Greetings from the US

We have got nice greetings from the US. The first VENDIA planks ever were shipped to the USA on September, 2018. 

Steve from Blue Hill, Maine has taken a big challenge and is building Sjogin IIIa, a seaworthy daysailer. The first VENDIA planks are now on and Steve has been very pleased with VENDIA and the quality of it. Planks plane like real wood, bend fine and smell good too, Steve says.

He is writing a blog about this building project, you can read it from here >> 

Excited to see how the project goes forward - good luck Steve!

Pictures from Steve Brookman.

VENDIA in Wooden Boat Magazine

VENDIA has been mentioned in Wooden Boat article about marine plywood written by John C. Harris. The latest issue of Wooden Boat Magazine is comparing the variriety of modern wooden boat building materials and VENDIA is one of them. You can read the whole article behind the link >>

”Working with wood is a good way of switching off”

Former lawyer, Ewan from Scotland found that running his own law firm for about forty years was quite stressful way of life and working with wood was a good way of switching off. Ewan had built his first boat in 1986 and now he is building his eighth boat, Kotik. Kotik is a boat model designed by Iain Oughtred and a stretched version of his Wee Seal. It’s a small double-ended cruising yacht with a gaff rig. “I will also install a stove to keep warm in harbour”, says Ewan. He has built different boats in every few years but the favourite is always the one you are building just now. The present one, Kotik, is also the most challenging. 

Picture by Ewan

Ewan will use VENDIA marine plank for the hull. He had read about VENDIA and liked the idea of plywood that had been made without destroying the natural structure of the wood. “VENDIA has proved to be very flexible and the quality is consistently excellent. It is suitable for this boat model because it enables quite tight curves”, says Ewan. 

Picture by Ewan

Picture by Ewan

You can follow the progress of Kotik from Ewan’s blog >>

Review of VENDIA marine plank by Adrian Morgan

Last April we wrote about Scottish Adrian Morgan who was fascinated by VENDIA marine plank and built Bob - 4,8 meters long skiff. Adrian found VENDIA marine plank from Richard Jagel's article in WoodenBoat magazine and wrote also a review of VENDIA marine plank himself in the same magazine later this autumn (issue September/October 2015). 

Read more of Adrian's experiences in the original article below and see how VENDIA marine plank was like in the hands of boat builder - writer.

Original article >>

Impregnating agents and VENDIA

Impregnation of wooden boat is important to guarantee the decay resistance and longevity. We have made an absorption test of impregnating agents to see how VENDIA marine plank reacts with different impregnating agents. The test was made in accordance with Cobb-test, in which the impregnating agents were absorbed 168 hours (seven days) into the test materials. The test materials were normal structured 9 mm VENDIA (called evo1 in the pictures), 9 mm VENDIA Pro (called evo2 in the pictures) and birch plywood. The tested agents were Owatrol, Hempel, linseed oil mixed with zinc naphthenate and tar.

To increase the moisture and decay resistance the impregnating agent should be absorbed deep into the marine plank. For effective absorption it is essential how easily the impregnating agents can penetrate the glue layers of the marine planks or plywood.

The test results showed that all the tested impregnating agents were absorbed into VENDIA marine planks (red and blue bars in the picture) better than into birch plywood. The MUF adhesive used in VENDIA marine plank let the impregnating agents through whereas the phenol formaldehyde used in birch plywood didn’t have the same feature. In practise this meant that the impregnating agents couldn’t be absorbed deep into the plywood.

The absorption test results of tar were interesting – tar wasn’t absorbed into the wood as well as generally has been thought. The absorption of the tar used in the test into VENDIA or birch plywood was low. The tar only formed a layer on the marine plank’s surface which became thicker when the treatment was repeated. If tar is used it should be greatly diluted to enable proper absorption into the wood.

When impregnating a wooden boat, time and diligence are the key factors, no matter what impregnating agent is used. To increase moisture and decay resistance it is essential to have multiple treatments and a lot of time. The best result can be achieved by spreading the impregnating agent carefully and giving enough time for absorption between the treatments.

From Finland with love

… This was the pleasant heading of the article about VENDIA marine plank in Classic Boat magazine (March 2015) written by Scottish Adrian Morgan. Adrian first saw VENDIA on the Internet and was keen to try it, because, as he says himself, he hates ordinary plywood. He has been writing a blog about his project with the Gartside 16ft skiff Bob made of VENDIA. It has been pleasant to read about his project and his satisfaction with VENDIA.

