Wood for cabin stairs.

[Lodi47]

I want to build some cabin stairs. When I bought the boat there were none and I think a cooler is too slippery and unstable. Any suggestions for the type of wood for the stairs? There are only two steps down into cabin.
Thanks

 

[Capt jgw]

You can use anything you want. The other wood in the boat is probably teak, but that's really expensive and hard to work with. It dulls tools like you wouldn't believe. The common teak substitutes for porch decks and outdoor furniture are ipe, cumaru, and garapa. They look and act a lot like teak but are much cheaper. You can get them at Menards. If you want real teak, your local lumberyard (not a big box like Home Depot) can probably order it for you, or look up a hardwood hobbyist place near you.
An oil or satin varnish should match it up with your existing wood trim.

 

[woodster]

you can use red oak and stain it with mission oak stain an it will look like your teak

 

[Lodi47]

Thanks for the responses. Sounds good.

 

[Roadking Larry]

Red oak, while a very pretty wood, is very susceptible to rot. a much better choice in the oak line is White Oak. Stronger, rot resistant and will take a dark stain very well.

 

[Ken Cross]

Inside the boat rot shouldn't be a problem. I've also used red cherry with mahogany stain and it came out a perfect match.
Ken

 

[higgs]

I have found teak a very easy wood to work with and have not found it dulls tools. It is expensive. In the interior you can use almost anything, but something like pine will not blend in well if the interior is teak. Mahogany will blend in well with teak.

 

[kloudie1]

Depot or Lowes has already "bull nosed" oak step planks that work fine for steps in the cabin. You can use a router to make some parallel grooves for traction.. I made this one for my vertically challenged wife.. the Hunter 34 has a long step down there..

 

[Tom G P-21]

For boats this size a cooler with a teak step is usually the way it was designed. You can buy a teak step to go on top of a cooler right here at the Sailboatowners store.
http://shop.sailboatowners.com/prod.php?9054

I have one in my boat, I agree that if not tied down it can be wobbly, when looking for the steps I came across this article. Had some good ideas on how to tie the cooler down.

http://theboatgalley.com/cooler-step/

I don't have the skills to make a set of stairs, as another option is this, garelick cockpit steps. They make two different sizes.
http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|2276155|2276166&id=2594349

 

[Daveinet]

I will second the Cumaru. I used it to make a set of grab rails for my previous boat. I bought just 1 decking board, a true 1" thick. It is a very tough wood, so you need high quality tools/blades to cut it. It smells a little when sanding, so you want to have ventilation when you sand it. Its incredibly hard, so any holes must be pre-drilled before putting screws into it. (ask me how I know) The stuff looks great. I left it unfinished for a year, then sanded it lightly and put an oil base on it. Very beautiful wood, and IMO looks much better than Mahogany. I see you sail in Lake Geneva. If you live or don't mind driving south, Owl Lumber is a good source. They are in Lombard, IL.

 

[Lodi47]

Thanks for the info and resource. Lombard is not that long of a drive.