Canadian-born boatbuilding veteran

Canadian-born boatbuilder Jorma Hangas fiddled VENDIA marine plank on VENDIA´s presentation stand in Sulkava Rowing Race on July 2014 and he said: “Oh, I wish this had been invented 45 years ago!” The owner of the Finnish boatyard Juvan Veneveistämö Ky Jorma Hangas started to build wooden boats in 1966 and since then he has been building numerous wooden boats for customers in Finland, Nordic countries and Germany. At best, he has built 30 boats per year. To this day he has built altogether honourable number of approximately 1000 boats.

Jorma has already built several wooden boats of VENDIA marine plank and he considers it as an excellent boatbuilding material. His customers have been also very pleased with the new material. One customer came to see the boat made of VENDIA marine plank and he was so pleased with the appearance of the material that he ordered another boat right away.

Jorma also wanted to try making the oars of planks made of sliced veneer, so we manufactured the planks for him. In the pictures you can see also the VENDIA bent frames made of sliced veneer.

VENDIA in Wooden Boat magazine

VENDIA has drawn attention on the international markets once again. Wooden Boat magazine published a very interesting article about VENDIA marine plank in November/December 2014 issue. The article was written by Richard Jagels, an expert in a field of woodworking industry and emeritus professor of forest biology at the University of Maine.

According to Jagels, VENDIA marine plank resembles exterior-grade plywood but differs in features and appearance from normal plywood. Normal exterior-grade plywood is made of a rotary cut veneers whereas VENDIA marine plank is made of sliced veneers. Jagels shows his expertise by highlighting the weaknesses of rotary cut veneer. One of the problems is that it is kind of broken wood which means that the surface of the veneer includes small checks. After drying and flattening into plywood panels these checks will open and expose the plywood panel to decay fungi. As a result the paint or varnish can be damaged over time.

Since VENDIA marine plank is made of sliced veneer the structure of the wood remains solid and check-free giving VENDIA the outlook of sawn wood. Knot-free veneers are always selected as face veneers which also makes VENDIA marine plank very durable. Regular structure of VENDIA marine plank makes bending of the plank a lot easier compared to traditional sawn wood plank.

Jagels brings out also the MUF-glue used in VENDIA marine plank. MUF-glue has extremely good tolerance of humidity and weather condition changes. The glue provides also esthetically beautiful outcome. MUF-glue is transparent and makes the joints unnoticeable. Traditionally used dark-coloured phenol formaldehydeglue makes the joints very dark. VENDIA has passed glue boiling tests and complies with the technical requirements of British standard BS 1088 used in marine planks.

Jagels has presented the technical features of VENDIA marine plank very extensively and with great expertise. It has been our pleasure to read an article like this here in VENDIA. Full text article can be found by clicking here >>.

VENDIA sails to the seas

Students of Etelä-Kymenlaakso Vocational College, Paavo Koivisto and Jouko Pohjolainen, are currently building a coastal rowing boat made of VENDIA marine plank. The goal of boatbuilders is to get the boat ready for the Helsinki International Boat Show in February 2015.

Picture from the left, boatbuilding student Jouko Pohjolainen and the teachers Tapio Lindholm and Pasi Hietala.

Koivisto and Pohjolainen are currently building the boat of 12 mm VENDIA marine plank. The boatbuilders are of the opinion that the thinner VENDIA, such as 9 mm would be also suitable for this kind of boat. However, thickness of the marine plank increases the stability of a coastal rowing boat and therefore they decided to go with the 12 mm VENDIA. Experiences of the boatbuilders have been positive. Beautiful appearance and workability came first to mind of Koivisto and Pohjolainen. They also liked the knot-free surface since there is no need to patch up branches like in the normal plank board.

Comments of the boatbuilding teachers from the Etelä-Kymenlaakso Vocational College were also positive. “Good looking material”, said the teachers. According to the teachers high-quality traditional plank boards are very hard to find and VENDIA marine plank is considered as a welcome novelty for wooden boatbuilding. When building a wooden boat it is ideal to find marine planks as long as the boat is. Unfortunately in case of six-meter-long wooden boats this is not possible in most cases. This was a concern of the teachers.

There are two restrictive factors to get the six-meter-long marine plank. First, there isn’t such long slicer in the world. Another limitation is related to the delivery costs. Costs of packaging and transportation of six-meter-long planks would rise up to fivefold compared to three-meter-long packages.

VENDIA marine plank is available in lengths of 2 600 mm and 3 000 mm. Scarf jointing is easy and simple way to lengthen a marine plank. Thanks to VENDIA’s thick face veneer the scarf joint is quite undetectable. From the pictures above you can easily see the appearance of scarf joints when VENDIA marine plank is used.