: Like many of you I don't live near the coast and good quality boat lumber is
: hard to find. I have become very interested in SOF construction using Tom
: Yost's methods. It appears that most any design could be made as a SOF
: using his methods.

: I can find WRC but it's not good and has LOTS of knots. Clear lumber WRC is
: literally unheard of here. I have a good relationship with the local
: building/lumber yard and pick through anything they have, but there isn't
: much good to pick out.

: Of course we have lots of pine, some spruce.. at least thats what they call
: it but it full of small knots. I can pick up hardwoods at the cabinet
: supply places. But they are heavy woods like red oak, walnut, maple,
: cherry etc. White oak is sometimes available but not often and it's heavy.

: My best bet seems to be scarfing shorter pieces of the WRC into longer
: pieces. Or cypress. A bit pricey but I can usually find cypress. Exterior
: plywood is readily available for the frames of course.

: Maybe some that have faced the lack of lumber could share their experiences
: and how their choices have worked out.

Hi Jeff,
Go with the scarfing the WCR from short lengths. You've done it before.
I've had to do the same with what we call white deal (a pine?) here to get clear lengths, the longest clear piece I had was 6' long with a knot at each end. A bit shorter than the 19' I needed.
The longer the scarf is the better the timber bends afterwards. I went with epoxy in a 12 to 1 slope.
If you make a jig for the slope, like a mitre box, you can cut the scarfs in pairs so they match. Use a fine tooth saw and the joint surface will work fine with epoxy. Other glues need a very close fit to work well, rescorcinol for example. Even gap-filling glues benefit from a good joint-face fit, it makes for a stronger joint.

Hope this helps,
Mike Savage
South West Cork