What wood to use to build a boat?

I am sure this question has been asked before, and I have done research but have came across mixed opinions on what is a good "cheap" hardwood to use to build a boat with. I am currently replacing the transom in my Chris Craft woody, and I'm trying to pinch pennies wherever I can, which means staying away from solid mahogany if I can. Does anybody experience with using other types of woods in boats? Does white oak hold up in a wet environment? I have a surplus of white oak around the house for building furniture with. I have read mixed opinions on its suitability for marine use. I can also get cherry wood cheap.

If anybody has experience working with different woods, I'd really appreciate the input.

Re: What wood to use to build a boat?

I should add that I am using the wood for framing purposes only. I have already purchased mahogany marine grade ply to replace the outer hull of the transom.

Re: What wood to use to build a boat?

hey bud......if you wanna do it on the cheap......go look for old couches.....a lot of that stuff was oak frames.....

get a ton of it for free pick up....

just make sure you check out the wood first !

Re: What wood to use to build a boat?

Thanks Oops, do you know if it will hold up well in a boat though? I already have over 400 board feet of it in the basement. No need to pick through old couches if it will work.

Re: What wood to use to build a boat?

oak was used on all the tall sailing ships for hundreds of years bud

Re: What wood to use to build a boat?

White oak it is then. Thanks for your advice

Re: What wood to use to build a boat?

If you have WHITE oak, then yeah, good stuff. White oak has natural oils in it that help better resist rot and insects. We play hell with the stuff using water based finishes and stains for wood flooring if we don't use the proper processes to finish it. I've come to love white oak more than red as of late on a personal level though.

Any wood that is insect and rot resistant will work well. Of course, most of these woods are less common ( redwood, mahogany, Ipe, brazillian cherry, etc ) and more expensive.

Re: What wood to use to build a boat?

Redfury, what do you mean by the proper process to finish it? I was hoping to use the same wood on the deck as accents, is it ok to just put a clear spar varnish on top? Now you've got me wondering. I was going to stain and then varnish. What other steps should I go through?

Re: What wood to use to build a boat?

ah, didn't mean to scare you about the white oak...what I was referring to...

Well, see, I refinish hardwood floors for a living, so I get to see it all.

What I was referring to was the early days white washing floors and then finishing them with a water based finish. If you used water based finish over the white wash instead of a water based SEALER, the tannins in the white oak would bleed through and cause the floor to streak brown lines all through it. Sealer didn't do that. We resanded a few jobs that wanted a white wash on white oak because of it.

Use a good Spar varnish on that white oak and you'll be good to go. Careful with it though, Spar is really fast drying and quite potent, as it will tack up and you'll get brush marks if you try to paint it on with direct sunlight on the wood ( or if the wood has been previously warmed by a sunny day ). Your best bet, as I try to do whenever finishing porches, is to coat it first thing in the morning and let the sun start to break onto the finish after it's all been applied....dries it quick and you have less chance of garbage floating into it while it's wet.

Re: What wood to use to build a boat?

Ok thanks for the tips. I thought I had things under control but I always assume somebody else out there knows something that I can learn from. I have been painting houses off and on for 15 years now and am quite familiar with working fast with high gloss paints especially on trim to keep evil brush strokes away. Not much experience with varnish, only a couple bedroom pieces that had turned out well.

Have also installed my fair share of hardwood flooring, and even refinished a couple floors, don't like those sealers much though, first day on the job (when I was 16 working for another company) I had sealed the whole house with the windows shut, and came home afterwards with the girlfriend thinking I was doing drugs my eyes were so red and I was so out of it lol. That sealer is pretty potent

Re: What wood to use to build a boat?

Yup, I coated 1600 sq/ft in a rambler at the end of last week and though the floor was dry the next day, the A/C kept the fumes condensed and you couldn't spend more than 4 or 5 minutes in there without your eyes tearing up, so I had to make the guy wait until this Tuesday to do the final coat on it ( good customer though, he understood unlike some of my other customers that week )

I will tell you this one thing though, don't get cheap on the type/brand of varnish you use, it's the one thing worth putting the money into. You don't want something that is going to fail under direct long term UV exposure only to have to strip the boat and coat it all again, so spend the money up front now so you can enjoy it later with piece of mind. My shop tried to cheap out on the polyurethanes we use and we paid dearly for it.

Re: What wood to use to build a boat?

Thanks again, I did my share of research on varnish suitable for marine use, and aside from the obvious marine brands, Behr has labelled an excellent varnish that many experts swear by. I can't remember the name of the manufacturer, the name Epiphane comes to mind. It's considered a top notch easy to work with product. Have you had any experience with it at all? I purchased 2 gallons of it to try out.

Re: What wood to use to build a boat?

Nope, never used it. The only spar varnish I used was from Varethane IIRC.