Glassing Decks on 17

[JPower210]

Good morning-

 

Question for CS 17 and CS 20 builders...  I am about to flip my hull back over to complete the interior and decks-  I am curious how many of you added glass cloth to the decks, and if you did, did you carry it all the way down the sides?  What weight did you use?

 

Thanks-

 

JP

[Chick Ludwig]

I did not cover decks. Hull sides are covered with 6 oz.

[PAR]

I 'glassed the entire outside of the boat and the cockpit seat tops and sole, but the deck was eventually also covered with solid wood veneers. 

[Paul356]

Glassed the hull with 4 oz.  Not planning to glass the deck.

[Jim Stumpf]

I finished my decks bright, no glass. Epoxy saturated to give higher build to varnish. Brought the 10 oz cloth from the hull bottom up well over the chine and faired in  to give strength and abrasion resistance.

 

 

Jim

[Dnjost]

I did not,  but did apply a couple coats of epoxy.  Wish I had put a layer of 4 oz on to toughen it up a bit as the Okoume is a soft plywood and dents easily.  

[makenmend]

I glassed my decks primarily because I used Western Red Cedar, both sides with 6 oz cloth

 

MM

[Chick Ludwig]

WOW---purty! I WOULD glass that! The glass disappears in the epoxy. Definitely topcoat the epoxy with varnish or clear poly with UV inhibitors. This is a WHOLE topic in itself.

[Sandy Dancer]

I used 3 coats of epoxy and no cloth everywhere. My experience with other builds is that the cloth is good for abrasion but a hard hit will will break thru the cloth and the plywood anyway. It is just as easy to repair abrasion with epoxy and some cloth if necessary. If a big wind blows the boat over on a 2x4 the cloth isn't going to protect it. If you hit a piling to hard and it cracks the wood, again the cloth wont prevent the break.  Hey the boat is lighter and it's less work. I build boats to sail not for show, so a repair does not have to be perfect.  Maybe this is not for everyone.  My friend built his 36' cat 20 years ago with this same philosophy. He and his wife just got back to my dock from 6 months in the Bahamas and yes the boat has some bruises but we will fix them. They have done this trip many times and there is to cloth on the hull.

[PAR]

Agreed, there's no NEED for a sheathing, but plywood does seem to tolerate more abuse if there's some cloth there.

[Alex]

I'm with you Sandy Dancer. I wouldn't glass the whole thing just the seams. Maybe I'm lucky I have sandy beaches everywhere so I don't have to worry about rocky shores. One layer of glass over a soft plywood isn't going to give you much protection on rocks anyway.

An Australian designer, Mike Roberts, the designer of the Green Island 15 and 18 doesn't even glass the seams or cover the boat in epoxy. He slops on some kind of mixture of I don't know what which doesn't require any sanding in between coats. He sails his boat multiple times a week for the last 20 odd years and it looks sensational as far as I am concerned.

[JPower210]

Thanks all for the input-  I have done both ways on past boats I have built, and have always been a little happier with the sheathed boats from a durability perspective.  The 17 is actually sheathed on the hull with Xynole, mainly as an experiment to see the difference between that and cloth and because I have never used Xynole before-  it sure is a lot nicer to work with.

 

I am getting ready to put the decks on, still undecided as to painted or finished bright (using Raka clear epoxy and S3 Gloss Clear, another experiment), or painted.  Right now it seems as if most, on a standard deck, did not use cloth-  I'll make the final decision after I get the decks on.

 

I definitely don't see a need on the side decks, so just the forward deck and aft deck are under consideration.