World Panel Boat Building Lumber

 29 Jan 22:

I took a road trip to World Panel in Windsor, NC to pick up materials for our Nutshell Pram project and a teak deck chair. World Panel specializes sawn lumber, plywood and composite materials suitable for the marine environment, with another store in Riviera Beach, FL. 

We first loaded a 5x10 sheet of 3/8th inch (9mm) okoume ply for use as a table top, another project. Surprisingly it didn't fit flat  in my 5x10 trailer, I found out it is cut a bit over size, I suppose to account for possible edge damage in transit. For the Nutshell we bought okume 4x8 plywood in 1/4 (6 mm), 3/8th (9 mm) and 3/4 inch (18 mm), a 13 foot piece of 1x8 mahogany, and a 20 foot long piece of 2x4 fir that they cut in half. 

The rough mahogany measures 1 inch thick, in lumber terms it is classed as 4/4 unfinished. If they were to surface all 4 sides (S4S) it would measure about 3/4 thickness and be labeled 4/4 S4S. It is sold in a variety of widths and they figure the price by "board foot." Hardwoods are sold by the board foot, which is a calculation of the wood volume in the board. A board foot indicates a volume quantity equal to a board 12 inches by 12 inches by 1 inch, or one-twelfth of a cubic foot. The board in the photo is 8.75 board feet at $8.95 per bf, it cashes out at $78.31. It will be used for the keel, rudder bits, gunwales and a few other places, and there will be quite a bit left over for other projects

Skipper also requested some teak to build a deck chair, and since I wasn't sure how much I needed I bought a little extra. We bought 43.50 board feet, way too much, maybe enough to make an entire patio set, At 27.50 per board foot, you do the math. 

Marine plywood is made with waterproof adhesive and the higher grades of plywood are rated by standards, in this case British Standard 1088 (BS1088). The untreated face veneers must have a solid surface without open defects. The okoume we bought is also a hardwood.

Compare to this lumber yard plywood made from fir, a softwood, which has a grainy surface and open defects. We bought this piece to make molds and lamination jigs for the Nutshell, it will be useful and economical for that.

Marine plywood will have more plies, our 6 mm and 9 mm have 5 plies and the 18 mm has 9. The odd number of plies helps reduce warping and deformation.

World Panel ships to many locations, and the folks are very knowledgeable and helpful.

FMI: World Panel

1979 Drascombe Dabber VICTORY 30 Apr 18 Gunwale Varnish

30 Apr 18:

Cleaned up the rough surface of the gunwale with 120 grit on a random orbital sander a few weeks back. Lesson learned, wear a dust mask, gloves, long sleeve shirt, hat, long pants and decon as soon as possible, I got contaminated with some moldy teak! I thought, oh the breeze is blowing the dust away, I have the shop vac hookped up to the sander and it is a quick job....didn't matter.

Luckily the job went quick, and we applied 2 coats of TotalBoat Gleam Marine Spar Varnish Satin. I wasn't sure how it would look, but after a few brush strokes it looked fantastic, we are very pleased with how it turned out.

We also finished attaching the transom cap with some #8x3/4 silicone bronze wood screws.

All of the sudden VICTORY seems ready for final rigging and sea trials!

Log of VICTORY

1980 Drascombe Dabber VICTORY 01 Feb 18 Rudder Construction

01 Feb 18:

Steve sent us a pattern for a Dabber rudder, we traced it onto a teak blank that we glued up, edge glued with Pettit Marine Paint Flexpoxy. The planks were left over from the floorboard, we cut square edges onto them to remove the radiused deck edge that they came with. In this photo I had started to sand the entire blank to remove epoxy squeezeout, then I thought, hey, why not cut out the rudder first, and save a lot of sanding?

Straightened up the tracing with a 2 foot Stanley Tools folding carpenter's rule and Sharpie, then cut out the rudder with a DEWALT jigsaw.

Cut the aft notch for the tiller dowel, cut kerfs up to the line then I was able to cut along the line without binding the blade.

Drascombe Dabber Rudder edges eased with a 3/4 inch roundover bit on a DEWALT compact trim router, except for the leading edge where the pintles will attach and the tiller notches. Then sanded with 60 grit on a Black and Decker 3 inch belt sander, finished with 120 grit on a Dewalt random orbital sander. Cleaned up the tiller notches with a Kobalt ceramic tile file. The Shopvac collected most of the sanding dust but not the jigsaw creation.

The bronze pintles (pins that attach rudder to transom) are vintage, we found them on ebay. They are tapered and the lower pintle is longer so that it slips into the lower gudgeon (tube part of the hinge) first, so we can concentrate on seating one pintle at a time while the boat is bobbing around.

Skipper usually feeds me if I bring her new boat parts!

Restoration Log of VICTORY.

Drascombe Dabber VICTORY 07 Dec 17 Transom Cap

07 Dec 17:

Took some of the clamps and plastic off of the new teansom cap, it looks great and is ready for sanding and final fitting. Skipper suggested we keep the clamps on until it is attached to prevent springback as it finishes drying. The fir plywood already had a curve to it but the cumaru teak strips did not, so they might try to straighten out a bit when unclamped.

Log of VICTORY.

Drascombe Dabber VICTORY 01 DEC 17 Paint, Gelcoat Cleaning

01 Dec 17:

Rolled and tipped the first coat of Pettit Easypoxy Blue Ice on the garboard.

Painted the bilge. Skipper started removing more grime with Tilex, it worked great. She got the port side cleaned up.

Removed rotten section of the keel rub strip, about 12 inches.

Cut new section from teak and fastened with TotalBoat THIXO.

Log of VICTORY.

Drascombe Dabber VICTORY 17 Nov 17 New Floor

17 Nov 17:

Stepped the main and mizzen mast, they are in good enough shape to be saved. Stays are in good shape as well as the halyards.

Picked up some cumaru Peruvian teak for the floor, started cutting out new slats.

Tips for the Lugger and Dabber floor - sole -

-1x6 deck boards work great. They are actually 5 1/2 inches wide, which leaves a nice gap between boards. Some also already have radiused edges, saves time.
-Use the old floorboards as a pattern for width spacing, cleat spacing and shape.
-Put a wide board on the outside slat and work inboard, where you will have the shorter, narrow center boards.