What decking/transom composites are available?

[bakerjw]

Good day, iBoats.
It has been a while since I've been here. I did a bare hull restoration of my Stratos 1890 CC a bit over 10 years ago. It has proven to be a very solid boat and has made several trips from the hills of Tennessee to the coast of N.C. Even to the point of not seeing land which was IMHO an epic journey.
When I did the rebuild, the stringers, bulkheads, deck and transom were completely encased with epoxy. Not polyester but true epoxy which cost more but was my choice.
As fate has it, I did miss an area where some water intrusion which has given me a soft spot on the deck. This is also an old boat and the gelcoat on the cap is aged and has stress cracks. It works but is not pretty. More on the cap later.
If I am going into the floor for a repair, I plan on pulling the cap again and replacing the plywood decking from my last go round with a composite to help shed some weight. If I have the cap off, I might as well rework the transom as it will be exposed.
Having not been involved in a boat restoration for a while, I have not kept up on current technologies so I am looking for some experience with composites.
As for the cap and console, the Gelcoat is well aged. I plan on sanding it down to glass, mounting the cap back to the hull and spraying a new gelcoat layer onto it. It will have orange peel but I am good with that.
This is all months out but I want to get a head start and start planning.
Thanks

 

[Scott Danforth]

welcome back...... love the tag line in the signature.

as far as composites, wood and fiberglass is a composite. its also still the most cost effective for a cored floor replacement

however as far as composite core material to use. you can use Nida core or Coosa. however it is much higher in cost than wood and requires a few layers of FRP on each side.

if you vacuum bag, you can make your own composite panels. you can sandwich 1/2" foam core under 2 layers of 1708 top/bottom to make foam cored panels. then use them for your floor, etc. for large expanses, a few 1.5" ribs of foam tabbed in every 2 feet will be extremely strong.

there are many fiberglass foam core panels on the market (foam core with 2 layers of glass on each side). however most are in the $1000 / 4x8 sheet

then if you want ultimate strength and lightness, look at carbon fiber foam cored panels. that is about $3k per 50x100" sheet.