Why use wood for a boat?

Video transcript:

So the reason I use wood is ... You know there are several reasons.

So if you're purely into the technical aspects, wood is probably the best material for a boat in terms of strength in terms of stiffness to weight ratios. So it gets a little bit technical, but you can get the lightest possible boat with the highest possible stiffness and strength using wood. Even higher than steel or fiberglass or possibly even on the, you know, same level as carbon fiber.

So, technically, wood is a really great material. The only downside to wood - technically - is the fact that it can rot. So you want to keep fresh water out of a boat, because otherwise it will rot at some point. So that's that's the downside to wood. So building small boats, one of the benefits of that is that you it's pretty easy to keep it away from fresh water. If it's a very small boat, you can lift it out, keep it in your garage or keep it in a shed. Or you can cover it or ... So it's actually not that big of a problem with small boats. But it's something that you need to keep in mind, that if you don't keep it away from fresh fresh water at some point it will rot.

But that's just one thing, that's the technical aspects of wood. Another thing is, you know, the aesthetics. The way it looks. And i really like the way all these different species of wood look under paint or naturally or under varnish or oil or whatever. But there's also the haptics, you know. How how it feels and how it works. So working it with hand tools like planes and spokeshaves and saws, hand saws, you know it's just it just feels great. Sounds great. You know it's just so aesthetically stimulating in many ways I think.

- Mikkel Pagh