Bulkheads

Good morning Hope all is well, I have been enjoying the posts and printing some for future reference. Anyway, to the point. I have been replacing sections of deck core with marine plywood. I am almost done with that, and now will begin bulkhead replacement. I plan to use red oak laminated plywood, but would like to know if that is recommendable. The main bulkheads, which are 3/4 inch will get replaced as well. I am staggering the replacements to avoid structural weakening during the process. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated. BTW, we have been very fortunate here in Puerto Rico, so far, all we have seen from this active hurricane season has been acouple of bands from Hannah, with max. gusts of 40 knts, and some pretty decent surf.... Cheers Jeff '72 Cal 33

Jeffrey owen wrote: > > Good morning > > Hope all is well, I have been enjoying the posts and printing some for > future reference. > > Anyway, to the point. I have been replacing sections of deck core with > marine plywood. I am almost done with that, and now will begin > bulkhead replacement. I plan to use red oak laminated plywood, but > would like to know if that is recommendable. Jeff: As you probably know, red oak was disfavored traditionally as a boatbuilding material because of its pore structure, which favored movement of moisture and rot spores in the wood, leading to early failure. There's also an issue of the effect of oak's tannins on the cure and strength of epoxy. My guess is that the plywood has oak veneers only, with some other core plies. In that case, you could seal the edges with epoxy successfully. If the red oak veneers didn't interfere substantially with epoxy bonding (go look at the Gougeon Bros. web site and see what they have to say), then it's probably not a problem. Chris Campbell