wrote:
My email was intended to be a brief description on how its done not a step
by step procedures.

Sure... but it's a subject of great interest to many; IMHO the best
production dinghies are far too expensive and still have faults...

Twelve years ago my daughter build a 11'2" Shellback sailing Dinghy applying
four coats (as I have described) of epoxy (No cloth layed over the panels,
just at the seams) plus coats of UV paint. Since then this sailing dinghy
has been stored outside 12 months a year along the rocky edge of the La
Have river NS behind her property. During the Canadian winter its covered
with show and ice. This sailing dinghy is used about 4 - 5 time every week
during the summer. Kids are often dragging the dinghy on the rocky beach,
So far the only maintenance done was painting it with a good quality latex
outside house paint every 2 to 3 years. A quick survey was done amongst her
friends that have build the same dinghy at the same time using only on coat
of epoxy and storing it outside all year.
The finding revealed that none of these dinghies were in use anymore.

So the longevity is about ten years? That's pretty good. Sounds like
you are getting good penetration of the epoxy, plus using good wood. I
have built several epoxy & plywood dinghies, usually using cheap ply
like lauan which lasts only 5 years or less regardless of care. The
ones I built using good marine ply lasted longer plus had a sheath of
fine FG cloth. Several people now are using stuff like Dynel which is
supposed to be more abrasion-resistant.

Epoxy resin is heavy. I've weighed the various components of dinghies
that I've built and usually the resin was at least 25% of the weight,
thus my comment that you might as well have added some cloth over the
panel surfaces. I'm also convinced that any boat which could be layed
out in ply panels & assembled could also be built in foam core at only
slightly greater expense and it would be much lighter & stiffer (not
necessarily stronger but more rigid); with good skills & the right
materials it could also be much stronger without much increase in
weight.

The most recent dinghy that I've built is by far the fanciest and also
by far the best
http://sports.webshots.com/album/82561569ZSrzNA


..... So far my daughter's Shellback is
holding up good. Every time I visit her I keep telling her to cover the
boat during the winter.

Very good idea. I've kept boats inside and still lost them to gradual
water penetration (again mostly using cheap plywood). One of the best,
and one which I will probably build another of using better materials,
is Bolger's Shoebox design. The 1/4" (7.5mm) luaun ply version
weighed about 60lbs (27.3kg) which is too heavy for a small pram; I
think using good marine ply you could shave off maybe 10% of the
weight, but using foam core you could take off 50% or more of the
weight.

The Shellback is also a very nice design. I am thinking of getting the
sailing rig of the Shellback to put on the "Winnie's Perfect Dinghy."
There is also some talk of putting it into production with an option
for a nesting/folding version.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King