Re: Ches 16 - Cockpit Gla

Posted by LeeG on Jan 5, 2005

the cockpit glass is to provide a rigid skin on the inside veneer so that minor flexing can't open up waterstaining cracks in the okoume, it's the major reason for using 4oz deck glass as well. The only place there's abrasion in the cockpit is under ones heels,and in that instance one layer of 6oz can be insufficient with a lot of paddling. I repaired a friends kayak that had two layers of 4oz s-glass under the heels and it was worn through to the wood in two summers of heavy paddling. It's worthwhile structurally for landing on uneven surfaces to have cockpit glass but it would take a LOT to cause 4mm okoume to fail. I had a Patuxent 17 that has narrower bottom panels with greater v than the Chesapeake and it developed waterstains through tiny cracks in the unglassed interior. If you get the chance it's worth gluing up different kinds of joints and glassed panels then destroy them. A chine joint with a fillet only will fail at the wood next to the joint,,with glass it'll fail at the nearest non-glassed portion of the 4mm before it fails at the joint. Using 9oz tape AND 6oz glass is kind of like belts and suspenders.

In Response to: Re: Ches 16 - Cockpit Gla by Rick on Jan 5, 2005

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