On Wed, Jul 31, 2002 at 10:06:51PM -0400, Tom LeTourneau wrote: > Is there a good repair book for composite boats that's current (I've found > two 20 year old books listed online)? It's 12:30 in the morning and I ought to be in bed, but digging through my files for fiberglass kayak repair stuff seems a better use of my time. I hope something below helps you or someone else. The bible on the subject seems to be "The Fiberglass Boat Repair Manual" by Allan H. Vaitses. Note that it focuses on big boat, not wee lil' craft like kayaks. But much of the material is, for all intents and purposes, the same. You can just ignore the parts on rapairing your 30 foot ocean going fishing boat after it plowed into a left over WWII era floating mine. When I got my copy, I had never seen one in any of the major bookstore chains (so I think I went the Amazon or B&N on-line route). This summer, I've seen at least one copy in a Borders store and another in a Barnes & Noble. Another good book is "The Essential Outdoor Gear Manual" by Annie and David Getchell. It covers care and repair for lots of different types of outdoor recreation gear. Given that, you might not want to pop for a copy. If so, try to scare one up from your local library (even if through a libary loan). This is what I wound up doing. You would want to copy chapters 15, 16, 17, 19 along with appendix G. Bennett Marine Video has a very nice 3-volume videotape set called "Cosmetic Gelcoat & Fiberglass Repair". Nice hands-on, low intidimidation factor style to it. For the type of maintenance you're talking about (i.e., no fist-sized holes punched in the hull), you can probably get away with just Vol. 1 (Basic Gelcoat Repair & Finishing). Vol 2. (Stress Cracks, Air Voids & Fractures) gets into the more structural stuff. Vol. 3 is a shorter tape that repeats info contained in Vol 1. (on color matching and finishing). Bennett Marine is either on-line or has and easy access 800 number. You can also find the tapes at various other marine supply companies with a web presence, although determining that the item listed is, in fact, the tape you want proved diffifult when I was tracking down copies. I believe I purchased from Bennett directly. And finally, here are some entries from my browser's bookmark file: - 3M Marine Refinish, Repair, and Maintenance Systems http://www.3m.com/US/auto_marine_aero/marine/ - Fiberglass Repair -- Gelcoat tips http://www.fiberglass-repair.com/rshop3.html - Gelcoat Repair [McLaughlin Boat Works] http://www.iod95.com/gelcoat_repair.htm - Gel Coat Repairs [Aquaskier] http://aquaskier.com/articles/gel_coat_repair.htm - Maintenance and Repair of Fiberglass Kayaks [Wes Boyd's Kayak Place] http://my.dmci.net/~wesboyd/fixglass.htm Happy maintenance :-) -.- jwd *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Aug 01 2002 - 06:21:02 PDT
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