Ashful: I can't help you ( wood guy here ) with your project but this is definitely a very interesting thread.
We were kaying last year and there were some folks racing small catamarans ( they would hang of the side to make turns
) on the local reservoir. We watched them get wet and race for about an half hour. It was great entertainment.
Yes, it is! I highly recommend it, for those months when it's too hot to process firewood.
Talked with a veteran Thistle sailor yesterday at our club about whether he had ever seen any hoist type kluges when he was regatta-ing back in the 60's and 70's and he pointed out that nobody had bottom boat covers back then, it just wasn't conceived yet. Slide it on the trailer, put your waist strap on and run on down the road, so no need to rig up a hoist at any hoist-less clubs. And Doug has sold his molds and stuff to a younger enthusiast, not sure if he's delivering boats yet. And we have a new guy in the club with a beautifully restored woodie, hull 1266, and he's competitive on the water.
Excellent news on someone taking over the molds. As to bottom covers, no one was glassing over their woodies back then. The 4 oz. glass everyone started putting over their woodies a few years back is what necessitates the bottom cover, as a rock thrown from a tire will shatter the glass/wood bond, and cause all sorts of localized problems. But things have gotten so competitive in the class, that it's tough to have a very smooth and fair hull without that skin of glass over the wood.
What wood is used for the hulls of these boats ?
Nearly all are 5 plies of 1/16" mahogany, cold-formed using a process developed for airplane manufacture during WW2. I believe the first few boats had three plies of doug fir, with only the outer ply on each side being mahogany, but mine is all mahogany.
I think mahogany, but that's just from watching a few youtube videos. Teak is another popular choice.
Most newer Thistles have Teak rails and gratings on a glass hull. Way easier to maintain than mahogany, since teak only needs oil, whereas mahogany needs sanding and varnish. The older ones, and still a few new ones (based on what the owner requests) had varnished mahogany gratings.
Don't think the hulls were teak or mahogany, the rails were teak and oak and the decking were mahogany and teak. The hulls had to be formed with more flexible wood, I'm sure Ashful will chime in since he's actually scraped, sanded and refinished at least one.
I believe the rails are ash outers with mahogany inners, but I'd have to re-watch Larry Liggett's rail replacement video on YouTube to confirm.
Maybe spruce? Usually when things need to be light and strong that's the choice. Often used in instruments as well for the tonal qualities.
My memory isn't great, but I think only the first half dozen Thistles made had Spruce in them. I believe they switched to all mahogany pretty quickly, once they got into production. The weights, stiffness, construction are all very closely controlled, such that each boat should perform equally well, and that really dictates the exact ply construction.
When the first glass boats were developed in the 1950's, a few builders spent a ton of R&D hours on trying (and failing) to get them to match the weight and performance of the original 500 lb woodies, as everyone wanted low-maintenance glass back then. Ultimately, the compromise was to bolt an extra 15 pounds of lead onto the keel of every wood boat in the fleet, hence the weight now being that 515# that Mutineer had caught in post #1. There's a lot more to it, that I won't bore you with, but the goal is to create a one-design class, in which the only difference between boats is the ability and luck of the crew... not the boat itself.
It's interesting that new glass Thistle will run neck-and-neck with a 70-year old woodie. But while the wood boats stay fast forever, as long as you keep rot at bay, the glass boats go soft and become less competitive with age.