WBOAT

Shopping in Hong Kong, even for the wonderful Wanko?  No probs.  Want wood? Fuggedabout it....

If you want to buy a pair of Christian Louboutin shoes -- you know, the ones with the red soles -- or a Prada bag, or a Hermes scarf here in Hong Kong, no probs...
You wanna buy some wood.... fuggeddaboudit!
Ive been looking for woods to make this little Somes Sound 12 1/2 for a couple of month now.  Ive had  various folks on the case, including Rocky, the guy that did our renovations at Casa Siena v.1 and v.2 and whos a woodworking bloke by trade.  He reckoned he could get me what I needed.
He was here a coupla weeks ago, and I said I needed mahogany.  He rings his mate, a wood dealer. Ive told Rocky what the Chinese is for "mahogany", just in case theres confusion and he knows it: 桃花心木 or Tao Hua Xin Mu in Mandarin, (tou fa sam mou, in Cantonese), literally "wood from the heart of the peach flower" (I wonder if thats what it really is, a peach tree?...), but when he talks to his mate, in Cantonese, he refers to it as "mahogany" ie the English.
Anyhoo: turns out theres none in Hong Kong.  And none in Guangdong.  None in our region.
Today I headed off to the  Dorfield umber yard in Yuen Long that I found on the internet.  Their online piccies excited me... hows that, excited by wood....
Dorfield Ltd had a lovely young lady, Florence Tang, very helpful.  But not much in the way of wood I need.  Some Canadian "Douglas Fir", though with the characters we exchanged (杉 = Fir vs 松 = Pine) Im not at all sure it it was really Fir or just that they called Canadian Pine "Fir".  And in any case its too thick.
On the way back, I stopped by the place I previously bought some Ramin (白木), which is a tropical hardwood, said to have fine properties.  Who knows if its ok for marine use?  Not I.  And not John of Brooks marine.  All I can say is that I have no other choices.
And that Ive laminated some, with help of mate, neighbour, sailor and woodworker, Steve, and its come out just dandy.
Hardware items:
On the way home I also stopped by a place for bronze screws.  To none of my surprise, they actually dont do bronze screws, only brass, and that, folks, aint good enough.  BUT, he does have marine grade (A4 316) stainless steel screws, or can get them and is going to give me a quote on them.  These are said to be better than bronze ones, as long as the quality is OK, since they dont break as easily under hard screwing... 
I had with me the list needed (from Johns list) and I asked him "can you take a photocopy of these pages?".  "Sure" he says and whips out his phone, a Samsung gadget, flips on his "Scan" App and quickly scans the two pages..
Im back home now, waiting for Jing to return from her day of tennis and yacht racing: shes in the Spring Series on Dexter, with Stevo and Zoe..