Making Solid Wood Spars
Over the last 10 years, I have built many wood spars for my MYS15 and custom outrigger sailing canoe (OSC).
All of the above spars were built from eastern white pine; except as noted otherwise in the list above. For small sails, white pine seems to be fine. Spruce would be better but finding clear/select spruce is hard and/or expensive. Douglas fir is easily available in long clear stock, but can be heavy and doesn’t work as easily as pine. Similar to building oars and paddles, wood selection is important. Stock needs to be straight, free of knots, and the grain should be straight with minimum of run outs. For any spars over 1.5” diameter, I like to laminate multiple boards together to get the required width. In a laminated stock, the boards should be arranged appropriately to spread out knots and even out the wood grain. Epoxy resin is used to laminate the spar stock. Starting from an appropriate stock; here are the 10 steps to get to a round tapered spar.
Before applying finish, the spar should be dry fitted with pad eyes, cleats, and any thru holes required for rigging. Once the rigging is all sorted out, you can remove all pad eyes and cleats for varnishing. I usually use Interlux Schooner spar varnish (#96) and start with a first coat diluted 10-20% with turpentine. Then, it’s straight varnish for another 2-3 coats. Check the Boatbuilding/Finishing page for my typical varnish technique. |