"Bob La Londe"wrote
Anybody doing any backyard boats using composites instead of wood? If so,
where are you getting your composites or are you making them?

The reason I ask is that I own several boats, and I don't care what people
say about how great wood is it has rot problems.

There is a difference between a wooden boat covered with fiberglass
and a composite boat in which wood is used as a core.
In the case of our designs, composites with a plywood core, we get the
strength from the fiberglass skins. Those fiberglass skins are
relatively thick and we use epoxy only. For all practical purposes,
the wood core will never absorb moisture above it's normal, healthy
moisture level. Gougeon has made tests showing a very stable moisture
content after 30 years and this is with much thinner fiberglass skins
than our designs.
Use marine plywood and you should be 100% safe.
You are correct about the danger of drilling or cutting holes but
everybody should know that even in a fiberglass boat, if you cut or
drill you must coat the edges of your cut with resin.
If you expect that you will not take that precaution, consider foam
sandwich.
It works along the same princicple than our plwyood sandwich but with
a thicker core and a different fiberglass lamination schedule since we
don't have the fibers of the plywood.
Our technicians at BoatBuilderCentral.com will calculate a foam
sandwich lamination schedule for almost any boat and that service is
free if you buy the supplies from them.

Jacques
from BoatPlans-OnLine.com