This sailboat was made in the 1970's and early 1980's, with the last
few years of production by Glastron. Supposedly they were produced in
Austin TX for a while.

I'm having a hard time finding much of anything about them on Google,
so I'm hoping that someone here used to work for Glastron, or knows the
story on them.

A friend of mine has one and it looks like an interesting boat. It looks
to me like the deck was laid up with carbon fiber mat instead of glass mat.
Also, from what I can see, it looks like the deck is not laminated, but
instead consists of the carbon composite, with a layer of marine ply
underneath. It appears that the plywood was then "upholstered" with a
layer of foam, and then a covering of upholstery vinyl.

The boat I was looking at had the vinyl stripped off exposing the marine
plywood underneath. The plywood had been removed in places exposing the
black roving underneath.

Interesting!

The deck feels quite solid to the foot, even where the plywood has been
removed.


Don W.

Don W wrote:
This sailboat was made in the 1970's and early 1980's, with the last
few years of production by Glastron. Supposedly they were produced in
Austin TX for a while.

I'm having a hard time finding much of anything about them on Google,
so I'm hoping that someone here used to work for Glastron, or knows the
story on them.


I don't know "the story" but am somewhat familiar with the boats. Some
of our friends have owned them.

A friend of mine has one and it looks like an interesting boat. It looks
to me like the deck was laid up with carbon fiber mat instead of glass mat.

Nah, not back in those days. I don't know if carbon fiber laminates were
even invented yet, and they definitely were not being used in small
commercially produced racer-cruisers.



Also, from what I can see, it looks like the deck is not laminated, but
instead consists of the carbon composite, with a layer of marine ply
underneath. It appears that the plywood was then "upholstered" with a
layer of foam, and then a covering of upholstery vinyl.

It was (and is) pretty common to lay up fiberglass over plywood, but
usually the builder puts glass over both sides. In fact, since the
underside is the tension wall, it would be better structurally to put
glass underneath than above (if you were only going to do one side). But
as you noted, fiberglass is pretty strong. Is the plywood in sections?
There may be integrally molded structural members between ply sections.



The boat I was looking at had the vinyl stripped off exposing the marine
plywood underneath. The plywood had been removed in places exposing the
black roving underneath.


I wonder if the black color is due to the type of glue they used to
secure the plywood, or something in the resin.

Anyway, I'm 100% certain that it is not carbon fiber, unless your
friend's boat was seriously rebuilt by a fanatic. Is the weight
dramatically less than it should be? Is the boat one heck of a speedster?

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

Doug,

It was (and is) pretty common to lay up fiberglass over plywood, but
usually the builder puts glass over both sides. In fact, since the
underside is the tension wall, it would be better structurally to put
glass underneath than above (if you were only going to do one side). But
as you noted, fiberglass is pretty strong. Is the plywood in sections?
There may be integrally molded structural members between ply sections.

The boat I'm looking at has most of the interior ripped out right
now, so its pretty easy to see the bare structure. I own a Catalina
27, and I had to relaminate around my windows, so I'm familiar with
the fiberglass/marine plywood/fiberglass cored structure.

When I first saw the inside of this boat, I noticed little chunks of
marine plywood still attached to the bare composite, and thought,
"Holy $%&!--He's trying to relaminate this thing from the inside out!"

Then I noticed a couple of places where parts of the interior were still
installed, and they had marine plywood stuck to the composite, with
an vinyl upholstered panel attached to the plywood. I've seen the
interior of powerboats done this way, but haven't been in very many
sailboats.

I haven't had a chance to discuss it with the owner (who disassembled it)
yet, so I'll probably learn more about it over the weekend.

I wonder if the black color is due to the type of glue they used to
secure the plywood, or something in the resin.

Anyway, I'm 100% certain that it is not carbon fiber, unless your
friend's boat was seriously rebuilt by a fanatic. Is the weight
dramatically less than it should be? Is the boat one heck of a speedster?

And I could be 100% FOS about the carbon roving, but I've seen plenty of
glass mat,and I used to work at Boeing where they made carbon and other
advanced composite pieces, and it sure looks like carbon mat to me. I
wonder if that is how they tried to get away without coring the deck.

I wonder if the black color is due to the type of glue they used to
secure the plywood, or something in the resin.

Could be. I didn't look _that_ closely. However, it was for sure
the mat that was black, and not all of the set up resin around it. You
could see the roving pattern quite clearly.

BTW, this boat was built in 1981, or 1982, and carbon fiber and even
kevlar roving was probably available, although not in widespread use.
From what I gleaned from the little info available on the web, Glastron
bought out the molds from a company called "North American", and tried
to get into the sailboat business. They built these boats for 3 or
4 years.

Anyway, its an interesting boat for the size range.

Cheers,

Don W.



DSK wrote:
Don W wrote:

This sailboat was made in the 1970's and early 1980's, with the last
few years of production by Glastron. Supposedly they were produced in
Austin TX for a while.

I'm having a hard time finding much of anything about them on Google,
so I'm hoping that someone here used to work for Glastron, or knows the
story on them.


I don't know "the story" but am somewhat familiar with the boats. Some
of our friends have owned them.

A friend of mine has one and it looks like an interesting boat. It looks
to me like the deck was laid up with carbon fiber mat instead of glass
mat.


Nah, not back in those days. I don't know if carbon fiber laminates were
even invented yet, and they definitely were not being used in small
commercially produced racer-cruisers.



Also, from what I can see, it looks like the deck is not laminated, but
instead consists of the carbon composite, with a layer of marine ply
underneath. It appears that the plywood was then "upholstered" with a
layer of foam, and then a covering of upholstery vinyl.


It was (and is) pretty common to lay up fiberglass over plywood, but
usually the builder puts glass over both sides. In fact, since the
underside is the tension wall, it would be better structurally to put
glass underneath than above (if you were only going to do one side). But
as you noted, fiberglass is pretty strong. Is the plywood in sections?
There may be integrally molded structural members between ply sections.



The boat I was looking at had the vinyl stripped off exposing the marine
plywood underneath. The plywood had been removed in places exposing the
black roving underneath.


I wonder if the black color is due to the type of glue they used to
secure the plywood, or something in the resin.

Anyway, I'm 100% certain that it is not carbon fiber, unless your
friend's boat was seriously rebuilt by a fanatic. Is the weight
dramatically less than it should be? Is the boat one heck of a speedster?

Fresh Breezes- Doug King