and I'll say it again...

Something worth considering in a much maligned cruising destination, a bit more of Webb Chiles plans, and a little love at first sight...

Today my email had a number of notes filled with no small amount of outrage, dismay,  and horror that I might suggest using a plywood product that is not labeled marine... Obviously, some of my readers are much more trusting than I am in regards to the veracity of what passes for a marine industry and so-called standards these days.

Which I guess is OK... I suppose there needs to be a body of folks who buy stuff on the home shopping channel, guzzle $4 beers at beach bars, and collect on those offers of money from those nice folks who write from Nigeria about all of that money they have waiting for you.

Right now there is a whole lot of Chinese plywood labeled "marine" floating around... Some of it is good to excellent, and some of it is truly awful. Same thing could be said for a lot of the plywood coming out of South America. The point is, that whatever wood products you buy to build your boat (or use in projects for your boat) needs to be looked at and judged on its own merits and not on a stamp or the fact that the guy at the yard tells you it's "marine"...

Since some of my current projects on "So It Goes" involve pulling out some bits of interior that is still in good shape, it's given me a lot of chances to examine how non-marine plywood has held up over forty-something years protected by a little paint at most... Truth is, I love our CAL 34 but there were a lot of corners cut way back when to make the boat a profitable one. Not that I'm complaining as the interior ply with a veneer of teak overlay has held up way better than anyone could or should reasonably expect it to. Where it has failed or exhibits problems is where previous owners have done some wood butchery of one sort or another and done it badly...

So, when all is said and done, I'm still going to suggest that you be open-minded about using more affordable species of lumber and plywood when/where it makes sense and when/where you can responsibly satisfy yourself that it is of a quality that will do the job.

Listening to Save Ferris


So it goes...