Transom wood: teak, mahogany, or ???

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gholmes

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I'm partial to solid wood, so I'd prefer to avoid plywood. My main question is teak vs. mahogany and oil vs. varnish to seal. What are your experiences & recommendations?

I have a '72 Alumacraft F7 that I'm fixing up.
 
If you've eliminated everything down to just those 2 options, I don't think there's any question that it should be teak for a wet environment. After all, if the Navy chose that to go on their ships back when there was still wood used in some of them, you know it's good for marine use. If you're not laminating multiple pieces together to achieve the desired thickness, the possibly of using oil is an interesting one. But I don't have any experience with an oil finish used in a marine application.
 
Just my 2 cents. I'm using solid red cedar 2 x 8 3/4... 1977 Lowe measurements, with Val spar coating. I too like the solid wood vs ply.
 
I would seal the teak varnish. I use teak oil on the teak used in my Mako and it has to be redone quite often.
 
Thanks for the tips guys. I picked up some Honduran Mahogany today (couldn't find any Teak locally and I'm impatient). I plan to seal it with some kind of resin or varnish.

Next questions relates to the thickness of the wood in the inside and outside. The F7 had 1" thick oak on the inside. No problem there, the Mahogany is 1" (it was labeled as 5/4, but it's closer to 4/4). On the outside, however, it was 1/2" ply. Anything wrong with using 1" thick on the inside and outside (as long as the outboard fits, of course)?
 

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