Sorry, I couldn't help myself!!

Hey Glenn,

I'm thinkin' that you can build a boat out of pretty much any type of wood that you want. Of course, there are trade-offs (as usual). And probably in the area of weight more so than anywhere else. At least that seems to be the area of greatest concern for most folks. And, also, the workability of the different types of wood - planing, sanding, and especially bending.

On my two strippers, I've used white pine, douglas fir, western red cedar, red oak, and walnut. Choosing from these, the wrc is the lightest (weight) and the easiest to bend. Although, the red oak is about as easy to bend. The white pine is the lightest in color and the walnut is the darkest. The walnut and the red oak were the toughest to plane, and the douglas fir is a little harder than the white pine. I don't know of any pros or cons as far as dark vs. light is concerned. Maybe some others will chime in and shed some insight.

On my wife's Guillemot single, I used wrc, douglas fir, white pine, and red oak. In my supply of wrc, I had a few chocolate brown strips which I used for accent.

On my Guillemot "L", I used walnut, white pine, and wrc.

Pictured below is a shot of my wife's Guilly. The link below will take you to some more pics showing how I used the various types of wood to get my designs.

Now that you've got more questions than you started with, let me just say that, IMHO, the only way you can go wrong is by not building a boat OR if the sucker is so heavy that you can't get it to the water when you're done!

Happy Building.

Charles.