Durability of epoxy-fiberglass coat

[Troutcatcher]

Happy New Year!!!

Stitch-n-glue boats are tratitionally fiberglassed, covered with epoxy resin and fiberglass.

For a small funboat that´s gonna be beached repeatedly........how strong is this coat??? Am I gonna have serious delamination problems with this kind of coat?? What´s your experience??

[Deering]

It won't delaminate. The wood fibers will tear apart before the epoxy lets loose. But... you don'y want to compromise the integrity of the seal by gouging the hull and letting water into the wood.

You can do a few things to prevent that:

- add another layer (or two) of glass cloth along the bottom to give you more abrasion protection,
- add beaching strips on the bottom over the glass - sacrificial wood strips, or even better would be UMHW plastic. My skiff has a center keel strip which I attached a plate of aluminum to.
- keep an eye on it - if you put a gouge in it, no big deal. Dry it out and patch it up.