Greetings from the US

We have got nice greetings from the US. The first VENDIA planks ever were shipped to the USA on September, 2018. 


Steve from Blue Hill, Maine has taken a big challenge and is building Sjogin IIIa, a seaworthy daysailer. The first VENDIA planks are now on and Steve has been very pleased with VENDIA and the quality of it. Planks plane like real wood, bend fine and smell good too, Steve says.

”Working with wood is a good way of switching off”

Former lawyer, Ewan from Scotland found that running his own law firm for about forty years was quite stressful way of life and working with wood was a good way of switching off. Ewan had built his first boat in 1986 and now he is building his eighth boat, Kotik. Kotik is a boat model designed by Iain Oughtred and a stretched version of his Wee Seal. It’s a small double-ended cruising yacht with a gaff rig. “I will also install a stove to keep warm in harbour”, says Ewan. He has built different boats in every few years but the favourite is always the one you are building just now.

Review of VENDIA marine plank by Adrian Morgan

Last April we wrote about Scottish Adrian Morgan who was fascinated by VENDIA marine plank and built Bob - 4,8 meters long skiff. Adrian found VENDIA marine plank from Richard Jagel's article in WoodenBoat magazine and wrote also a review of VENDIA marine plank himself in the same magazine later this autumn (issue September/October 2015). 

Impregnating agents and VENDIA

Impregnation of wooden boat is important to guarantee the decay resistance and longevity. We have made an absorption test of impregnating agents to see how VENDIA marine plank reacts with different impregnating agents. The test was made in accordance with Cobb-test, in which the impregnating agents were absorbed 168 hours (seven days) into the test materials. The test materials were normal structured 9 mm VENDIA (called evo1 in the pictures), 9 mm VENDIA Pro (called evo2 in the pictures) and birch plywood.

From Finland with love

… This was the pleasant heading of the article about VENDIA marine plank in Classic Boat magazine (March 2015) written by Scottish Adrian Morgan. Adrian first saw VENDIA on the Internet and was keen to try it, because, as he says himself, he hates ordinary plywood. He has been writing a blog about his project with the Gartside 16ft skiff Bob made of VENDIA. It has been pleasant to read about his project and his satisfaction with VENDIA.

VENDIA bends also in the hands of beginners

Many people dream of building an own wooden boat but many of us wonder the lack of experience. Building a wooden boat is fine handicraft but at the same time it is demanding work, so different kind of boatbuilding courses are excellent places for the beginners to build the first wooden boat. For example in Finland the local adult education centres arrange boatbuilding courses for the beginners. There is a professional teacher on the course who teaches the boatbuilding step by step. Also the materials and drawings are arranged on behalf of the course so it is easy to start the boatbuilding.

The first touch of boatbuilding with VENDIA

VENDIA marine plank has been popular material among boatbuilding courses in Finland. One of the courses was held in Suonenjoki, in Northern Savonia. During last October and November the course had completed seven wooden boats made of VENDIA marine plank. The course lasted a month and the participants made all the boats together. Surface finishing for the boats will be done in the spring when they also will be raffled among the builders. At the beginning of summer the course participants will get to try the new boats to the Savonian lake scenery.

Canadian-born boatbuilding veteran

Canadian-born boatbuilder Jorma Hangas fiddled VENDIA marine plank on VENDIA´s presentation stand in Sulkava Rowing Race on July 2014 and he said: “Oh, I wish this had been invented 45 years ago!” The owner of the Finnish boatyard Juvan Veneveistämö Ky Jorma Hangas started to build wooden boats in 1966 and since then he has been building numerous wooden boats for customers in Finland, Nordic countries and Germany. At best, he has built 30 boats per year. To this day he has built altogether honourable number of approximately 1000 boats.