We have a lot of trees we've been removing from our property for one reason or another. Instead of throwing them on the burn pile, I thought I might be able to make something of them.
I've always wanted to make a small wood sail boat. Something along the lines of this:
That's probably not what I'm going to start on as I'll most likely screw something up and have wasted a massive amount of effort. I'll probably start with a canoe.
My question is what type of wood can I use from my property, properly dried of course. I'll either let it air dry or build one of those drying boxes you can build that act like a kind of oven. I love the look of cedar and we have a lot of it, but we've taken down a lot of oak as well and I know it's strong. It would probably be good for the ribs and the big beam along the bottom. (Transom?)
I'm really just starting to look into this, so I don't know the right questions to ask. I assume with the wood, it's simply a strength issue, because it gets coated in fiberglass sheets. I've seen videos where they do that to seal it and when the coating goes on, it makes it look like there is nothing on the wood. This sailboat will only be run on a fresh water river. Thanks for any help. Feel free to include references.