StarBoard for Motor Mount?

[Quickstep192]

My sailboat has an outboard in a well. The motor is mounted on a piece of teak about 18" wide and about 10" high. I'd like to have less teak on the boat, so I'm thinking about replacing it with something synthetic. Also, I've heard stories of the teak mount snapping across the grain, so just more motivation. The teak mount is a piece about 7/8" thick that spans the width, then another piece across the back where the motor mounts that makes it 1/34" thick in the middle. If I made the same thing out of Starboard, would it be strong enough?

[arf145]

I wouldn't trust Starboard for that. Look at FRP, like this from McMaster-Carr

[emoney]

Might be easier to just glass a board...stronger too.

[dacap06]

The short answer is no, Starboard won't hold up. I'm with emoney on this one. Either glass it or coat the board with epoxy to prevent rot and then paint it so the epoxy is not exposed to UV.

Originally Posted by emoney

Might be easier to just glass a board...stronger too.

[fryewe]

Laminate teak/okume plywood together using resorcinol glue to the thickness needed. Soak the edges with epoxy and glass over them with a layer of 4 or 6 oz fiberglass cloth. Then glass the whole thing. When it's dry, paint it. Install it using liberal amounts of dolfinite in the screw/bolt holes.

Starboard is not a structural material. It will not do for this job.