Made a trip to a couple of fibre glassing contacts - one a long term boat builder of large foam sandwich multihulls and one a long term well respected repairer/fabricator - neither of which use epoxy. They both use vinylester. I've also gained access to a mold if it suits so the strip planking may not be necessary. First step is to confirm the new screen fits - hopefully one day next week. Then it will be into the stainless modification and hardtop construction. Watch this space.
Scottar they use vinylester because its cheap and they are doing jobs on the commercial scale
All the best with the project. Vinylester is used by many as you get the best of both worlds and for what you are doing it will be fine. I have used polyester, vinylester and epoxy on my rebuild depending on the application. Are you gelcoating or painting Scott ?Originally Posted by scottar
Hey Scottar any pics of your boat and how u plan on changing it? Is there any reason u cant use alloy? 3 sheets 2400x1200mm sime small 30x30 35x35mm framing for the roof
I am possibly doing mine out of alloy if i go HTC route all welds can be ground down if not appealling
That is obviously part of it Gazza but there were other issues raised as well - not necessarily relevant to my application but relevant enough to these guys to use vinylester. It could be partly that epoxy has had issues previously and things have since changed or in the early days the wrong gear was used - who knows. Even with vinylester the comment was made they don't use the same one for each job.
On the subject of Alloy - no thanks. After 20 years of alloy ownership and combatting corrosion with each and every screw or bolt installed I am simply not interested. The boat is a 2006 Seafarer Victory. It's got curves everywhere. I've seen a couple done with alloy cabins and IMO it just doesn't quite fit - the alloy not being able to make the compound curves glass can. Ultimately I am hoping to achieve something similar to what is done by Cruisecraft, Haines, Tournament etc.. The sliding windows will basically finish at the top of the hook in the side coaming and there will be a short clear that then mates to the back rail of the existing Targa which I hope to retain with some modification
Not sure exactly just yet Brett. Initial thoughts of strip plank construction were based around not having a mold and using epoxy. It's now looking like I might get access to a mold and be using vinylester - if so probably gelcoat.
Sorry Scottar, been meaning to talk to the guy who has done all the glasswork on my boat, but he wont be back working on my boat till later this week now as he has to finish a boat that is getting slipped this week. Lucky I know this guys work real well and trust him, because had it been someone else I would have given them the arse by now. My first job out of school was building fibregalss boats, but these days I have to be pretty desperate before I even consider doing it myself, hence the reason I am happy to wait it out!
BTW, the span of your top is a lot less than mine, and I confirmed mine is made from 12mm foam. I also have 2 * 200W solar panels on top of my hardtop which means there is a 30kg sitting on the roof at all times.
From what i read epoxy was really expensive in the early days and was only used on structural sections that really needed it same goes for cloths double bias was only used where its strength were needed everywhere else was chopped mat basically to keep cost down
these days epoxy is cheap and it is first class, it cost a little more than vinyl or poly but its worth the extra $200 24L You'll also find people dont use polyester and foam together because i think it is the hardener MEKP that eats the foam and melts it to nothing
Depends on your foam Gazza. It's the styrene in it from what I understand. The modern PVC based foams - Divinycell, Corecell, Corelite etc are compatible with all the regular resins - poly just doesn't bond real well so it's not used. Vinylester is and epoxy is. Biggest dramas mentioned with epoxy mentioned were environmental parameters needing to be right, cure times and issues with dark coloured hulls effectively weakening themselves in the sun as they heated up. I had read of issues with dark coloured hulls "post curing" and the generated heat causing some foams to "offgas" causing delamination - once again though whether this was to do with early epoxies or simply the wrong stuff getting used is anyone's guess. Only thing I know for sure is I don't know - there is so much info out there - hard to know what's what. It's on the internet - it must be true.
Thanks Andy.
Yeah i had the off gassing of my plywood i got cranking one morning at like 9am the moist air was still about i didnt give my job time to dry after i had lift the tarp so the outer skin of my.ply was holding moisture i glassed over it and created a bubble not sure if this happens with all resins was a bit of a bummer but now we are into the better working temps
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