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Marine Ply Weight ?


John Kinnane

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I am getting ready to order the plywood for Belhaven # 9. My supplier in Australia tells me that

"Good quality Gaboon is no longer available, we have been supplying Pacific Maple for a long time now instead, it is outstanding quality, and far less expensive. Sheet weights are 10 kg for 6 mm, 13.5 for 9 mm sheets.

The cost will be

5 x 9 mm sheets $352.10 (US $264 approx)

18x 6 mm sheets $805.14 (US $604 approx)

Delivery $78.00 (end quote)

I have been trying to find out the comparitive weight of gabboon ply. Can anyone help with the weight of 1/4" & 3/8" and or any comments about the merits of either. The 13' rowing boat I have just finished was Pacific Maple (from Fiji ) I think.

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After weighing quite a few sheets of occoume (gaboon) marine ply, I use the figure 0.10 lb/mm/sq ft to calculate weight of boat panels. This seems to work out well for all thicknesses. There is some variation but not much.

For your ply, this would work out to about 0.115 lb/mm/sq ft. This is probably about the same weight as marine fir here in the USA.

Tom

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John,

You can go with the pacific maple. It will weigh 10% - 15% more than okoume, but I had that in mind when designing the boat, as not everyone will have okoume available. Pacific maple is in the same family of woods from the Phillipines with luan, borneo cedar and shorea etc.

They are incredibly good prices.

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Graham & Tom

Thanks for your comments and I also asked for a bit more info on the Pacific Maple and how it compared in weight to the gaboon. Here is their reply.

Hi John

1. The weight of Pac Maple is only slightly greater than Gaboon:

6 mm 9 kg cf 8.5 kg

9 mm 13.5 cf 13 kg

2. It is a premium plywood, A grade faces, free of all flaws. (We would not sell it if it was in any way inferior !)

3. Sheets sizes are 8x4, 2440x1220

The supplier is Boat Craft Pacific from Queensland (they manufacture BoteCote epoxy resins and a range of other marine products).

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Tom,

I must admit that I am pleased about the price on the Pacific Maple ply. I was expecting the ply to cost about $3000 AUD and now appears it will be just over $1300 delivered to my door ! The ply on my rowboat was from Mister Ply & Wood and I think it had an A side & a B side. There were a few voids on the B side but generally the grain was very nice. It was from Fiji I think.

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