Fibre Glass Yacht Construction

What's fibreglass made out of?

For the purposes of this article it is beneficial to understand a few basic facts concerning how fibreglass boats are constructed, their typical strengths and weaknesses and most importantly what are the visible signs that manifest themselves to the owner, such as stress cracks, de-lamination, osmosis and so forth.

Basic Construction

Fibreglass boat hulls are generally composed of several laminations (or layers) of glass fibre cloths, impregnated with polyester, vinylester or epoxy resin. This is usually done by building a "female" mould and creating the fibreglass hull within by a series of subsequent stages:

The hull is then usually re-inforced with more layers of glass and resin onto areas that are under stress and the whole hull sealed with a final layer of clear resin. The rest of the internal fittings such as roof, decks, bulkheads and keel are added when the finished hull is released from the mould. (This does not always apply! Different builders vary this).

Wooden components

Often in fibreglass hulls, wooden components have been used to reinforce areas, such as galleys and so on. Often, the wood is subject to water exposure and swells, eventually causing rot and decomposition.

LAMINATED CORES

Many modern boats have been constructed using internal cores together with resins. These can be polyurethane foam, end grain balsa cores and many lightweight racing hulls are using various lightweight "honeycomb pattern" materials.

These materials decrease the weight of the hull, often with very little strength loss. Also, the use of "closed cell" foam cores combined with epoxy resins has safe guarded many of these "composite constructions" from early failures but all must be subject to high quality and standards, especially where deck installations and fittings are concerned, due to repeated high loading.

UNDERWATER

Just because the hull is underwater does not necessarily mean it will degrade any faster but in the case of poor maintenance, hidden factors may be at work. Lack of anti-fouling procedures allows marine growths to proliferate. Barnacles are a sure-fire gel coat killer if they are allowed to remain undisturbed at work!

Naturally, a weed covered hull will hide the dreaded "osmosis blisters and underwater metal fittings will be subject to damage by galvanic electrical corrosion if the right conditions exist. Rudders and props, shafts too, are often overlooked when a hurried slipping takes place, usually for a quick anti-foul.

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