In article ,
"Allan" wrote:

Hi. I'll probably get some thoughts on this. I built a 20' Osprey Triple
kayak using epoxy resin. Nice boat. Now I'm building an 18' Trident Power
Cat ( johnsboatstuff.com ). He's recommending epoxy for structural work and
polyester (either orthothalic or the other one, I can't remember right now,
would have to look at my plans) for glassing up. Anyway it's the "better"
polyester. I like the price of the polyester, but..................

Anybody have any thoughts on why I should go all epoxy or use the
epoxy/polyester combo??? Thanks for any comments, thoughts.

Amateur 2nd boat builder in the Great White Frozen North,

Allan



build in epoxy - period.

polyester has no secondary bond strength and not
a lot of primary bond strength. epoxy is not
that much more expensive and could well save
your boat. epoxy actually sticks to the glass
where polyester does not; it merely hardens
*around* the glass fibers. that's why a polyester
laminate peels apart along the surface of the
reinforcement when it goes into failure.

-mo