Can plywood be used as skin, instead of cedar strips?

[miguel]

Hi,

I am considering building the 8 feet SUP for my kids. I have a fair amount of good quality 4 mm plywood and I'd like to ask you guys if this is ok for the bottom and upper skins of the SUP?

Thank you in advance and cheers from Portugal!

-- Miguel.

[sparkman]

Hi Miguel - I wish I could say I'd tried but I have not. However, I recently used 6mm marine plywood to build a nice little 10ft row boat. It turned out really well. Nice and solid once it was glassed. It felt a little light until I added the fibreglass and epoxy but once that had dried, no problems, very strong and I had no issues with all the bends that were required.
I hope that helps but it's probably safer to get advice from someone who has actually tried it on a board. Please post again if you try it - it seems like a really cheap alternative to solid wood....

[miguel]

Thank you for your answer sparkman!

I've also built a stitch and glue canoe a couple of years ago with 6mm ply and it proves tough in the watter! Now, for the SUP upper and lower layers, I've exchanged a couple of emails with Chad (Timeless Surf Company guy) and he told me that it can work - 4mm plywood, that is.

Anyway, I'll try to post the evolution of my work here in the forum, and hope to serve as an alternative example for some other guys that might want to go the same way.

Cheers,
Miguel.

[Chris]

Did you ever try using plywood? I am thinking to trying plywood on a stand up paddle board and was wondering if you tried it yet and how it turned out.

[miguel]

Hi Chris,

I'm in the process of glueing the top skin of plywood (4mm 5/32'') and already glued the lower skin - I am creating a new system for clamping and rehearsing everything. So far so good and my static load tests indicate that the skins seem sturdy. The top skin is a little more demanding in terms of bending, i'll glue it and let you know how it went.

Nonetheless, the final test will be in the water.

*EDIT* I want to add that i have predetermined where the air valve is going to be, and reinforced that spot with a 10mm piece of wood, so the valve holds well later. I believe this is necessary because the surface is too thin and i think that any future holes in the skin should follow this strategy.

- Miguel.

[miguel]

Just a quick report: glue up went realy smooth, plywood bends quite well and I am starting to shape the rails now. I've used epoxy resin mixed with wood powder to glue the top skin, instead of Polyurethane glue since I thought it wold give me more "fill up" on any gap, despite everything being carefuly hand planed and rehearsed.

Will report back after shaping.

[alanv]

Thanks for the update! I'm considering plywood for my first build so I am interested to see how it goes