marvin-miller
Recruit
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2012
- Messages
- 1
Hi Folks!
New user here. I've been looking through some posts and wanted to (ahead of time) thank the many verteran tradesman who have coughed up some really great answeres based on their years of real-world experience. It's appreciated!
On to my issue - I have a Laser sailboat (14' fiberglass & gelcoat) and the issue with these boats is that the sides of the hull tends to get weak over time. This is known as a 'soft hull' and makes an otherwise great boat a real pig in the wind.
I'ev had mine for 30 years (!!) and it's now got a soft hull. In fact, when I sail it on the open ocean I can regularly hear the hull denting in and popping out with the wave action
I recently repaired the mast step using fiberglass matt and West Systems Epoxy. This was the first fiberglass repair I'd ever done and I did a truly excellent job - it not only looks fantastic, I know for fact that it's way stronger then when it came from the factory.
As a result, I'm less leary about trying to shore-up the soft spots in the hull. The soft spots are mostly towards the front of the boat and run laterally for a distance along the side. This got me thinking, perhaps if I 'glassed in a board running lengthwise the wave load would be spread down the entire side of the hull and it would not pop in or out as the surface area would be much larger. (I know, this is a simplified understanding but I'm not a shipright).
In my travels I asked some other folks and got two primary responses, one, lay down a bunch of glass matt laterally down the side (on the inside of the hull) and that would fix it, or two, run a strip of balsa wood down the inside and glass that in and it would fix it. As far as I understand it, these are called 'stringers' ?
What do you guys think? I prefer doing the job once and doing it right as I routinely sail on the open ocean, preferrably in 20-30 knots winds. So I tend to adopt a mantra of making everything bulletproof. I also hate doing poor quality work.
The one issue is that access to the inside of the hull needs to be done through a 5" inspection port - so it's not easy - at least as far as running a full-length board down the inside.
Any ideas, in rough terms, on what would be the best approach? Maybe start simple and then we can 'fine-tune' the details as we go along?
Thanks in advance, especially to the folks who work in he trade and kindly volunteer their years of know-how, for free, for the benefit of others. As a tradesman myself (automotive, computers) I fully understand how valuable help like that is!
New user here. I've been looking through some posts and wanted to (ahead of time) thank the many verteran tradesman who have coughed up some really great answeres based on their years of real-world experience. It's appreciated!
On to my issue - I have a Laser sailboat (14' fiberglass & gelcoat) and the issue with these boats is that the sides of the hull tends to get weak over time. This is known as a 'soft hull' and makes an otherwise great boat a real pig in the wind.
I'ev had mine for 30 years (!!) and it's now got a soft hull. In fact, when I sail it on the open ocean I can regularly hear the hull denting in and popping out with the wave action
I recently repaired the mast step using fiberglass matt and West Systems Epoxy. This was the first fiberglass repair I'd ever done and I did a truly excellent job - it not only looks fantastic, I know for fact that it's way stronger then when it came from the factory.
As a result, I'm less leary about trying to shore-up the soft spots in the hull. The soft spots are mostly towards the front of the boat and run laterally for a distance along the side. This got me thinking, perhaps if I 'glassed in a board running lengthwise the wave load would be spread down the entire side of the hull and it would not pop in or out as the surface area would be much larger. (I know, this is a simplified understanding but I'm not a shipright).
In my travels I asked some other folks and got two primary responses, one, lay down a bunch of glass matt laterally down the side (on the inside of the hull) and that would fix it, or two, run a strip of balsa wood down the inside and glass that in and it would fix it. As far as I understand it, these are called 'stringers' ?
What do you guys think? I prefer doing the job once and doing it right as I routinely sail on the open ocean, preferrably in 20-30 knots winds. So I tend to adopt a mantra of making everything bulletproof. I also hate doing poor quality work.
The one issue is that access to the inside of the hull needs to be done through a 5" inspection port - so it's not easy - at least as far as running a full-length board down the inside.
Any ideas, in rough terms, on what would be the best approach? Maybe start simple and then we can 'fine-tune' the details as we go along?
Thanks in advance, especially to the folks who work in he trade and kindly volunteer their years of know-how, for free, for the benefit of others. As a tradesman myself (automotive, computers) I fully understand how valuable help like that is!
