Strake/runner material

H

HenryHawthorne

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Devlin's plans traditionally recommended half-oval chafe guards in SS or brass, but my recently revised SG plans recommend a durable wood like purpleheart as a 3/4" addition to the 1.5x3/4" hardwood runner.

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After looking at metal costs on my general go-to, onlinemetals.com, I suspect his recommendation has changed due to cost/availability concerns.

I'm interested in recommendations and thoughts from those of you who've built or rebuilt boats with runners - both on materials and on suppliers you've used.


Thanks in advance!
 
The aluminum strips I've used over the years have never given me any trouble so were I building again I'd probably spring for them. Having said that I don't think there is anything wrong with a good dense hardwood. If you beach your boat on shells or rocks the keel will eventually need replacing but I wouldn't flip a hull just for that one thing. I'd wait until the hull needed more work requiring it be flipped and do it then. My wood of choice for this kind of application would be black locust. I'd hit FB MP and find some no-name sawmill that happened to have a board or two and buy them.
 
Thanks. 3/16 flat bar 6063 aluminum isn't as horribly expensive as half-round SS, but shipping costs for 12-16' lengths more than doubles the costs. Shipping for 4' lengths is much less, and I may be able to find that locally - and cutting or milling some 45s on either end so I could "tuck" trailing lengths under leading lengths could work. I'll keep searching and thinking on it while building up the hull, but given our sandy bottoms a thicker hardwood may work just as well.
 
I have mahogany runners on my boat. This species was chosen because It was given to me... That said It has held up for 15 years but I do not beach my boat often. A few years ago it was getting pretty beat up towards the bow. I just crawled under the boat hit it with the plane to clean it up and then coated it with graphite filled epoxy. I thought about adding an aluminum strip but figured since it has held up this long why bother. If I were to do it today I would probably use white oak because of availability and price. Speaking of black locust, I have a log on the side of my house I need to mill up but am not looking forward to that chore. That stuff is HARD!
 
I used UHMW strips on my first build, a Kara Hummer. Abraded and flame treated the strips then screwed and glued in place with G-Flex epoxy. Time will tell if this is an acceptable practice but it has not separated from use or the occasional -30 F winter temperature. Probably overkill for a boat, but my spearing skid house which is dragged across gravel and asphalt roads to get to ice has shown no wear after 15 years with the same strips. Richard20220503_173937.jpg
 
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HenryHawthorne said:
Devlin's plans traditionally recommended half-oval chafe guards in SS or brass, but my recently revised SG plans recommend a durable wood like purpleheart as a 3/4" addition to the 1.5x3/4" hardwood runner.

View attachment 64897

After looking at metal costs on my general go-to, onlinemetals.com, I suspect his recommendation has changed due to cost/availability concerns.

I'm interested in recommendations and thoughts from those of you who've built or rebuilt boats with runners - both on materials and on suppliers you've used.


Thanks in advance!
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Stainless flat bar or aluminum. Don’t order, there are local metal distributors all over the place. I bet you have a couple within a half hour.
 
HenryHawthorne said:
Devlin's plans traditionally recommended half-oval chafe guards in SS or brass, but my recently revised SG plans recommend a durable wood like purpleheart as a 3/4" addition to the 1.5x3/4" hardwood runner.

View attachment 64897

After looking at metal costs on my general go-to, onlinemetals.com, I suspect his recommendation has changed due to cost/availability concerns.

I'm interested in recommendations and thoughts from those of you who've built or rebuilt boats with runners - both on materials and on suppliers you've used.


Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

This is the kind of place you need, I saw a couple near you. The biggest problem I found when I looked for myself is narrowing down the choices. For example, the aluminum, there are about a billion alloys, you need one that is saltwater resistant and the right size and length.

 
HenryHawthorne said:
Thanks Tod!
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I'd also put in the plug to use 300 series stainless (what ever you can get in proper length would be good enough, but plan to use a drill press to drill and countersink).

I used good marine aluminum and mine released from the 5200 after several years for some reason. They were screwed on, so not a big deal, but I wanted them bonded on, so I used stainless when I had it flipped to do some work several years later. I have no idea what happened with the aluminum, no one has had the problem I had, they just came perfectly clean off the 5200, obviously, they were degreased and scuffed up when installed, but they just came right off when I removed the screws. There is a perfect impression of the aluminum (including the swirling of the random orbit 80 grit pad) in the 5200.
 
tod osier said:
I'd also put in the plug to use 300 series stainless (what ever you can get in proper length would be good enough, but plan to use a drill press to drill and countersink).

I used good marine aluminum and mine released from the 5200 after several years for some reason. They were screwed on, so not a big deal, but I wanted them bonded on, so I used stainless when I had it flipped to do some work several years later. I have no idea what happened with the aluminum, no one has had the problem I had, they just came perfectly clean off the 5200, obviously, they were degreased and scuffed up when installed, but they just came right off when I removed the screws. There is a perfect impression of the aluminum (including the swirling of the random orbit 80 grit pad) in the 5200.
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Speculative guess, but I know aluminum oxidizes very quickly after cleaning - if there was much time between sanding and a good acetone cleaning and when you installed and bedded it that could have caused the problem.
 
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