[Public-List] Old Hickory

[dan walker]

thousand years ago rascal was in charleston south carolina. wife and i were going to go for a sail after not being there for four months or so, so being an alberg e mail educated sailor i inspected the rig etc and looked up at the spreaders. took out my binoculars and told lisa we were not going sailing. why she asks? spreader had a mushroom growing on it. thought may not be safe. sure enough crumbled when removed. just a tale of more fun from  a good old boat

dan 



________________________________
 From: Gordon Laco <mainstay at csolve.net>
To: Alberg 30 Public List -- open to all <public-list at lists.alberg30.org> 
Sent: Monday, October 7, 2013 10:56 AM
Subject: Re: [Public-List] Old Hickory
 

This is a very interesting subject.

All species of wood have strengths and weaknesses (well most do, some aren't
good at anything in boat building...)

Sitka spruce is favoured for spars despite its softness and low rot
resistance.  We tolerate the weaknesses because of respect for its stiffness
and light weight, availability in lengths and even grain.

Fir (Oregon Pine to some) is up there (pun intended) for spars near sitka
because of it's greater rot resistance, greater hardness (particularly with
regard to holding bolts and screws), and even grain.  It's less well
regarded than sitka because it's heavier.

Neither of those woods are favoured for spreaders because what makes a
spreader good is hardness (which equates with resistance to compression) and
rot resistance.   We don't care quite so much about weight in spreaders
because in the scheme of things they aren't very big.  White Oak is very
good for spreaders because it's hard, has good rot resistance, and has a
nice closed grain so that what water gets into its end grain won't travel
through it well (this is in direct contradiction to the opposite
characteristic with regard to grain exhibited by red oak)

Rot resistance is important, even aloft, because even though they're up in
the air, moisture can get into them at bolt or lacing holes.  I would
suggest that hickory isn't a good choice unless one armours them as well as
possible (epoxy saturation at bolt holes etc).

However, all this is not to say you can't make whatever you have to use work
after a fashion.

Touch Wood, my wooden boat, once broke her spinnaker pole in the midst of a
regatta.  It was a lovely sitka spruce spar and I needed another quickly.  I
drove to the local lumber store but of course they didn't have sitka spruce
(in fact disputed with me that spruce could be a premium wood) I bought
regular spruce and built a pole; it broke like a carrot the first time I
used it.  

Back I went and bought a piece of maple of about the correct dimensions.

Anyone would tell you that maple has no place in a boat.  Yes, it's hard,
but it has very poor rot resistance and is somewhat heavy.  But that's what
was there and I had another race to be at the next day.  I bought it and
that night made it into a spinnaker pole.  I used it happily for twelve
years and it was with TW on her long voyage south until Hurricane Katrina
tore it off her deck chocks.  I don't doubt someone found it and perhaps
it's still being used today...unless the varnish went, water got into it,
and it rotted.

I guess choosing wood is something like sailing in bad weather.  Going out
when you don't have to, knowing a storm is coming is not good seamanship.
But coping with bad weather if it catches you is good seamanship.  Using
inappropriate woods, knowing the trouble they'll give later, isn't wise:
using inappropriate wood if that's all you can get, and coping with it in
knowledge of what you're dealing with, well, maybe that can be considered
clever (but perhaps not wise...)

Gord #426 Surprise






On 07/10/13 9:59 AM, "isobar at verizon.net" <isobar at verizon.net> wrote:

>    On 10/06/13, Michael Grosh<dickdurk at gmail.com> wrote:
>    That's a heck of a chart, Bob. I read it as spruce being 1/2 the
>    weight, and 2/3 compression (resistance?) Of white oak approx.
>    [That's right, Michael. Sorry I forgot to include the definitions:
>    Compressive strength tells you how much of a load
>     a wood species can withstand parallel to the grain. How much weight wi
>    ll the legs of a table support before they buckle?
> 
>    Measure the compressive strength by loading a block of wood parallel to
>     the grain until it breaks]
>    So I suppose spruce being bendy is desirable in masts (racing dingys,
>    etc.). It's a pretty spiffy wood for a pair of 9' oars I have also.
>    Scratch the spreader idea. Maybe that's why later boats are in
>    aluminum.
>    [ I wonder why they switched, too. Cheaper? Easier to fabricate?
>    Certainly not for looks or performance.]
>    Bob
>    p.s. I apologize if my strength figures are incorrect (though I doubt
>    it). I had to take them from a third party source since the bast..
>    oops, government employees, took down the forest service database on
>    their web site because of the "shutdown". Presumably a waste of
>    electricity or some such.
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