I am now able to proceed with boat building after an exciting trip down to Austin (most amazing city in US...even though I could not see the tower because of the clouds) to pick up (what is hopefully) the majority of the wood that I will be using. The only (relatively) close place that I could find marine grade plywood was in Austin at a place called 'Fine Lumber & Plywood'. I had to borrow a vehicle that had a hitch and also a trailer from family members and I spent the day driving to Austin and back gathering the wood.
I ended up purchasing Meranti plywood. The Okoume was
just a little bit out of my price range and with another viable option
available, it only made since for this first time boat builder to go with Meranti. I plan on performing a couple of tests soon (water resistance and strength after water exposure) with the Meranti and some standard grade plywood to determine how good it really is ...
I also picked up some Douglas Fir for the stringers. This seems to be a relatively cheap material for stringers and has been used by many Welsford Navigator builders before me.
Even though I think that a scholarship is now inevitably in my daughters future, it was a good trip overall ...
