Questions about Fiberglassing Wood - OurBoat.jpg (0/1)
 

However effective it might or might not be, the Vaitses method is not a quickie fix . It involved thorough preparation of the wood
surface including removal of spray rails and guards, heavy glass layups like 5+ layers of mat and woven roving and close fastening
of the glass shell to the hull with screws.. It was most commonly used on low-budget commercial fishing boats over 40 feet. I
never saw one of these jobs which achieved a level of finish which would be acceptable for a pleasure boat.

Sam wrote:

SNIP
Allan H. Vaitses has a book called 'Covering Wooden Boats with
Fiberglass' which describes a process that does more than 'squeeze a
few extra years' out of a boat.A fairly common practice around here
for wooden shrimpboats is to clean up the hull,coat the hull with 5200
and imbed 24oz woven roven in that.Once that is set up it is saturated
with polyester resin and more layers of mat and woven roven applied.I
have a friend who covered a 55' three masted Herrschoff schooner(?)
with epoxy and glass and not because it was 'otherwise unsalvagable'
but for less maintenance.He put 2 blades on a skilsaw,reamed out the
seams ALMOST but not quite the full thickness of the planks,packed
them with some sort of thickened epoxy then glassed the whole hull, 20
some years
ago.I think a lot of problems with boats aren't neccesarily 'what' was
done but 'how' it was done.I'm not trying to start anything here, just
trying to explore the ying of the yang.