Best adhesive for hull bonding?

So a guy at my club is selling his lowrider moth, I'm planning to buy it and retrofit it as a foiler. I plan to cut down the fretboard of the hull and put a new deck on it. Whats the best adhesive to bond it all back together again? Any other techniques would also be appreciated.

 

Try epoxy......

 

I would advise you to be extremely wary about major rebuilds on Moths if you haven't got good experience. A lot of things can go badly wrong. Its probably also fair to say that not every boat is a good candidate for conversion. These are structures that were built to the very limit of what is possible in a practical racing boat, and by no means all of them are going to be capable of coping with the very different loading of a foiler.

This is really not a good place to seek advice about Moths. You need to be reading and participating in Moth groups, talking to people who know their stuff, and with any luck people who know the boat in question, how it was built and whether its a suitable candidate. It really will be very easy to end up with a rig and a pile of fittings. I certainly don't know enough about Moth construction to give more than the most basic advice like this, and I know many of the UK mothies.

There may also be a question of cost effectiveness: new foils are very expensive indeed and are not a first time homebuilders project. You could very easily spend more money on a low rider plus a set of new foils than you would on an older secondhand foiler, and certainly have a lot less trouble learning to foil in one because setup is everything and if you're learning you don't know your setup is wrong.

 

Nothing personal Foilman24, but if you have to ask, this probably isn't the best project for you. I disagree with gggGuest (Stewart?) in that this is a good place for advice.

The problem is Moths are one of a kinds, even if built from the same plan. Most are very lightly built, just enough to prevent them from folding up underway. Hacking away at one, installing foils, etc. and guessing about adhesives just doesn't seem a practical approach.

The simple answer is epoxy, as mentioned, but it's not as simple as this unfortunately. I mean best of luck and all, but learn to cope with the prospect of it folding up into matchsticks, every so often (I just tore out the case on mine). Such is the way of serious foiling and bring your pocket book, it ain't exactly painless.

 

The best route I could see is to build a tortured plywood skinny hull and drop the rig on it. Others have quite gently advised the thin ice you are venturing on regarding altering the existing hull. I agree with them. Phil Stevo has blogged the Hollow Log project, and one of the Aussie carbon tubing folks have done another newer "Shadow" Moth using ply. Chris Maas also has built an el-cheapo Moth using ply and used parts.

Basically, you can get a plywood skinny hull built at very reasonable weight, proper strength and foiling-appropriate design cheaper and with better chance of success than you can alter a lowrider Moth.

Buy some Assassin foils (reported very good quality at reasonable prices - also Bladerider compatible). Build a hull to match the existing geometry of known good design. Use your bargain rig & rag. Keep the lowrider hull for sailing on days where you can't foil.

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