Where would we be without wood ? In all the countries they have their favorite woods. The names are local names, except Teak or Mahogany. I decided to give a try with a local wood what they call here in Colombia Abarco. It is cheap, heavy and hard. They say it is durable in salt water. My first experiences.
My first experience with the Abarco wood
Today I decided to try out this wood that I ordered so much of. I’m happy to say that it is very pleasant wood to work with. It is not too hard nor too soft. Relatively fine grain. It doesn’t splinter easily. It is easy to sand and it has a pleasant light brown-Rosa like color when it is freshly sanded and without treatment. It is about twice the weight of teak, pretty heavy. In working with it, it feels like Mahogany.
A piece of Abarco next to the windvane-rudder it is going to replace
To get it planed I used my grinder with a sandpaper-like disk. It is kind of delicate, only a light touch is enough and don’t stay to long on one spot. To get it in the shape I needed I used what we call in Dutch “een schaaf”, literally this would be something like a sheave, but I think in proper English it is called a hand-planer. There are many different forms of it, mine is a ‘Stanley’ with a wooden knob, a sharp knife in a hole in a longer steel flat surface does the job. Should take a picture of it.
It took me about an hour to get it in the desired form. That’s why I like the wood. It works easy.
What is this peace of wood for?
This “rudder” you see here is a foot longer then the original rudder of the Cap Horn windvane. When we had rough seas the windvane-rudder sometimes came out of the water, with unwanted results. I hope a foot more of rudder will prevent happening these event. My boat is very course-stable, I didn’t make this enhancement for that. It is that when this rudder comes out of the water, the whole windvane-installation suffers stress, and that is what I hope to prevent with this new longer rudder.
Now I’m going to epoxy it, and cover it with a very light glassmat, to seal it completely. At sea nothing is forever, but it will prolong the life enormously.
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