Just purchased a potential rebuild candidate

[rb85]

http://www.spaceagesynthetics.com/index.html

wonder how the costs weigh up against regular marine ply?

keep the materials advice coming though!

Not sure on the cost outlay I know boat builders are starting to go towards thermolite board though as it doesn't absorb water like marine ply.

[Sinsemilla]

Congratulations on the purchase Kimtown. You're going to either put blood sweat and tears into that thing or open your wallet very wide.. Either was you'll have a rig that will last you a lifetime.

Good luck with it.

https://youtu.be/_sISZWyO7gI

https://youtu.be/iPPNAbZg9xI

Cheers, Anth

P.S Have a listen to what the bloke has to say at 4mins 50sec on the second video.

[cobby]

http://www.spaceagesynthetics.com/index.html

wonder how the costs weigh up against regular marine ply?

keep the materials advice coming though!

Not sure on the cost outlay I know boat builders are starting to go towards thermolite board though as it doesn't absorb water like marine ply.

About 4 times the cost of ply for same thickness and dimensions. I'd just use 12mm ply, key it, resin coat it, quick going over with a belt sander with some 120 to rough it up then do the layup. Sandwich 2 sheets together to get the thickness for the transom and stringers with 600gsm choppy inbetween, single sheets for the rest. Use alternate layers of woven rovings then chop strands for all structurual areas. Spend the money saved using ply by using vynilester resins.

[rb85]

http://www.spaceagesynthetics.com/index.html

wonder how the costs weigh up against regular marine ply?

keep the materials advice coming though!

Not sure on the cost outlay I know boat builders are starting to go towards thermolite board though as it doesn't absorb water like marine ply.

About 4 times the cost of ply for same thickness and dimensions. I'd just use 12mm ply, key it, resin coat it, quick going over with a belt sander with some 120 to rough it up then do the layup. Sandwich 2 sheets together to get the thickness for the transom and stringers with 600gsm choppy inbetween, single sheets for the rest. Use alternate layers of woven rovings then chop strands for all structurual areas. Spend the money saved using ply by using vynilester resins.

Cobby the only thing I could see being an issue is over time flexing in the hull and water ingress creating rot issues where you won't have that problem with thermolite but I guess it will take a long time to have issues with flexing and rot.

[cobby]

Given most boats are 3 decades old before rot is an issue after being built to a cost and not a standard there's no issue using well prepped and sealed ply

[blacklab99]

Cobby is 100% right here.
Most production boats of the 80's to 90's weren't exactly done with longivity in mind, the stringers were barely protected in quite a pre historic manner.
Ply treated properly and protected will last the journey, mine lasted 30 years and only failed due to a leak. They had the assumption that they would never see water, which was wrong. Transoms fail mainly due to mechanical fittings, to many holes !!. with this in mind and the knowledge that water will find it's way in there, doing a proper sealing job will have the boat last most owners out. It's not necessary to drill holes for fittings anymore, plenty of ahhesive methods available which really eliminate the need to drill. I'm not convinced that thermolite is the answer for all boating situations, firstly, it really hasn't had long enough in the actual market place to actually see if that can last the journey, it's a lot lighter than ply, which in it self is not suited to some situations, and the cost effectively eliminates most older boat restorations compared to ply.
Mine has been re built and sealed to with an inch of its life, so if another such leak occurs, water ingress won't be an issue.

Col

[rb85]

Interesting guys thanks for your insight

[Kimtown]

marine ply it is lol