* While having a wide ranging conversation recently with a fellow sea * kayaking enthusiast, the person made a statement that surprised me a * fair bit. They said that they've ordered their recent boats, whether * for race use or not, WITHOUT gelcoat (these are fiberglass or kevlar * composite boats). Their justification was that gelcoat provides no * structural benefit to the boat, and going without it saves 5-8 lbs of * essentially useless weight. When queried about what they did about * repairing the inevitable dings, they said they just used clear epoxy. * * So, I got to wondering about the pros and cons of going with a skin-coat * hull (or hull and deck) configuration. What do Paddlewise people think * of the idea? Any direct experience with it? * After building a stitch-and-glue boat, which is essentially a composite sandwich construction, I've been wondering about other sandwich materials. Lightweight airplane parts are constructed of glass (fiber- or graphite-) around a lightweight core. Has anybody tried this with kayaks? Granted, the abrasion-resistance needed in a boat is much higher, but it seems that a laminate of just fiberglass, with or without gelcoat, is a really inefficient use of the materials. I'm imagining either foam core panels laminated on both sides with glass, or a layer of glass coated with some sort of two-part foam, covered with a layer of glass on the inside. You could even "tune" the lay-up in higher-stress areas with layers of kevlar or graphite. I think one of the ideas behind a composite construction is to spread the structural requirements over a larger area, rather than concentrating them on individual structural members. In any case if a ding is causing structural failure, something is wrong. This works in skin-on-frame boats as well because the joints aren't rigid, so they have some give and spread stress around the frame. Clear varnish or paint provide UV protection for fiberglass. I think repairing dings on fiberglass alone is probably easier than repairing gelcoat. All that fuss over a shiny paint job... of course, if you don't HAVE to drag the boat down the beach because you can carry it on your shoulder... Severn *************************************************************************** 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 Fri Jun 06 2003 - 06:07:12 PDT
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