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From: Peter A. Chopelas <pac_at_premier1.net> subject: RE: [Paddlewise] Modern history of kayaking Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2001 19:58:50 -0800 · This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:20 PDT

I just happened to run across this information this weekend on the use of 
fiberglass in boats, which is relevant to some of the earlier postings:

>From "Fiberglass Boat Design and Construction" by Robert J. Scott pub. John 
de Graf, Inc. Tuchahoe, New York 1973

=======================

"...The first fiberglass boats were introduced shortly after World War II 
as a result of research by both military and commercial interests.  The 
boasts which evolved from these early efforts proved to be strong, light 
weight , water tight and easy to maintain. These advantages were 
instrumental in establishing the strong role which fiberglass played during 
the small boat "boom" in the 1950's and 1960's, and to its present position 
as the most popular material for building small boats."

and

"....among the first were a series of 28 foot US Navy personnel boats. 
Since then, the Navy has continued to rely heavily on FRP [Fiberglass 
Reinforced Plastic] for the construction of thousands of small boats from 
12 feet to 50 feet in length including landing craft, utility and personnel 
boats, line handling boats and whaleboats.  Perhaps the most famous Navy 
fiberglass boat is the 31 foot PBR River Patrol Boat, which has seen 
extensive service in Southeast Asia.
	"The US Coast Guard has employed FRP for the construction of a wide 
variety of utility and patrol boats up to 40 feet.....

	"...The first [pleasure boat] uses of FRP were in small runabouts and 
sailboats, with both the size and number increasing each year....The 
largest FRP yachts in series production are now about 85 feet. ...The 
highly competitive nature of the pleasure boat industry has resulted in 
numerous design and production innovations to improve the performance and 
reduce the cost of fiberglass structures..."

	"The development of large fiberglass fishing trawlers began in 1960 in 
South Africa with the construction of a series of 63 foot long pilchard 
trawlers...[which lead to} parallel developments in the United States...The 
first such vessel was the 72 foot trawler...launched in Florida in 1968...
	"The development of FRP minesweepers was begun simultaneously by the US 
and British Navies in the early 1960's...

======================

So my casual observation that there were not any fiberglass pleasure boats 
prior to WWII, and the postings about the first fiberglass kayaks did not 
show up until about 1960(?) and no production fiberglass kayaks until the 
early 1970's is consistent with the above author's experience (he is an 
experienced navel architect with a masters in Marine Engineering and worked 
for Gibbs & Cox Inc of New York).  So fiberglass manufacture of pleasure 
boats in not that old, compared most other traditional boat building 
materials.

Also constant with this was my memories of a neighbor who built a skin on 
frame kayak in about 1967 using a fiberglass skin instead of the then more 
common canvas and paint.  Then a friend of mine and I "found" an old skin 
on frame two hole kayak in a trash bin in about 1974 and rebuilt it.  It 
had a broken wood frame, rotting and torn cotton skin, and represented way 
too much consistent for two high school kids looking for adventure to pass 
up.  So we rode it home somehow on our bicycles, one holding each end, 
through the traffic, and set about rebuilding it.

Since it seemed the rotting canvas had poor durability (we had no idea how 
old it was, but it looked old), fiberglass seemed the most modern skin we 
could put on it.  So we scavenged materials, including someone's left over 
fiberglass cloth, bought what we could not find, rebuilt the frame and 
reskined it.  It did not look like the real slick new molded kayaks just 
showing up at the time, but it was strong and held water, even if our handy 
work was somewhat unskilled and unattractive.

So despite kayaks being ancient in origin, its modern history is not very 
old.  I.e. there was only a few companies commercially making folding 
kayaks prior to WWII, and I do not think anyone one commercially 
manufacturing non-folding skin on frame kayaks in any large numbers ever. 
 And commercially made molded fiberglass sea kayaks did not show up until 
about 1970(?).

Does any have a guess how many commercially manufactured sea kayaks are 
sold today world wide?  And how many folding kayaks?

Peter

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