Kevlar to cover blister peel?

With serious blistering, I did a double peel on the bottom of an 1989 Endeavour 38 and I want to put a layer of 5 oz.kevlar with epoxy to replace the fiberglass so that I won't have to put two layers of fiberglass cloth. Is there any reason why this might not be a good idea?

 

Kevlar i s much harder to wet and lay flat than fiberglass. The labor and expense will be more. Also, the thickness of the laminate, regardless of material, has a lot of bearing on stiffness. Whatever material you use, the laminate has to end up at the same thickness.

 

Kevlar fabric prices are usually 8 to 10 times the cost, for the same weight of conventional 'glass cloth, so this will be a mitigating factor. It also isn't nearly as easy to apply as 'glass cloth, so I hope you have some serious laminating skills.

A 5 ounce layer of Kevlar will be about the same as a couple of layers of 6 ounce biax or a single layer of 12 ounce biax. If it was me, I'd use a knitted fabric "combo" fabric (1208), so it's easier to fair the hull. 1208 is $8 to $10 bucks a yard.

 

Kevlar is hydroscopic and will take up water if exposed, further, when abraded it fluffs up like steel wool ! Pain in the arse to repair. To get it fair again you have to wet sand it, oops.

 

Kevlar is also a PITA to "wet out" so its much more likely you will have microvoids that will slurp water into the weave making an even worse blister problem.

Seriously bad idea for the final layer of the hull.

 

If properly applied it can work well, but application difficulties and cost are the main concerns. We have to assume it will be fully wetted out and applied with established protocols and if so, a costly and troublesome to apply skin, but certainly doable.

Where in Florida are you? I'm near Orlando.