Boat Forum / Building / April 2004

Caution!

Glass clad wooden boats can be a nightmare.  If the wood got wet,
you will probably need to replace it. Poke the wood with an awl to
help judge it's soundness.

Polyester doesn't stick to wood as well as epoxy does, but even
epoxy will not help a boat with soddon, rotton wood.

The material is like snot.  Sticky, noxious, snot.  You should wear
rubber gloves and old clothes. Do not 'whip' air into the mix.

You will need some experimentation to get the hang of adjusting the
mix to allow for additives, sunlight, temperature, humidity, and
thickness effects, which make the goo harden more quickly than you
might expect.

West sytems epoxy manufacurers publish a book with repair hints,
available at places that sell west sytem products.  Read it.  It
mostly applies to polyester resin, too, except for catalyst /
hardner ratios.

Caveat emptor!

Good luck.

Terry K

Give te boat a good look before you buy. All too many wooden boats
wrapped in fiberglass have rotted away from the inside. Be suspicious of
flexible spots in the fiberglass, other than the spots that need
repairing.

The fact that there is some repair-work to do could mean the rotting
process is already underway. You should seriously ask yourself if the
boat is worth buying

<snip>
I would not touch this deal, period, end of report.

It is heartbreak, waiting to happen.

I have forgot to say, the cause of the break.  He hit a submerged wood log.
I have not found root.

Sylvain