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Contemporary Wooden Boat Building

Composite Building Technology

My boats have a handcrafted core of marine plywood or solid wood strips. I build decks from silver fir, western red cedar or various types of mahogany. I usually coat hulls and decks with thin glass fibre and epoxy resin. This coating cures like varnish and protects the wood from moisture very effectively. It is a perfect water barrier, and it does not swell or shrink. Boats built using this technique therefore remain absolutely watertight.
Inside, I coat the hulls with fibreglass or Kevlar^TM fabric and epoxy resin. The coatings make the hull rigid and very resistant. Kevlar^TM is extremely impact-resistant. A Kevlar^TM-coated boat hull can withstand impacts without leaking.
I build reinforcements in the hull and the rig from carbon fibre.

This so-called composite construction method produces light, robust, durable and 100% watertight boats. The crystal-clear coating allows the wood to show off its full beauty and protects it perfectly from water and other environmental influences.

These boats have the potential to outlive their builder. Wooden boats become more and more beautiful as they age! They have the potential to become the classics of tomorrow that you can be proud of today.

Wooden boats - Expensive to Maintain?

In the past, the joints between the wooden planks were sealed with cotton or oakum and tar. These hulls are never completely tight. The water standing in the bilge causes the planks to rot after a few years. It is time-consuming and expensive to replace planks.
The deck and superstructure are made of solid wood. Solid wood warps. It expands expands and contracts again, and over time cracks appear between the boards, where the varnish flakes off and water penetrates. The damage must be sealed and repainted.

Nowadays, the plywood planks are glued with epoxy, or veneers are moulded in several layers with epoxy. In addition, wooden hulls can be coated on the outside and inside with glass fibre fabric and epoxy. The resulting hulls are absolutely watertight, have a long service life and look beautiful. Superstructures are made of dimensionally stable plywood that does not warp.

In a restauration, these modern materials and techniques are often the only chance to rescue derelict classic crafts.

Robust and Easy to Mantain

My boats are robust and can withstand a few scratches and knocks. Modern wooden boats are - properly manufactured and treated with care - no more sensitive than laminate boats. For an almost unlimited life span please note:

Epoxy resin is not very UV-stable. Store your boat protected from direct sunlight in the garage or a shed. If this is not possible, use a tarpaulin to protect the entire hull from direct sunlight. Add another coat of varnish if it looses its gloss after some years of use.
Wood-epoxy hulls can lie on the jetty or on a mooring. They are as watertight as good fiberglass boats. Do not let water accumulate inside the boat, or the resulting damage will be as severe as in a GRP boats after several months. In a cold winter, the water inside the hull will freeze and will bend the planks and split the seams.
Deep scratches in the wood core must be repaired. Allow the boat to dry and tape the scratch temporarily with packing tape to keep it dry. No later than the end of the season, fill the scratch with epoxy. This will protect the wood from moisture again.
Heavy damage is no problem. After the collision, seal the dry boat temporarily with packing tape and go on. After the trip, the damage is easily repaired by us or any other talented boat builder. We will cut out the damage, insert a new wood core and rebuild the sheathing.