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From my Blog: https://house-doc.net/Oonagh
The majority of the boat will be held together by a variety of West Marine Epoxy mixtures with fiberglass reinforcement, but metal fasteners will also be required to hold pieces in place until the epoxy is cured and also to provide additional structural support. The designer recommends Silicon Bronze Wood Screws as they will never rust. Of course, silicon bronze screws are the most expensive, even more than stainless steel, so finding a good source is important. I ordered my fist box of screws from Jamestown Distributors and they turned out to be pretty pricy.
Then I found http://FairWindFasteners.com.
The cost of the screws was substantially less than Jamestown Distributors and the customer service was excellent. My initial order got caught up in the Post Office meltdown during the holidays and when they didn’t arrive when expected, I contacted Rob Lehmann at FairWindFasteners.com and he immediately shipped another package. Ultimately the Post Office eventually delivered both shipments and Rob refused my offer to return the extras. He is really interested in building his business through great customer service.
Another advantage of Fair Wind Fasteners is that they will sell virtually any quantity you need. No need to buy a box of 50 or 100 screws when you only need 10 of a particular size.
2/14/21 – Update on Fastenings. Traditional boat builders seem to mostly use slotted flat head screws for planking, so without any recommendation from OCH, I ordered an assortment of flat head slotted silicon bronze screws to get started. I have never liked slotted screws and the silicon bronze is pretty soft, so the heads can be easily damaged. I didn’t really have any problems with the 3/4″ screws I used on the bottom, but I did strip a few of the 1 1/2″ screws I used on the stern and bow blocking. I decided I would switch to square head screws.
The advantage of a square head drive is that it doesn’t strip easily and you can load the screw on the driver and it won’t fall off. I contacted Fair Wind Fasteners and they agreed to take back all my unused slotted screws for a credit and shipped me the new square head screws.
On October 9th, in answer to a specific question, OCH stated that the bottom screws should be 5/8″ and 7/8″ #8 screws. I had already used 3/4″ and 1″ #10 screws. While some of them poked through they bottom, that can be ground off when I work on the inside.
Thankfully, Rob Lehmann at Fair Wind Fasteners was very accommodating.
3/30/21 – Just flipped the boat over and to my suprise I was able to sand off the points of the screws with 80 grit sandpaper. The silicon bronze really is soft.
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Great stuff, Bob. Very helpful. Yes, just to confirm, when screws are buried under epoxy etc in a boat like this and will never be removed square drive is much easier to work with. Boatbuilders habits with slotted screws stem from those being necessary on boats and in places where the screws may later need to be removed, especially in the backbones and planking of traditionally built boats. The slots allow the person to clean out the groove and get a good grip with the bit to remove it no matter what kind of gunk the groove is full of. Very hard to clean out a square drive screw to get a bit in once it’s filled with goop. Steve
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With slots, you can easily clean out the slot and even cut it a little deeper to aid removal (see Louis S video on doing this). That is a real advantage.
Square drive……I had to remove a lot of Robertson bronze screws which would deform really easily, but I used a sharp awl in the corners of the square and that helped pop out the gunk.
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I am gathering materials to start assembly of my Oonagh kit but I cannot find anywhere in the plans or on the website even an approximate number of screws and the sizes for the various applications. From this thread I see that the bottom screws are #8 5/8″ and #8 7/8″. Thanks. Any suggestions how many and what sizes I will need?
Am I missing something from the plans and this information is actually there or are builders meant to visualize the build and calculate requirements? I am pretty sure Kit was able to go to a store room in the boat yard and get one or a dozen of the size she needed but I need to order them and wait for days or weeks to receive them.
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I’m sorry, I didn’t keep track of the number of screws I used. I think I mentioned in my blog which size screws I used at each step, and sometimes the quantity. I think the number of screws will vary depending on the builder’s confidence in the epoxy bond. I got a question from another builder about why I was using so many screws and the answer is, it just felt right. You may be able to estimate the number and size of the screws by watching Kit’s videos and counting the number of screws per foot she is using. The good thing about Fair Winds Fasteners is that the price is the same if you buy 10 or 100 of any quantity and delivery is pretty fast, so I just ordered what I thought I needed for the upcoming work as I went along. I hope this helps.
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