These days they are primarily used for the purpose of tourist charter cruise adventures, cruising along the azure blue coast line of Turkey. The construction of gulets started in the Bodrum area. Then, to cater for a growing market, contruction expanded to the areas of Bozburun, Marmaris, Fethiye and Istanbul.Gulets are hand-crafted by specialist carpenters and ship builders who use durable wood for the construction of the gulets

These long lasting woods are Teak, Mahogany and Iroko.

Teak :

Teak trees grow in monsoon belt countries, being from originally from South East Asia, and the wood is known for its durability in hard wearing conditions. Teak is a very valuable wood. It is expensive and is imported to Turkey. As in boat building all over the world, boat builders mainly use the teak on the decks of the boat. The colour of the teak seems grey but it doesn’t mean that it is old, on the contrary the colour shows the quality of the product. It only needs to be washed down with salt water so as to preserve the natural oils in the wood.

Mahogany :

Mahogany originates from Central and South America and other varieties from the India, SE Asia and Africa. Carpenters use the beautifully grained red brown mahogany in the interior of gulets for panelling in cabins and for the outer hull as it is not only very workable, but is also a very durable and rot-resistant wood. It is now a very rare and hard to obtain wood.

Iroko :

Iroko trees grow in Africa, and it has become a replacement for mahogany and teak as Iroko is also a durable hard wood and therefore can be used on the exterior and the deck of a gulet. We ususally see the use of Iroko mostly in deluxe gulets and higher standard gulet yacht construction.