layout boat

I am considering fiber glassing a Styrofoam duck layout boat for myself as a low income person and for the pleasure of building it. I can choose to use 6 sheets of Styrofoam at $180 with epoxy resins or 6 sheets of urethane foam at $300 with polyester resins. I do want quality as failure of materials and workmanship would be unacceptable. At present I favor epoxy as the best resin to use for strength and durability and perhaps someone could help with the number of layers I should apply. This will be used on lakes and marshes below is a picture of the project start picture that I found on line. When the boat is built would I use a gel coat or would paint the boat? I would like it to be dark green gray or camo or I could glue camo cloth to it what would you suggest? I hope to paddle this with a double paddle.

I am considering fiber glassing a Styrofoam duck layout boat for myself as a low income person and for the pleasure of building it. I can choose to use 6 sheets of Styrofoam at $180 with epoxy resins or 6 sheets of urethane foam at $300 with polyester resins. I do want quality as failure of materials and workmanship would be unacceptable. At present I favor epoxy as the best resin to use for strength and durability and perhaps someone could help with the number of layers I should apply. This will be used on lakes and marshes. When the boat is built would I use a gel coat or would I paint the boat? I would like it to be dark green gray or camo or I could glue camo cloth to it what would you suggest? I hope to paddle this with a double paddle.

 

Your pic didnt come thru.

If I remember correctly you wanted to build a low profile camo hunting float shaped like this Gord boat.

You should ask Boat Design net poster "Tunnels" for ideas on forming the shape. He's a pretty crafty guy with fibers and shapes.

 

You can build a perfectly safe layout boat using skin-on-frame construction for less than $100, and faster to build too. build it like a fat kayak, low to the surface, plywood frames, lash the stringers to frames with polyester artificial sinew, cover with heavy 9 oz nylon or canvas duct and paint with quality latex or oil based paint (4 to 5 coasts should do it). You can paint the camo pattern right on the skin.

I have paddled many miles in skin-on-frame kayaks, they are very light and durable. No reason it could not make a good layout boat for hunting, that is what the native Alaskans did in theirs.

 

This is my first post and I was asking serious questions. I have no interest in gourd boats and I hope someone has advice and experience on building a Styrofoam duck layout boat. However I would like greater details on skin-on-frame construction. How is it done I have no skill in boat building do you have pictures where can I get illustrations, I do not know what you are talking about with polyester artificial sinew. Will this be save in cold waters the Styrofoam will be insulated and is easy to shape and form. Is the boat covered with fiberglass?

 

The Gourd boat was built fibergalss over a styrofoam plug

 

Ok I understand now so how do I ask tunnels? I am very new hear and looking for help on my fiberglass over foam boat and would like suggestions, pictures illustrations or any help possible.

 

Oh Gee...Tunnels is around all the time...Keep an eye out on any thread concerning composite construction.

One thing to consider is that composite construction is boatbuilding level two...complex.

The simplest construction is plywood over a frame. If your boat is capable of being built with ply its worth investigating

 

Well without knowledge of boat building that does not seem so to me. I do not have carpenter skills and sheets of foam are easy to cut and mold to a desired shape. Then overlay with cloth and epoxy which I can do. . As a layout boat it only needs to have a low profile as it will not have a motor and will be towed or carried to the center of the lake. It would be good to be able to row with a double paddle. I wish I could post a picture of the model I have made. How do you post a picture on this site as I could not drag and paste as it is worth a thousand words. I can email the picture to you perhaps you could post it.

 

If you go down to the bottom of the page, there are 3 more layout boat threads which might help.

If you "search" the various forums with 'keywords' like styrofoam or duckboat, etc. things will come up that might be useful.

People are going to want more of an idea as to the size, shape, load and what kind of service, such as 1 person or 2, carried or rolled to water, dragged over soft mud or banged into sharp rocks etc. before giving laminate advice.

Depending on how you make it depends on how much glass you need. This guy made one of styrofoam that was structurally sound enough that no glass was needed to be usable....



http://www.duckboats.net/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=132665

One layer of light glass on that would not make it much stronger, but it would make it much more durable.

If you were to make one with a shell of 3/4" styrofoam, then you would need the fiberglass for strength. Then the number of layers would come into question, and technically, how many layers and where, such as 2 on the bottom and one on top with extra reinforcements here and there. And for that sort of build you would also need a layer inside to get the strength from composite construction, although using construction foam will limit those benefits.

If I was making one, where the foam was slightly structural and probably reinforced in areas with wood or foam ribs, since I have a roll of 10oz FG cloth, I might try 2 layers of 10oz on the outside and 1 on the inside. My theory would be to make it as light as possible using a guesstimate on whether it was strong enough not to break. I would try that (Before painting. Also gelcoat won't stick to epoxy) and decide if it needed more and where it might be needed. It's easy to add but hard to remove layers of glass. I certainly wouldn't think I could turn it upside down and sit on it without it breaking, or if it had a covered deck that I could put a whole lot of weight on it without problems.

I don't mean to sound vague but there is a lot of difference in strength between shapes such as round or flat. And depending on how you use it there is a lot of difference on the strength of fiberglass. A 10oz layer on the inside and a 10oz layer on the outside might give you X amount of strength, to achieve the same amount of strength using glass on the outside only might require 40 or 50 oz of glass.