I have a 12’ Pelican sailboat that I’m in the middle of restoring. Most of the boat is in okay shape except that it needs a few coats of paint, but there are a few parts that were rotted through or broken and needed to be replaced. Around the top edge, where the deck meets the hull, there were rub rails that (according to my father, whose boat it was years ago) were originally made of teak. They were both rotted through in a few places, so I ripped them out and am fixing the damage underneath.
I’ll also need to get lumber for some new rub rails, so I called to the hardwoods store that sold me some trim to go around the cockpit about a week ago, and faxed over a little cross section sketch of what I wanted. The rails are about 2" by 0.5", and need to be 12.5’ long. The lady at the hardwoods says that they can get teak lumber for $19.11 a board foot for 1/2 inch board, but that “it’s a question of how many boards you can get out of it.” I ask what she means, and she says that it comes in “random sizes,” and sometimes you can get more than one 2" board out of it, and sometimes you can’t. After asking her to repeat that, I told her I’d call her back.
So, what’s the deal with this? Is this a common way of selling wood? How can they not know what size they’re getting, and how is the price so exact for unknown merchandise? What if I needed a 5" wide board? Would they tell me that they can sell me some boards, but who the hell knows if it’ll be 5" wide or not?
And, along other lines: Ain’t no way I’m paying $500 for wood for rub rails on my boat. I got it for free from my cousin, and have already invested two weekends and $300 in supplies to get it to work. It looks like I’ll be another two weekends and a few hundred down before it gets going, but it’s just not worth that to me. Any suggestions for something less expensive that won’t look terribly ugly under varnish and will be good for marine use?
I think your misunderstanding how a board foot is measured and priced. One board foot is a piece of wood 12 inches by 12 inches by 1 inch. For your example, a .5 inch board 6 inches wide and 4 feet long would be one board foot and would sell for the $19.11. Unlike regular building lumber, better wood is priced and sold by the actual amount purchased. My local dealer sells teak in lengths up to 8 feet long and they charge only $17 a bf. If the rails on your boat are straight you should only need a couple board feet for your project.
Yep, you buy the whole board, cut out what’s useful to you, and then you get to plan what you might someday do with the leftovers.
I’m not that much of a boater, but I’ve never heard of mahogany being used on boats. All I know about mahogany is that it’s relatively soft and wears down rather rapidly when abraded. Mahogany furniture makers go out of their way to build dressers and other pieces with drawers or parts that rub in such a way as to use other wood (oak, for instance) where the rubbing will occur (e.g. drawer slides) and put the mahogany on parts that don’t rub.
Teak is used for boats since it resists rot in wet environments.
Yep. Buying rough lumber is usually cheaper, but the flip side is you pay for the machining and the stuff you don’t use. Sometimes lumber yards will sell planed and jointed wood by the board foot as well (usually at a somewhat higher price).
You can also probably buy 2" x 0.5" teak stock by the linear foot which is pretty much what it sounds like.
There’s already some mahogany around the cockpit, so it might look nice for the rub rails.
It doesn’t seem to be. At least, not from the hardwood supplier I called (and from my brief search, they seem to be the only ones in the area that carry such things). I think I’ll call them back and have them explain the whole “board foot” pricing thing and see how much I’d really be paying.
Or, as what my sleep deprived brain was thinking when I typed the above, I’ve never heard of mahogany being used for deck gear on boats.
Do you feel you have to go locally, or might there be some on-line or mail-order marine specialty suppliers who have the correct dimensional product for you needs?
I’m not totally committed to going locally, but I’m sort of dreading the shipping costs on 12+’ lengths of wood. It’d probably cost more than the lumber itself.
If anyone knows of an online store that can ship, or has other information I should read, I’m happy to receive suggestions. I have tried searching, but either my google-fu is weak, or such a thing doesn’t exist. I’ve generally only found lumber yards suppliers that serve local areas and have no online catalog or ordering system.
Here’s a web page about the restoration of a classic sailboat (a 43’ Herreshoff NYYC 30 ) that includes this statement: “The deck joiner work on the original NYYC 30’s was mahogany.”
Neat looking boat. Like I said, I’m not much of a boater - - I’ve sailed a few times with friends/extended family but have logged most of time on the water in fiberglass motorboats. I was also sleep deprived when I made my initial post to this thread. As I wrote back a few days ago, what I meant to write initially was that I had never heard of mahogany being used for boats in areas that would get a lot of chafing.
Based on my understanding of mahogany furniture I just don’t think mahogany rub rails would hold up very well against abrasion. Given that price appears to be a major issue for this particular restoration, it would be a shame for iamthewalrus(:3= to substitute a less expensive lumber that might need to be replaced after only a short while.
That said, I’m just some random guy posting his opinion to a message board on the internets, and I could very well be wrong. Just trying to help, YMMV, and all that.
I’m not too worried about the abrasion on the wood. It’ll be covered in varnish several coats thick, and (if I’m paying attention) revarnished any time it actually gets down to the wood, so there should be very little actual wear on the wood.
Price is hopefully less of a consideration now that I know that a board foot isn’t what I thought it was. I still have to call the hardwoods place back and see how much it really is.
Been a sailor since in the womb on the Atlantic Ocean. Go with Mahogany and a good solid marine varnish. You got bumpers don’t you? They protect the rub rails, thats their job. Here’s a late 50’s Beaver Tail Chris Craft. All mahogany… Notice the bumpers…
Of course. I’ve been taking pictures of the process (Mostly just sanding and painting so far), so I’ll have the whole progression to post as well as before and after shots.
