Radius Chine Plywood Construction by Dudley Dix of Dudley Dix Yacht Design M arine plywood was once the most popular material for boat construction by amateurs. It was knocked aside by ferro-cement, which thankfully did not hold the No 1 spot for very long. Now most amateurs buy a GRP hull and deck to fit out while those who want to build from scratch themselves generally choose steel. Most people still believe that wooden boats are guaranteed to have rot problems. Many far newer GRP boats are in worse condition, with osmosis, gelcoat cracking or delamination.
Modern epoxies provide a means to increase the life expectancy of a new timber boat.
Most wooden boats afloat today were built before epoxy resins were introduced as marine coatings. Think how long they will last if coated with epoxies when new. The effectiveness of epoxy coatings means also that the rather costly marine fastenings of bronze or stainless steel are no longer needed as long as they are buried inside the coatings. Brass screws will not dezincify into brittle porous copper nor galvanised ring nails rust if salt water cannot get to them. The relative importance of these fasteners has reduced as well because the adhesives in use today are generally stronger than the timbers which they are bonding.