The plantation-grown stuff hasn’t worked in this case, and it has led to some nasty rot and a repair job? So what is a boat builder to do? Charlie Hussey sets out the problem and discusses the issue with intheboatshed.net regular Tiernan Roe.
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Gavin Atkin's weblog for the sort of people who like looking inside boat sheds. It's about old boats, traditional boats, boat building, restoration, the sea and the North Kent Coast
Hi Gavin,
As an addendum to the above discussion if you’re looking for a stable, rot resistant and strong deck to replace teak you could do a lot worse than use spanish chestnut. It has the appearance of oak, and similar strentgh properties although not as elastic (bendy) and it does have lots of tanin too. It is however as stable as weatern red cedar. Plus it’s more environmentally friendly than teak and a lot cheaper.
It’s not really suitable for replacing individual planks in a teak deck because even though it will grey over time the figure/grain will be noticeably different if it’s slab sawn which it usually is as generally there is no real need to quarter saw it. It also is much better to machine and work by hand than oak, very little reversing grain.
Anyway that’s my tuppence worth and of course I’m perfectly happy to be corrected. As the saying goes the man who never made a mistake never made anything.
All the best,
Tiernan
Thanks Tiernan!
What about Robinia (robinia pseudoacacia)? It’s used very much in Germany to replace teak in garden furniture. It is very rot resistant. But I haven’t heard yet that is has been used in boat building.