Re: Glassing deck - or no

Posted by Howard on Mar 23, 2005

is it wise? depends on your objectives.

reducing panel thickness to 3mm is certainly lighter but starts to make quite a trade in terms of stiffness of the panel.

trading a lower weight cloth, 2oz for 4 oz, as mac suggested above, gives you a weight saving with minimum change in the durability/flexibility of the panel. but that isn't going to save you the same amount of weight as switching between 4 and 3mm marine mahogony.

that being said, there are several options clc offers for constructing with 3mm panels...and other builders use 3mm for their boats....so it can be done. you just need to be careful not to bang them around too much and you need to be particularly careful about applying pressure to flat sections of the hull....which can be tough avoid in a rescue situation if you are an average sized adult.

in my experience, to consistently get an all wood 17ft stitch and glue boat significantly below 40 lbs, you have to look at building a significant part of the boat with 3mm.

of course you could also just switch to cloth over frame approach if your primary concern is having the lightest hull possible.

In Response to: Re: Glassing deck - or no by Joel Kamm on Mar 22, 2005

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