Adrian started to build boats with his father when he was eight years old. Together they built several dinghies and a cruising boat, a plywood Waarschip 570. Two years ago after a career in journalism and working in a traditional boat yard in Ullapool, he began to build boats again himself. The first boat he built was a sjekte called FJ. With FJ he won the best boat at the Scottish Traditional Boat Festival in Portsoy. The boat was an 18ft clinker double ender with a Bermudan rig, designed by Karsten Ausland, who emigrated from Scandinavia to the US in the 1930s.

Adrian Morgan

The Gartside skiff Bob made of VENDIA marine plank.

Adrian has done a career in journalism, mostly writing about boats and sailing for magazines and newspapers. In March Adrian wrote an article about VENDIA marine plank to Classic Boat magazine. Adrian told that he doesn’t like ordinary plywood because it can’t be varnished, as it looks horrible. VENDIA looks like real wood and can be varnished. It is also nice to work, no splinters, planes well, smells good and most importantly comes in handy lengths… I can’t speak too highly of it, said Adrian.

Classic Boat article & Adrian's blogPHOTOS: Adrian Morgan

VENDIA bends also in the hands of beginners

Many people dream of building an own wooden boat but many of us wonder the lack of experience. Building a wooden boat is fine handicraft but at the same time it is demanding work, so different kind of boatbuilding courses are excellent places for the beginners to build the first wooden boat. For example in Finland the local adult education centres arrange boatbuilding courses for the beginners. There is a professional teacher on the course who teaches the boatbuilding step by step. Also the materials and drawings are arranged on behalf of the course so it is easy to start the boatbuilding. And what’s more, at the end of the course the hard work is rewarded with a self-made wooden boat.

Many boatbuilding courses have taken VENDIA marine plank as a material for their courses, so we have had the possibility to follow the progress of these courses and completion the boats. In July 2014 we wrote about the boatbuilding course held in Sorsakoski, Finland. On February-March there was another boatbuilding course in Sorsakoski where VENDIA was used as a material. VENDIA marine plank has been chosen as a material for a number of boatbuilding courses because for the beginners VENDIA is pleasant to work with. Because of the structure VENDIA marine plank bends regularly and it doesn’t crack. Also the shaving and jointing are easier for the beginners because VENDIA’s face veneer is always thicker than the core veneers. Another feature that helps working the joints is another lengthwise veneer below the face veneer. Due to these features VENDIA has received a positive response also from the rookie boatbuilders.

Boatbuilding courses for beginners have been very popular in Finland and there are more people willing to participate on the courses than there are courses available. If your dream is to build your own boat but there is no such a course in your place, gather a group of friends and ask for example your local adult education centre to organize a boatbuilding course. Experiences so far have shown that a teacher, materials and place are easy to arrange with a little effort.

The course participants from left Markku Alaraudanjoki, Kari Luostarinen, Markku Holopainen, Eerik Oresmaa, Seppo Viinikainen, Einari Oresmaa, Heikki Hiltunen, Raimo Voutilainen and Ilmo Koivisto.

Our previous posts about boatbuilding courses can be found from here and here.    

The first touch of boatbuilding with VENDIA

VENDIA marine plank has been popular material among boatbuilding courses in Finland. One of the courses was held in Suonenjoki, in Northern Savonia. During last October and November the course had completed seven wooden boats made of VENDIA marine plank. The course lasted a month and the participants made all the boats together. Surface finishing for the boats will be done in the spring when they also will be raffled among the builders. At the beginning of summer the course participants will get to try the new boats to the Savonian lake scenery.

All the seven boats have been made of VENDIA marine plank. The course teacher, Ilmo Koivisto, was the builder of the first boat made of VENDIA. He considered VENDIA as beautiful material and he thought it was easy to work with. That is why he also recommended VENDIA marine plank to the boatbuilding course participants who didn’t already have extensive experience in boatbuilding. All the boats built on this course are Savonian-type, so called Vendace-type boats. There is little American nuance on the keel – it is a bit wider than in traditional Savonian-type boats. The boats are also slightly bigger than normally. The length of the boat is 5.85 meters, while traditional Savonian-type boats have typically length between 5 - 5.5 meters.

Three participants of nine were members of the Suonenjoen Tehdäänitse ry -association. The association organizes a name competition for the boat they made and on the next summer the boat is in common use of the all members of the association.

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.