Plywood WBP BS EN 363, BS 1088

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roughbert

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While attempting repairs to an ancient Mirror dinghy (my sail trainer!), I convinced myself that WBP grade plywood was good enough for a few seasons, and obtained a sheet of 5.5mm 5-ply from the local builders merchant. After spending an enjoyable couple of days converting half of it into shapely pieces to fix the dinghy, I decided to test its wet performance, and dunked a small piece in water for about a minute. Imagine my surprise when I was able to tear off the two top laminae with my fingers. I checked the provenance of the material. It was supplied as WBP to my supplier, and is marked as BS EN 636 Class 1.2 & 3, which I gather supercedes WBP. Yet I have some unpainted 8mm WBP lurking in the yard which has shown no sign of delamination after 5 years.

Repeating the work will be good practice. This time it is BS 1088 Marine Ply which will be used!

Can anyone suggest a trustworthy supplier who will send it to me in Mid-Wales? Nearest stockist seems to be 100 miles away in Bristol.

*** Is each sheet of BS 1088 stamped so that I know it is the real stuff? If so, I might trust an eBay supplier.
 
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WBP should be waterproof - that's what the name stands for. So if you can't trust the system that supplied it, why should their "marine ply" be any better?

Conversely, if you can find someone who supplies proper WBP, their WBP should be good enough and you don't need marine ply.

Only supplier I know off the top of my head is Robbins, who are generally considered trustworthy and will ship anywhere, but are probably not the cheapest.

Pete
 
>if you can find someone who supplies proper WBP, their WBP should be good enough and you don't need marine ply.
Right, but how does that work? What are the standards for if not to show that the product is, well, standard?

And I would rather be sailing than testing plywood!
 
@Pete, I suspect that it is the manufacturer who has the "quality problem", but the supply chain has no apparent interest.

@Tom, if that was the answer I boats would be made of cardboard!
 
If it has a kite mark and BS number surely there is an accountable institute somewhere in Britain that shoud investigate non compliance with the relevant standard? Go on, grass them up! I dare you
 
roughbert said:
@Tom, if that was the answer I boats would be made of cardboard!
Click to expand...

From the sounds of it that's what you purchased.....

I always use a penetration epoxy on any bit of wood that I have to strip replace sand back whatever.trust me no matter how good the ply is it will be capable of taking on water. Epoxy prevents this happening.

It's advice and as normal your free to ignore without me being upset about that :D

Good luck

Tom.
 
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