New Core for Foredeck

[AllAboutMe]

Other than the weight factor, is there any real argument against using all glass roving and epoxy resin and building in layers? I have an 18 x 36 inch area around my chain plates on the side deck and loads of fiberglass.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Nicholson58

The old rudder's foam core was a disintegrated gob of black moldy muck

I mentioned something like this recently and was assured that foam can't disintegrate like that. Here is proof my eyes are still good and the naysayers were ... well, just wrong

[Lojanica]

Originally Posted by AllAboutMe

Other than the weight factor, is there any real argument against using all glass roving and epoxy resin and building in layers? I have an 18 x 36 inch area around my chain plates on the side deck and loads of fiberglass.

I guess the issue will be keeping the resin to glass ratio correct. That is to say you only want enough resin to wet out the fibers otherwise it gets too brittle. Also if the area of solid glass transitions poorly to the cored areas you can get cracking as the flex is different which is why stringers and thicker cores are added to areas where added support is needed but allows the flex to be uniform by distributing loads. Think about a piece of wood attached to a chunk of metal and then a force applied sharply. Where is it gonna break? At the joint between the two unless the joint is engineered to distribute the force across the two different materials.

[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by AllAboutMe

Other than the weight factor, is there any real argument against using all glass roving and epoxy resin and building in layers? I have an 18 x 36 inch area around my chain plates on the side deck and loads of fiberglass.

You can certainly use solid glass if you desire. Its no worse than a bucket of water tied to the shoud as far as weight is concerned. - Not a racing boat.