See Wikipedia on Balsa

Sure is I know.
I retired from David Brown Santasalo in South Africa a couple of years ago. Part of the holding group (Clyde) also owned Moventas as they had bought the group from Metso. Moventas and Santasalo operated up until about six years ago independently. Clyde in their wisdom took all wind turbines from DB and Moventas and formed Moventas.
Seen these things up close.
Balsa is very strong compared to weight.
As for the bottle coks not sure about that In SA. Most wines have screwtop closures now. This is due a world shortage of Bark.
Lets hope we can get balsa from somewhere.

yes waiting for it to arrive
brian

i only have two oldish ones now 1958 triumph T100,
1969 triumph bonneville plus a 2008 honda 600 ann 2xhonda 250s which i have not started
brian

Restoring old motorcycles?
Still have my collection of 4
A Velocette 500, A TRIBSA Bonnie, An Ex US Army 1944 Harley with Sidecar and my pride and Joy a 750 Norton (Goes like hell trouble is stopping😊😊)
Good luck with the build

Hi Brian
Stick to the plan and gain the experience😊😊
I take it the balsa in the bow are blocks to be shaped?

Agreed Nerys,
There are always alternatives as an experienced modeller you know all of this.😊😊

certainly no offence taken,it is my first boat build and was sticking to the plan it is all ply and obechi with balsa in the bow it is coming along ok,was allways into restoring old motorcycles
brian👍

Yes Ian I know all the reasons for using balsa, I'm just pointing out that with a bit more effort one can use ordinary soft woods to do the same job. Yes, you want lightness if you are building a lightweight high speed boat and are desperate for performance, but I'm far from being a speed merchant. Plod across the lake at six knots and I'm happy.

Nerys

Hi Brian,
Apologies. No offence I hope, The comment is a generalization as to the way boats were designed and built and the old stuff used balsa for the reason stated.
Today we have liteply and even flexible ply!
I have only seen the flexiply on displays. I cant afford a huge sheet😊😊

balsa wood is a hard wood. good replacements are Bass wood. for decking and planks mahogany is water resistant, other woods sika Spruce, spruce which is a soft wood

only going off what it says in the plan
brian

Hi Nerys,
I think it comes from the old days as balsa has a good strength to weight ratio, in the 60's and 70's Bringing the mass of the structure down was to ensure that the hull was light enough to get the motor, lead acid battery and radio in.
A boat the size of a Sea Queen at 46" is still today built from ply and it needed a Lead Acid Battery for the ballast! Try dropping an old fashioned set up into a 26" hull.

Somebody will probably shoot me down in flames for this, but I cannot see why you have to use balsa. The majority of what I use is ordinary soft wood which I buy in builders merchants. About the only thing I source from a model supply place is lime strip as I use that for decks and various other things. Softwood may take a lot more working and need good sharp tools but the end effect is the same and you don't get the moisture absorbency that comes with balsa.

Cheers, Nerys

i might start being allergic to it
brian

Seems as if SLEC are quite right then. This is what I read on their website a few days ago. For once I can ignore the price rises as I don't use balsa, I'm allergic to it.

Nerys

what a waste

They are using the balsa wood on the blades for the giant blades on the wind mills, and replacing cork wine bottle caps with balsa wood. when they replace the bad blades they take them to the land fill. that is why the price of balsa wood has gone up 300% in the last 6 months.

Sure is expensive! Supply and demand