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Permalink Reply by Steve Sobba on August 12, 2009 at 1:23pm

Chris, I am new to all this boat building.. well about 15 months new. I am using the Hydrotek ,meranti plywood, for my 18 foot Don Hill from plans. It was not as pricey as sapple and I like the richness of the color and quality.(? $39 a 4x8 1/4 sheet). I live in the middle of Kansas so I order from a distance... east to west for supplies. I ordered my basic lumber from Marine plywood by Homestead out of Vickery, Ohio. If I recall was around 900 dollars for my plywood from them. Good service, good delivery. Some of my Douglas Fir and white oak I was able to purchase within 60 miles. I have no problems with the Hydrotek, the fir did have footballs . The Hydrotek is finishing nicely and the joints, scarfs were no real problem. Good luck and the best of making sawdust to you. Steve

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Permalink Reply by Dave Z on August 12, 2009 at 8:38pm

I can vouch for Hydrotek.. It is about the same weight as Doug fir. 6mm is about 1.4". 1/4" Doug fir will be three plies, Hydrotek will be 5 plies. I built two fir boats, and the last one was a Hydrotek. I used 6mm on the sides, and 1/2" doug fir on the bottom. I am glad I did. I have also put a traditional skid shoe on the last boat. (1/4" fir overlay). I'm glad I did. I banged this boat around- hard use on a WW river. No impact cracks, and it is slick enough. I never get hung up. Doug fir is tougher stuff.
You can do what you want for finish, but oil looks beautiful on it, and is in my opinion the only way to finish an interior. The maintenance is very low. Hose it out, let it dry, slap some oil on it. The exterior can be coated with epoxy, varnished or painted.

Bottom line, Hydrotek is quality stuff, a pleasure to work with. It is literally perfect on both faces and the edges always look tight with zero gaps. Make sure it is stamped HYDROTEK BS1088. Anything else is sub standard. Do not buy meranti that is 6536 grade. it has voids, and the appearance is not a s nice s BS 1088.

I also bought mine form Homestead, Vickery OH, but I drove over and picked it up.

Read the full story at my blog...

www.thtchronicles.blogspot.com

Luck to you

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Permalink Reply by Chris King on August 13, 2009 at 9:47am

Thanks for you replies.

Dave, I have been following your work and it is inspiring to say the least. I plan to build the Rapid robert in Roger's book. Is there any reason you would not use hydrotek on the bottom with a 1/4 inch doug fir shoe? Also is it possible to Oil the exterior as well as the interior? I see you built models of your hulls. How benificial do you think that was? I'm tempted to just dive in.

Last but not least. If you are ever on the west coast and want to get some authentic pacific anadramous slime on your boat, give me a call.

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Permalink Reply by Randy Dersham on August 14, 2009 at 8:41am

Chris, we use a lot of Hydrotek in our shop. You can use Hydrotek for the boat bottom without issue. It is not quite as long grained as fir. We do a lot of milling of both fir and Hydrotek and have decided that all of our boat now have a fir bottom. It is still tougher than any of the mahoganies.

We can still get good quality AB Marine fir in 1/2 in. We live here in the heart of Douglas-fir country where we can custom order runs from the plywood manufacturer and pick up without shipping.

The the fir bottom is a very different color than the Hydrotek or Sapele sides. To blend that we cover the inside boat fir bottom with Durabak in a dark brown color that blends very nicely and hoses out great.

Use Hydrotek 12mil for the matching all wood look. Just for the record you should not use Sapele for a boat bottom. It is a very short grained wood that is tough until the point of failure and then breaks rather dramatically. Use fir; it is much less expensive and a stronger longer lasting bottom. Simply coat the inside to match the sides.

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Permalink Reply by Chris King on August 14, 2009 at 10:47am

Thanks Randy,

I'm actually talking to Almquist in Arcata per your recomendation. They have been very helpfull as has this sight. I don't know if you have ever been there but, wow what a wood working store! As my project nears beginig I will keep you all posted. I hope to bring her up to your boat show in the spring.

Chris King

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Permalink Reply by Lawrence E. Long on August 14, 2009 at 5:24am

Cris: I haved used Hydrotec for 4 canoes and a peapod. From 4mm to 12mm. All high quality- but as Dave Z says dont go near the 6536 grade-voids! One thing about the Merranti I found was the color sometimes varies from sheet to sheet-creamish to reddish. Since I painted all boats it was not a problem- if you oil you may want to select the sheets- or tell the supplier you want uniform color. There is some 1088 out there that has 2 thicker inner plys with a top,bottom and middle skin much thinner- I don't like it.
Good Luck

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