Having got to the stage where I am looking to buy ply for the decking of 2794 I wonder what you guys recomend. I have been looking at Robins Timber site and they do a "rotary cut" sapele or a "stripey" saple ??

If you're doing the foredeck, my preference is for "stripy".

I don't know if it's still available, but I once had a Firefly and redecked using two mirror veneer plies - i.e. port deck mirrored stbd deck along the centreline.
I suspect that that's a little (lot) more expensive than rotary!

Colin

If you use rotaey cut be careful which way up you put the ply wrong way and it will crack after a while as the veneer opens up there is a right and wrong side up the crate will have been marked get Robbins or whoever to mark the upper side for you.

When I redecked 3285 I used Robbins Stripy Sapele Tiger Elite 4mm ply which is light weight and only has one side in sapele. I scarfed the foredeck joints on either side so it was "all-in-one" across the width of the boat. I was very pleased with the result. There is a series of photos for the rebuild of 3285 in the Building and Repairs section of the photos on this site if you want to look. If you follow the link below you can see what it looks like when finished. I did it two years ago and epoxy coated it at the construction stage and it still looks as good as new. Hope this helps.

Stripy is the best! Here's my pride and joy....