Courtney Thomas wrote:
Doug,

Ever heard of anyone durably and successfully covering a fiberglass hull
with Kevlar ?


Yes, I know of about a half dozen over the past ten years. None of those
have been tested in a severe collision though. All but one look great,
although you have to budget for a paint finish rather than gelcoat.

There are also several semi-custom or low-volume production boats, like
C&C or Jeanneau, with Kevlar hulls from the factory. I suspect that
they'd fare much better against most types of impact damage than
conventional fiberglass. There are also many production boats with
positive flotation, notably Sadler & Etap.


What kind of positive flotation would you consider ?

Don't know for sure, but there's a wide variety of foam types to choose
from. If you're going to put a Kevlar skin over a hull, you could fair
it out with an inch or two or microballoons under the Kevlar and gain a
heck of a lot of positive flotation right there.

The flotation would have to be an absolutely closed cell type foam of
proven longevity, it would have to be distributed through the hull so as
to produce proper trim & stability when flooded, it would have to be
secured in place, and the volume is of course a big trade off... IMHO
you'd be giving up mostly small corners of nearly unusable space anyway,
but you'd definitely sacrifice some stowage.

A tricky thing to accomplish, but certainly not impossible. And for
somebody considering a lot of passage making type sailing, a big big plus.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King