Rich Hampel wrote:
no no no no
Those older hand laid boats are of INFERIOR strength in comparison to
'modern' composites.
snip
I'm not sure you can make such a blanket statement of condemnation of
the quality of older boats. When I was picking up my vintage '66 HR28
in the yard, I noticed a mid-eighties Beneteau being stripped of hull
exterior and core from waterline to waterline aft of the keel. Poor
quality materials leading to failure. Granted that's only one boat, but
I have seen many more "modern" boats undergoing this type of radical
surgery than older ones. My understanding is that pre-70's oil embargo
boats were built with a type of resin that was superior to that
available post-70's. Your comments about an 8 hr workday and curing
times may be true, but another consideration is that as an emerging
technology, builders just didn't know how strong fibreglass was/is and
tended to overbuild. I found out putting a depthsounder into my hull
that there are sections of solid glass almost 3cm thick where the hull
flares toward the keel. As far as gelcoat is concerned, mine is in
shockingly good condition for being a 39 year old boat, with no signs of
spidering or crazing.

At any rate some are convinced of the strength and reliability of older
boats like the HR28 such as these two guys for instance. If your French
isn't any good, the one guy went to South Africa and back without a
motor, and the other guy is currently doing a non-stop there and back
across the North Atlantic.

http://petitdelire.com/

http://www.cafesmersdusud.com/oceanothon.htm