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Has anyone used cypress for strip or ss&g kayaks?
Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2012 10:22 am
by JGood
A traditional wood for wooden boats in SW Florida was Cypress. My grandfather, was commercial fisherman and he built all his boats from Cypress. Would it make a kayak to heavy? I am thinking of using Cypress to build a SS&G Wadefish 15 32 or at least use it for accents. Any thoughts or experience would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Jesse
Re: Has anyone used cypress for strip or ss&g kayaks?
Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2012 11:25 am
by jem
It's about 25% heavier than Western Red Cedar but is about 25% stiffer. Used a lot in boat building especially for strength. Very rot resistent. It has some oils in it but all the data I read says that it behaves nicely with epoxy.
Traditional wood strips are 1/4" thick. If you have some Western Red Cedar and cypress samples, you could mill some test strips and see if you could get away with trimming 1/32" off the cypress.
Tack the strips between 12" stations and compare any sagging or bending. You might be able to down to 3/16" thickness especially if you glue up the panels on a flat surface. Then sagging between stations won't matter because you'll have the other strips and glue supporting each other. Don't skimp on the fiberglass weight.