Sourcing the Right Wood – A Lesson in Patience and Precision

Finding the right wood for this project turned out to be much more complicated than I expected.

The Class Globe 5.80 plans specify using “pine or larch” for the frames and stringers. Sounds simple enough, right? So I asked the yard owner if he could source it for me. That kicked off a discussion about the exact species, grain, weight, and resistance of various pine types—which only left me with more questions and a growing sense that I could very easily make the wrong decision.

Being based in Portugal, I quickly realised that many of the pine types commonly used by builders in the UK, US, or northern Europe are not readily available here. So I did what any confused builder would do: I emailed Janusz, the designer of the 5.80.

To his credit, Janusz was incredibly helpful and patient with my many questions. I tried to describe in detail the options I had found locally—species names, suppliers, even pictures—and he replied to each one with care. I didn’t want to rush this. The last thing I wanted was to put in hundreds of hours of work, only to discover I’d used the wrong type of wood from the start.

Eventually, I tracked down a local seller that offered something labeled as "American Pine", specifically Pinus Echinata (also known as Shortleaf Pine). I checked in with Janusz again, and he gave me the green light.

It took a bit of back and forth to arrange the delivery, and I had to wait longer than I hoped, but the wood finally arrived.

Pine Wood finally arrived!

There was one catch: the seller only had planks in 27mm thickness, while the plans call for 22mm. Luckily, the boat yard has the right machine to reduce thickness. I started by cutting one of the planks in half (they're almost 5 meters long—not exactly easy to handle alone).

Cutting a board in half

Once I had a manageable size, the yard owner helped me run it through the thickness planer. He didn’t actually show me how to use the machine—probably (and understandably) worried that I would injure myself —but he got the job done.

Board thickness: 22mm!

The yard owner took a close look at the wood when it arrived and gave it his seal of approval. He could tell right away that it was straight, well-dried, and good quality, which was a huge relief for me after all the research and back-and-forth. That said, he did raise an eyebrow at the price—apparently, he didn’t think it was exactly a bargain. Still, quality matters more than saving a few euros when you're building something meant to cross oceans.

After that, with help from some of the yard crew, we used the table saw to cut the plank into 55mm-wide strips—these will become the outer edges of my first frame. Watching the clean, smooth strips stack up felt like real progress.

55mm strips for the first frames

Next step: finally putting those frame drawings to good use. The build is about to get very real.