Bigwin Cypress for planking?

[Jeff G]

I posted a question about cypress as a choice for planking our 66 foot steamer. I finally got ahold of a retired ship builder who had worked with cypress. After looking at samples that came off the hull he concluded that new or old growth cypress had held up well on the hull. This gentleman ran a boat building shop which made large wooden boats 30 years. He claims that cypress is one of the best woods in terms rot resistance. I am using seven quarter wood and found a good supply of old growth wood at $2.00 per board foot. It is air dried at about 16% water content which my boat builder feels is perfect. Pictures of the boat are posted on my earlier posting on Bigwin. See bigwinsteamboat.com Jeff Gabura

[mw_austin]

Working in a boat yard on the Texas Gulf Coast back in college ('80s), we repainted many a shrimp boat that was planked with cypress.

As I recall they shrank like crazy stilling in the dry docks with the hot Texas sun reflecting off the bottom. Rechalked and repainted they would take water on for several days. Once the planks swelled the would be tight and dry. Always amazed me how much those cypress planks could swell.

Most of the boats we pulled were built in the '10s and '20s never saw a rotted plank.

[SailBoatDude]

Cypress is a wonderful wood for planking. Sounds like you got a good deal on some, use it. Worked with it a lot in the mid Atlantic area, but now in Florida, don't see much of it any more, though don't know why. Maybe the powers that be not letting us cut it down near the water (where do we build the most) may have something to do with it . . .

[Bayboat]

$2.00 a foot is a fantastic price for cypress, if it's really baldcypress, Taxodium distichum. There are other woods that are called "cypress" in the lumber trade, and not all of them have the good boatbuilding characteristics of baldcypress.