Friday, November 20, 2009

Deck Reenforcement

I love Sailing Anarchy. If it wasn't for that site I would never have attempted this project, but SA is a place you can go and get answers for ANY question. This time it was the deck. I didn't want to leave the deck as just 1/8 ply, it just wouldn't have stood up to abuse. So a quick question on SA gave me the answer. The deck now has a layer of carbon and kevlar underneath which should make the deck quite strong while adding minimal weight. By the recommendations of SA, the kevlar runs the length of the boat and the carbon runs the width. Is the boat now bulletproof? probably not, but I'm at least not going to put my knee through it.

I also got the mast bases turned last week. They look good, but I think that material I got (2" dia delrin) was about 1/8" too small in diameter. I don't like the amount of lip I have holding the base of the mast. The last thing I want is to get it base jammed into the mast and end up cracking it. I'll probably get some more material and turn some new ones in the spring, but at the moment this will work.

2 comments:

Karl said...

Hey Bob delrin works well but acetal is a lot lighter so you could try that instead.

If the plug is too tight it will crack the tube.

That ply advice was the standard in Canoes; kevlar behind the dancefloor.

derek said...

About time you made some more progress. :)