New Hatch Boards - Pine OK?

mstern · #1 (**permalink**) 10-23-2008

Ok, this year I mean it - I'm going to make new companionway hatch boards this winter. My question: has anyone made hatch boards out of pine? I would rather use a readily available material like pine than have to special order an expensive hardwood. Teak ain't happening as its way too expensive, and the mahogany at my local lumber yard and Home Depot is either crappy looking, too narrow, way overpriced, or all of the above. So, has anyone tried pine with either good or bad results?

JohnRPollard · #2 (**permalink**) 10-23-2008

Haven't tried pine (I don't think it would be the best choice), but if you don't want to pay for teak or another suitable hardwood, how about polycarbonate (Lexan) or acrylic?

Or teak-veneered plywood (properly sealed)?

bubb2 · #3 (**permalink**) 10-23-2008

I believe that Pine being a soft wood, would sooner or later absorb moisture and swell and split.

BlueWaterMD · #4 (**permalink**) 10-23-2008

What about trying some other hardwoods? It seems you went from the most expensive hardwoods right to the one of cheapest soft wood. How about something in the middle? I am currently reading a book called Fix It and Sail, and the author used a wood called Ipe (brazilian wallnut), which has very similar characteristics to teak at a fraction of the cost.

A high grade marine grade plywood might also work. Take a look at some of the boatbuilding sites (glen l, bateau.com) and you will be pleasantly suprised with the results you can get when the plywood is finished properly.

danjarch · #5 (**permalink**) 10-23-2008

Pine in the widths you need are going to warp and check really quick. I wouldn't recomend it. Check around your area. My bet would be that you have a discount building materials store some where close. Check and see what they have on hand. The weather boards on the Liberty and the Liberty Clipper were made of oak and had stood a long time. Plastics such as lexan will work good and you might be able to find some small pieces at a resonable price. Look at restuarant supply houses as well as thrift stores to see if you can find discount cutting boards that are big enough to cut you hatch board out of.

Agian the pine is going to warp really quick, as in you'd be lucky to get the varnish on them before they had warped enough that you could no longer get them into the grooves. Assuming they stayed strait long enough to put into place, by the next week they'd be so warped that they would be hard to get back out.

One last thing you could try is the plastic borad made for decks. Run them through a table saw and dowl pin them together with some polyurathane glue (gorilla glue) till you had the right with. You could probably get all your hatch boards out of one 12 foot 5/4 x 6 deck board.

Good luck

JohnRPollard · #6 (**permalink**) 10-23-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlueWaterMD

A high grade marine grade plywood might also work. Take a look at some of the boatbuilding sites (glen l, bateau.com) and you will be pleasantly suprised with the results you can get when the plywood is finished properly.

That is a good suggestion. Marine ply, like okuome or sapele, looks beautiful when treated and sealed with epoxy, and overcoated with varnish. The key is "marine ply", which will not have the voids that you find in regular grade construction ply.

Chesapeake Light Craft (Welcome to Chesapeake Light Craft » Boat Plans, Boat Kits, Kayak Kits, Canoe Kits, Sailboat Kits, Rowboat Kits, Paddleboard Kits, Boatbuilding Supplies, Boat Gear and Accessories, Kayaks, Canoes, Sailing Dinghies, Rowing Craft, Paddleboards, Stand Up) also sells marine ply. Ply is expensive to ship, so the closer the source the better. If you can have it pre-cut to the smallest useful size, you'll save a lot on shipping.

PBzeer · #7 (**permalink**) 10-23-2008

I've used 1/2" oak plywood with good effect so far. Can get it at Lowes in 4'x4' or 2' pre=cut sizes if you don't want or need a whole 4x8. I used 3 coats of stain, then 6 coats of sealer.

chucklesR · #8 (**permalink**) 10-23-2008

I made a hatchboard, one piece, out of regular oak plywood - edgebanded with 1/2 of with real oak (all white oak) then sealed it with 6 coats of Spar urethane varnish for my first boat (Grampian 26). I'm a reasonable amatuer woodworker. It looked good in place.

It lasted precisely 1 year, in Maryland. Then commenced to rot. Last time I saw it it was pretty much naked wood.

The owner of that Grampian is now in S.C. and is on Sailnet, perhaps if he sees this he can tell you if it's still part of the boat about 5 years later.

The lesson I took away is do it right once or wrong many times, the money comes out the same but your time is wasted on non-suitable material.

CLucas · #9 (**permalink**) 10-23-2008

Pine is way too soft and won't weather well. I made a really nice hatchboard last winter out of marine-grade teak plywood. because the teak veneer is very thin, you need to be careful when sandnig to not go thru it -- hand-sand only using a light touch. I epoxied the edges using West System resin and finished with Cetol marine gloss. I did the entire project using a circular saw and was very pleased with the results. I purchased the teak plywood online for a fraction of what any local lumber yard wanted to charge (including shipping costs). I still have plenty of material left and will probably make a spare set this winter.

I'll be the first to acknowledge that I'm not a natural born cabinet maker -- I got a few quotes from some third parties and was astounded at what they were asking ($500 and up).

Be careful measuring, because my own experience (and research) has shown that hatchways are generally not symmetrical. You might want to do a practice run and make one out of some scrap plywood before you start cutting the "good stuff."

bobmcgov · #10 (**permalink**) 10-23-2008

Pine not good. Doug fir is better, redwood okay, high-end cedars (Port Orford, Alaska Yellow) very good but at $20 a bdft, you ain't going there.

Among hardwoods, I'd advise mahogany (true (swietenia), African (khaya), or Phillipine); Oak (white, bog or live, not red); locust; teak, of course; any of the super-hard tropicals like Ipe, jatoba, chechen, bocote, etc. Pawlonia if you can find it. Spanish cedar (not a cedar) probably best of all.

White oak is an excellent outdoor wood and very inexpensive. I get it for $2.40 a board foot. Not hard to work with, but do round over all crisp edges or they may get splintery with time. Stable, strong, good looking. For hatchboards, you should get flatsawn rather than quartersawn: it's stronger and less prone to swelling in thickness.