the boat I am cleaning up for the upcomming boating season has skids (twin
keels) fastened with PL Premium polyurethane construction adhesive. I'm
not promoting the brand. there are lots of different ones sold in caulking
tubes, eg Liquid Nails. I just use this one because it says it's their
strongest product and because other backyard builders of small boats have
used it.

JAnyway these skids are different from gunwhales and interior chines
("chine battens" if they are inside the boat, "chine logs" if they are
outside) because the skids are on the outside under the boat where they are
constantly immersed, thus testing the water resistant quality of the
adhesive. The skids on this boat were put on with both screws and glue
but the screws were rmoved when the glue cured and the screw holes were
filled with drops of polyester resin. The reason the screws were removed
was they were too long and I didn't have any shorter ones.

So the boat has been through two summer seasons, one winter outside, and
one winter indoors. I brought it into the basement als fall so I could get
an early start cleaning it up this spring. The winter spent outside was
hard on the boat because snow piles up on it over the winter and when
spring comes the rain soaked melting snow is like a big wet sponge
covering the overturned hull. It's particualry bad on the underside of the
gunwales which catch and hold the runoff. After that first winter I had to
cut off some delaminated plywood and shorten one end of the boat a few
inches.

Now that I'm cleaning up the boat indoors I've had a good look at the skids
and can see no sign that the adhesive is letting go. The seam between the
spruce skids and the cheap virola underlayment plywood is still tight.
--
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William R Watt National Capital FreeNet Ottawa's free community network
homepage: www.ncf.ca/~ag384/top.htm
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I should have mentioned this is the Delta boat on my website in case
anyone wants to see pictures of the skids.

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William R Watt National Capital FreeNet Ottawa's free community network
homepage: www.ncf.ca/~ag384/top.htm
warning: non-freenet email must have "notspam" in subject or it's returned