Thought you might find this interesting.

Here’s the specs for the oak we need for the Mayflower 2.0…

The Mayflower Project will require about 2,500 cubic metres of oak (in the round) in order to complete the shipbuild. We already have about 60 trees in the building yard which have mainly been sourced locally; we still require 250-300 trees which will provide the balance of about 2,000 cu. m. of oak. The majority of this will need to be delivered to Harwich over 2013 to ensure hull completion by 3q2015 and allow the maiden voyage to commence in 4q2016. Approaching half of the oak will be ‘wasted’ in the milling process as softer sapwood is removed and defects are eliminated. The Classification Society for the vessel will require that upto 10% of the remaining oak is tested to destruction to ensure that the vessel will be well founded. Testing will consider the number of knots in the wood, grain density and hardness.

The oak requirement can be separated into 3 categories, each of a roughly similar volume:

‘Bends’ are usually small stunted trees or branches of larger trees which have grown in such a way to provide a right angle ‘corners’. More obtuse angles can also be used in the shipbuild to provide ‘knees’ which are in effect are the brackets which will secure the decks of the ship to the hull. The tree should have a minimum diameter of 2 feet in order to provide sufficient heart wood to add to the ship’s structural integrity; they may be as short as 4 feet in length from tip to tip. The bend should just be in one plane; ‘corkscrew’ shapes will at a minimum require a high level of wastage to become a knee. Shipbuilders usually consider such trees to be the most difficult to source because of the rarity of naturally occurring bends but –when they are available- they have no commercial value other than to wooden boat building; it is pretty difficult to build furniture and kitchens from such trees!

‘Beams’ are gently curving trees with a bole diameter of minimum 3 feet and can be up to 60 feet long (although transport for larger specimen can be troublesome). These are commonly used for the skeleton of the ship and the natural shape of the tree minimises milling losses and preparatory work before fitting. These trees are quite readily available and have a number of uses in a variety of craft businesses.

‘Straights’ or ‘Planks’ are as they sound. They can occasionally be up to 70 or 80 feet in height, although examples of 15-20 feet are much more common and also useful. These trees will be sliced, dried and then bent using steam to clad the hull and decks of the ship. Without careful husbandry these trees occur irregularly and are most prized commercially.

All oak for shipbuilding must be ‘English oak’ or Quercus Pendunculata; hybrids or the imported strains of southern European oak (colloquially known as Turkey Oak) are softer and heavily prone to cracking during the drying process; this would be failed by any Classification Society.