Custom Pontoon Boats – Built From the Elements For the Elements
Sinker cypress wood is a type of wood that is harvested from giant bald cypress trees that have fallen into rivers or other bodies of water. The sinker cypress trees have grown for hundreds of years. The wood gets its name from the fact that it sinks to the bottom of the river, where it is then recovered and used for various purposes. Bailey Custom Boats limited series pontoons are designed with sinker cypress lumber that was axe-cut around 150 years ago.
What is Special About the Sinker Cypress Wood?
Sinker cypress is unique because it can not easily be replicated. The process these logs go through takes several hundred years for the final product. Bailey’s sinker logs came from the bottom of the Mississippi River, where they were soaked and covered with different sediments for several hundred years. Depending on where the cypress wood is submerged, the sediment and minerals from the water are what give the wood its beautiful colors and patterns and can produce a variety of hues. There is no stain on any of Bailey Custom Boat’s wood. It’s a clear coat on top of natural coloring. Sinker cypress is a work of art.
Younger trees harvested do not compare to the old-growth, river-recovered bald cypress logs. This older reclaimed wood has denser growth rings and notable color differentiation from absorbed minerals from the rivers and swamps.
Smoother, Faster, More Agile?
A bald cypress tree can size 80 to 100 feet tall with a trunk diameter of about 3 to 5 feet. The average dried weight is about 32 pounds per cubic foot. Most would think the weight is a problem for a pontoon boat, but not with our patented hull design. The hull counters the additional weight of the cypress wood. Our boats are about 1,000 pounds heavier but smoother and faster per horsepower with less drag and friction than other pontoon boats on the market.
Due to the absorbed natural oils and tight grain, the sinker cypress tree is prized for its durability and resistance to rot and pests. The Bailey family has about 500,000 board feet of sinker cypress, with about 100,000 board feet treated, dried, and ready to go. A Bailey Boat is built with roughly 1,000 cypress boards. We keep the other 400,000 feet of logs floating and submerged in water to preserve the coloration and patterns.
This is a boat you can pass down for generations. The wood only needs a clear polyurethane coat every 8 – 10 years, depending on the boat’s exposure to the elements. If you leave the boat in the sun or water year-round, you will most likely need a new coat at the 8-year mark.
If you are looking to know more about the lakes here in the southeast. We will be featuring the different lakes we visited and sharing our experiences. Stay tuned to hear about the summer we had this year!
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Contact us about getting your custom boat today!
