I found an interesting hull when wandering around the web last night. If the site is available it's http://www.surf-skis.com/Surfskis.html " Vacuum bagged aluminum clad carbon hull The boats are constructed of carbon with a skin of lightweight aluminum cloth, providing a light stiff hull with heat reflective qualities, very little weight is added as a gel coat is not needed with the vacume bagging process" I got to the site this morning via a google search and had to look at the Google cached page. Their site _was_ working yesterday. The company appears to be called aquasitons (aqua sit ons - for those of us who tried to hard to pronouce it as one word ;-) For the google cached page: http://216.239.37.104/search?q=cache:VNxDdBV- VhpMJ:www.surf-skis.com/Surfskis.html+&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 or http://tinyurl.com/hfpd No affiliation with aquasitons, just a technology I hadn't seen before. Kirk -- Kirk Olsen kork4_at_cluemail.com *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
On 19 Jul 2003 at 12:17, Kirk Olsen wrote: > The boats are constructed of carbon with a skin of lightweight > aluminum cloth, providing a light stiff hull with heat reflective > qualities, very little weight is added as a gel coat is not needed > with the vacume bagging process" Titanium white reflects more heat than silvery metallics, in spite of what popular opinion seems to think. You'll see lots more astronomical observatory domes painted white than silver - all to reduce temperature changes during the day and night. I had a solar filter with a homemade mask on my telescope - the mask was painted flat white and the filter cell was aluminum. On a summer day (like the 41C desert in Baja during the 1991 solar eclipse), the cell would get too hot to touch and the mask was not much hotter than air temperature. I can't help but think a thin layer of white epoxy paint would do more with less weight than a thin aluminum cloth if heat was the only problem. Strength-wise, the aluminum would help make a stronger skin in a number of ways. Mike *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Kirk quoted a webpage: >>>>>>" Vacuum bagged aluminum clad carbon hull The boats are constructed of carbon with a skin of lightweight aluminum cloth, providing a light stiff hull with heat reflective qualities, very little weight is added as a gel coat is not needed with the vacume bagging process"<<<<<< Gelcoat is more necessary with vacuum bagging than with hand lay-ups. Because of the pressure during cure more glass fibers are squeezed against the mold's surface and end up at the surface of the boat's laminate. Just a little erosion of the surface resin and you will likely find a silvery sheen (made by freed glass slivers glinting in the sun to go with the "aluminized" fiberglass cloth--and just waiting to give you the fiberglass itch. I'm sure the ad is talking about aluminized glass fabric rather than a fabric made from woven aluminum. Several paddle makers have begun using the aluminized glass (basically glass cloth sprayed lightly with some sort of aluminized paint) on one or both surfaces of their blades. Epic and Big Spoons are two paddle makers that I can think of off the top of my head who do this now. I like it for brightening up the blades of a graphite to be more visible to other boaters. White or yellow pigment would work even better than the aluminized fabric to help the kayaker be more visible. Matt Broze http://www.marinerkayaks.com *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Have read something about a 'new' material for airplaines called 'Glare' ? Consists of thin aluminum layers with fiberglass reiforced plastic in between. Stronger and lighter than aluminum only, and using kevlar instead of fiberglass proved to be less strong... So a carbon hull with a skin of lightweight aluminum cloth doesn't sound very strange to me. Dirk Barends *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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