I was debating what the added weight would be using different woods before I stated my project. Nick's book suggests that you will need about 937 feet of 3/4" square strips... For WRC at 23 lbs/ft^3 = 28 lbs in wood before you shave, plane, scrape and sand. If you used 1/4" strips of the rosewood you would get about 49 lbs.

The way I approached it was to use the thinner strips (3/16" vs 1/4") of the other wood (poplar in this case) and take the added weight as the trade off. Poplar was only 31 lbs/ft^3 and the difference calculates out to almost nothing vs. WRC in 1/4". For the rosewood it will be more like 36.6 lbs total vs 28 or only 9 lbs...

You will only notice the added weight when you are lifitng the boat back on the rack at the end of the day anyway...

: Hello,

: I am about to build a Guillemot Night Heron and Micro Bootlegger, and would
: like to know if New Guinea Rosewood (Pterocarpus indicus) would be a
: suitable timber. I have 3 200mm x 50mm x 5500mm boards, so I am hoping the
: answer is yes. My main concern is weight, as the Rosewood is 40 lb/cu ft,
: vs WRC at around 23 lb/cu ft. I could slim down the strips but I'm not
: sure that this would be enough, I was thinking 1/8 thick may be OK? Any
: suggestions?