of the classic schooner, our choice was always going to be wood!

Posted by Admin |