About to start building a Spindrift 11

[Smiltserkskis]

Hi all,

I have plans for a Spindrift 11 that I want to build and sail together with my eight-year old this summer. Never built or sailed a boat before, neither of us. We are yet waiting for warmer weather so we could finally start building the boat, nighttime temps are still around zero degrees (Celsius) over here, and not much higher by day.

So I've been looking for supplies in the meantime, found a supplier of good epoxy, but such plywood as stated in the plans is unavailable - the best I have found is "water-resistant" birch plywood, but I'm pretty sure it is not marine quality. My concern is that birch is roughly one-and-a-half times heavier than okume (plus, for some reason, it's 6.5 millimeter plywood everywhere, not 6), and given that it is not proper marine plywood, it will probably have to be sheathed in fiberglass on both sides, which will make the boat even heavier.

I've searched the forums and saw that using anything else except okume is frowned upon, but the alternative is usually fir plywood for some reason. So I wanted to know your opinion about birch. Do you think it would do to just fiberglass the outside of the boat - or maybe it is worth switching to thinner plywood? Any comments will be much appreciated.

[Ray Frechette Jr]

I would contactt eh manufacturerof quality BS 1088 plywood and ask them where nearest broker might be.

Shelmarine can be contacted at

http://www.shelman.gr/en/contact_pages/marketing.htm

[arnie]

Welcome to the forum.

I am in the Riga area and could not find marine ply. So I have built a Spindrift 11 using the locally made birch ply. I have not glassed the hull at all. This was about 4 years ago and she is still holding up very well. I used System 3 expoxy and the primer and paint from the Riga paint factory which believe it or not turns out to be excellent paint. It really is very hard wearing.

My son and I use the boat mainly as a row boat as we live next to the Maza Jugla river and we wanted a boat to mess about in and do some fishing. If you wish to come and have a look you will be most welcome.

This summer we plan to make a birds nest mast get the sails made up and start sailing on the local lakes. Just received a copy of Sailing for Dummies via Amazon.com. So a lot of learning ahead.

[Smiltserkskis]

Arnie, thanks a lot for responding - your post is the best I could have hoped for A fellow boat builder is really really great! Please check your messenger, in a few moments.

Ray, I did send the guys a request for nearest broker, but they have not yet replied. Frankly speaking, they may as well not reply at all, because I have looked elsewhere on the net (the most reliable source of information, I know - but), it appears that boatbuilders who have used birch ply generally find it to be a very good material, Finnish/Latvian ply in particular. Therefore I retract the quotation marks from the water-resistant part in my original post, and plan to use local plywood, hopefully to a good result.

[Smiltserkskis]

Funny how I overlooked most of what was in Arnie's post and went on with statements that I actually have no proof to support. Arnie's account, on the other hand, is a testimony to the high quality of birch ply and the suitability thereof for building another Spindrift, I believe.