My books and reference materials are packed away, so I'm doing this by memory. Stainless steel (ss) does react with oak to produce a darkening stain in the wood. Not sure what other woods it reacts with. Stainless will not survive a wet stagnent environment once that environment looses oxygen. It will then corrode every bit as rapidly as regular mild steel then. A very common problem with the powershaft of outboard motors that are neglected and have their intermediate housings plugged up containing water.

I really wouldn't recommend regular, mild or high carbon steels for structural uses below the water line, especially not without protection.

All this probably becomes moot with a normally epoxied boat. Especially one that goes home on the car top at night. However, if you've got a stapled skin with only a coat of paint to protect the staples, it probably should be further investigated.

Lastly, there are some very peculiar galvonic reactions that take place in an exposed (wet) wooden hull boat that sits in saltwater. I think someone like databoats.com or boatbuilders.com has some good information about this phenomina. Your library probably does too. This is probably what the book is referring to.

> Last night i was looking at the boat CHad recomended "The
> Betsie Bay, Arctic lite". I liked the construction techniques
> imployed to save time, like using plywood instead of steambending.
> But i really like the idea of stapeling the skin onto the frame instead
> of sewing it on. This company uses stainless steel screws to built
> the frame and Monel stainless steel stapels to attach the skin.

> Larry Pardey wrote "The Hull, details of cassic boat construction"
> I read this book a few years ago , but i remebered something about
> not using stainless steel on wooden boats. So i looked it up and there
> it was on page 175.

> "Stainless steel generally is not used on wood boats because
> the acids in some woods (especially oak), combined with salt water,
> seems to cause stainless steel to pit and corrode faster than ordinary
> galvinized mild steel."

> This book is 500 pages long well writen contains alot of info
> on yacht building most of which would not be of use to kayak builders
> but the Appendix in the back of the book has alot of info on woods
> used in boat construction and info on marine adhesives.

> MY QUESTIONS:

> 1 Does anyone have any experience with this corrosion problem
> ?

> 2 If this is a real problem were is the best place to get bronze
> screws

> and stapels ?

> 3 Does anyone have experience with this method of attaching the
> skin of the

> kayak with stapels ?

> 4 Can you see the stapels after you finish the skin with a sealent
> ?

> 5 What would be the best sealent to hide the stapel heads ?

> Thanks in advance for any thoughts or comments.

> Stephen