Date: 12/5/2009, 6:45 pm
Building lightweight is a topic after my own heart. My sea kayaks are coming in at ~36 lbs, and my Merlin canoe weighs 33 lbs. They're all built plenty togh, too; for instance, the Merlin is my fishing boat, specifically made strong enough for me to stand in and otherwise abuse, and it's been living up to, and exceeding, all expectations spectacularly.
My basic advice is this: Pretend epoxy costs $300 an ounce.
After that, watch every little piece of hardware, or any other extras that go into your boat. For instance, I drill thru-hull for mounting foot brace rails instead of dinkin' with those stud thingies. I cut the rails down to a more reasonable length since I don't think I'll be needing 14" of adjustment. That sorta thing.
4 oz s-glass is your friend. Double up in high stress areas if you must.
Adopt the credo "If it breaks I'll fix it and make it stronger". I've had to fix precious few things in my 10 boats so far, and nothing ever just went boom and failed catastrophically.
Messages In This Thread
- S&G: Lightweight layup
Robert -- 12/5/2009, 8:05 am- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
LeeG -- 12/7/2009, 8:37 pm- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
Robert -- 12/7/2009, 11:03 pm- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
LeeG -- 12/17/2009, 11:22 am- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
LeeG -- 12/10/2009, 3:57 pm - Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
Robert -- 12/7/2009, 10:12 am- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
Chuck -- 12/7/2009, 1:36 pm- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
Mike Savage -- 12/7/2009, 1:34 pm- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
Bill Hamm -- 12/8/2009, 1:33 am- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
Bill Hamm -- 12/8/2009, 1:31 am - Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
Jim Farrelly------WebKitFormBoundary+jH3iW3RBvAm9G -- 12/6/2009, 8:18 am- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
Alex Ferguson -- 12/6/2009, 5:32 am- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
Robert N Pruden -- 12/7/2009, 11:28 pm- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
Alex Ferguson -- 12/8/2009, 5:12 am
- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
Andrew Sommer -- 12/5/2009, 3:50 pm- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup *PIC*
Kurt Maurer -- 12/5/2009, 6:45 pm
- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
Malcolm Schweizer -- 12/5/2009, 12:51 pm- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
Robert N Pruden -- 12/7/2009, 11:36 pm- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
wwfloyd -- 12/8/2009, 11:09 am- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
Bill Hamm -- 12/9/2009, 2:42 am- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
wwfloyd -- 12/9/2009, 9:22 am- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
Bill Hamm -- 12/10/2009, 1:49 am- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
wwfloyd -- 12/10/2009, 5:17 am- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
Bill Hamm -- 12/10/2009, 9:39 am- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
wwfloyd -- 12/10/2009, 10:15 am- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
Bill Hamm -- 12/10/2009, 5:41 pm- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
Dan Caouette (CSFW) -- 12/11/2009, 7:50 am- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
Bill Hamm -- 12/11/2009, 11:40 am- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
Dan Caouette (CSFW) -- 12/12/2009, 8:54 am- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
Bill Hamm -- 12/12/2009, 10:22 am
- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
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Bill Hamm -- 12/10/2009, 9:24 am- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
george jung -- 12/10/2009, 2:25 pm
- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
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Bill Hamm -- 12/8/2009, 1:28 am- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
Robert N Pruden -- 12/8/2009, 7:23 pm
- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
Dave Gentry -- 12/5/2009, 12:39 pm - Re: S&G: Lightweight layup
- Re: S&G: Lightweight layup