An Email That Made My Night

So what I did not write about it my last post was that the plans actually call for 3/8th inch plywood. This is non-existent. I emailed the man who created the plans, but then left it up to chance that he'd actually answer. So my dad and I decided that 1/2 inch would work the same. But just now, I checked my email, and I had a response. It's pretty interesting, and there's so much helpful information. I think it means a quick change in my order(Danby Hardwoods is probably getting pretty sick of me!) I also put in bold a line that I particularly liked: 

Hello Julia:

Thank you very much for finding a glitch in the plans. Back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth when I first made these plans I apparently had a slip of the memory. The 3/8" plywood bottom was supposed to be optional for extra strength, 1/4" was supposed to the the standard version. My wife and I went through several rounds of proof reading and we brought in a friend of mine who is an experienced professional boat builder. None of us caught the oversight. Over the years that this design has been on the market virtually all of the buyers have been first time boat builders. They have all not questioned my call for 3/8" plywood bottom planks and apparently none of them are psychic and couln't read my mind to divine my true intentions. So there a re a whole fleet of Zydeco 14s out there that are a little bit heavier than they need to be. Fortunately, the Zydeco 14 is an inherently light canoe. This a pretty embarrassing mistake. However, I guess that if our mistakes in life are of the non-lethal kind, we should count ourselves as being lucky.

Just to be clear, 1/4" plywood is the standard thickness for the bottom planks and side planks in these canoes. I have had a couple of Zydeco Pirogues over the years. A few times they got some pretty hard knocks in whitewater and elsewhere. They were undamaged. There are hundreds of these Zydecos out in the world from the Yukon Territory to Germany. I have never received a report of structural failure of any kind.

Here are a few thoughts on marine plywood. Fir marine plywood seems to have suffered a decline in quality in the past few years. Be careful if you buy some, inspect it closely. Everyone is all enthusiastic about Occume plywood these day. It is pretty, is well made and is reasonably priced. I hate it. It has virtually no rot resistance and is quite weak. It has about one half of the sheer strength of fir plywood to resist puncture by rocks and logs. I have repaired a driftboat made from Occume that was only a year old and had extensive dry rot in the plywood. I repaired another Occume driftboat that had it's bottom plank completely ruptured by a minor hit from a rock. If you absolutely have to use Occume, it MUST be fiberglassed on BOTH of the plywood. Sapele plywood is top of the line. It is always my first preference, if you can stand the weight and cost. Sapele is an African Mahogany. Meranti Plywood is pretty good. Hydrotek is one brand name that I like. Look for the old British grading code BS1088. There are some east asian plywoods. I am suspicious, they seem to be similar to Occume.

Thanks again for spotting my mental slip.