Toad
New Member
I live in rural Arizona and I am planing to build a small wooden skiff. I have some plywood lined up but I have questions about lumber. The boat requires I build a simple frame and cover it with plywood. The wood available to me are some form of pine and maple along with poplar and red oak. I realize these are not standard species for boat building but these are what I have to choose from. This is not an ocean going boat and it will spend most of it's life on a trailer. I got an email from a guy who told me that if coated with a clear epoxy wood sealer the rot resistance for the red oak would go up dramatically. All wood on my boat could be covered with epoxy of some kind so I wondered about the other types of wood. I could also cover the outside with vinyl ester resin and light cloth and give the inside a good coat of wood preservative then primer and paint. I would like some thoughts on the subject. Pine, poplar, maple or red oak???