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!
 
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