Any Would-Be Boat Builders … This is Kinda Cool….

[John R. Coil]

A video at the following link:

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/do-it-yourself-boat/query/boat

A quick summery: back in the 60’s somebody came up with a way for fiberglass boat kits in a box that used a form made from disposable cardboard and the skin part of a skin on frame boat.

I’m guessing they didn’t last long — possibly because their boat designs, or at least the small one in the reel, didn’t have structural bits like floors — leaving the idea to languish in obscurity.

Patents in the US will have expired.

As CNC milled panels are no big deal to come by these days so it may just be possible that the one-off custom fiberglass boat you dream of could only be some design revisions (I would certainly have my keel and floors in place, probably of plywood, along with the mold bits to be removed) and a few weeks away where the hull is concerned!

The one drawback, compared to my dream wooden boat, is that with quick construction I have to actually be able to come up with money for the hull NOW rather than string it out over years. 😉

Well, that and it wouldn’t be wood. I think I could get over that.

Thought folks around these parts might just be interested.

EDIT: just thought of something to include. I’m sure any reader thought: “yeah, ‘quick’, and then the sanding starts….” but there was another trick I came across a couple of years ago to help there. A guy was detailing how he was building his boat and he showed how he used, if memory serves me right, saran wrap or maybe mylar (not sure) to cover the freshly epoxied glass hull and then used a roller to squeegee that down good. This compacts the glass and smooths the textured surface even before vacuum bagging. When the clear stuff he used was pulled off after curing the surface was a lot closer to the final result wanted, looking spiffy even without sanding in the pictures he’d posted.

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