After getting to the stage of taping up the hull and ready to install the keel batten I discovered that the 'Meranti marine ply to BS1088' supplied wasn't, marine ply or to BS 1088 that is. There had been early indications that all was not well but not being experienced with ply I had taken it as part of my lack of experience and clumsiness that the top ply's seemed to peel off very easily when trying to clear minor damage to edges and particularly the tags on the precut panels in the 6mm sections.
By this stage I couldn't identify which parts came from which sheet - I was not supplied with a parts list or sheet cut-out plan - so although I took numerous samples from scrap and unstarted sheets I could not be sure exactly how many sheets were affected. Of 26 samples tested - by boiling - only 4 passed unscathed whilst many de-laminated after immersion in cold water for a short time. All the failures were in the 6mm ply, the 9mm was ok but it was all firmly scarfed to the 6mm of course and partly taped in so nothing could be dismantled.
At the end of exhaustive checking I believe only the transom and maybe one other cut panel already assembled/installed were unaffected and only one, possibly two unstarted 6mm sheets seemed to pass initial testing. The shock was traumatic to say the least. I had been enjoying the build and it was something I had looked forward to for a long time so I'm afraid I did get a bit emotional; it has taken me a month to bring myself to write about it and hopefully warn others about the dangers of Asian plywood, I understand others have had similar experiences.
Fortunately the suppliers of the kit, Trailaway Boats in Brisbane, have not hesitated to correct matters. It was apparently as much of a shock to them as to me as they have been in the business for many years without encountering this problem. They are, or are in the process of, replacing the complete kit with Gaboon ply which is significantly more expensive at no extra cost to me, I could not ask for more than that. I have been in a small manufacturing business myself and know that these things happen, it is how they are resolved that is important and Trailaway Boats could not have been more positive, I can only recommend them as being of the highest ethical standards.
I am currently awaiting delivery of the new kit and as I have now been there before Build 2 will hopefully progress much faster than Build 1.
Build 1 is sat out in the backyard, I can't bring myself to put the saw through it yet, probably when the new kit arrives I will be able to do it.
