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[QUOTE]Glass Man - 3/23/2007  6:46 PM

Now take that sheet of aluminum and hit it to failure with a mallet. Do the same with a sheet of layup. The layup will take more abuse.

All 20' fishing boats will flex if you pound them across 4' waves at 30 mph. If a fiberglass boat is built right, stress cracks wont be a big problem. Radius areas are a problem because of thicker mills of gel coat and flex/stress so most boat builders are bolting in consoles now. No radius between the hull and the console. The main cause of gel coat crazes is impact. Aluminum dents, gel coat crazes. If all you see is a gel craze, no water is getting through into the glass. Gel coat is nothing but colored resin. No fiber to reinforce it, so it needs to be less than brittle, all new marine gel coats are. Add polyflake and you add two more layers which because it's thicker and not supported by glass more easily crazed than solid color gel which requires a much thinner coating. Remember, that aluminum boat is painted. It will scratch, dent, and ding. Guaranteed. Be careful, no matter what the boat material is. Big investment. Glass, if you have a big wreck, is way easier to fix.

Glass will allow for a molded engineered running bottom. Faster and if designed in,a softer ride. Stress formed aluminum allows for some of that same engineering. So does innovative design like to IPS running bottom on the Lund rigs. But the glass will be faster most times by enough to get attention.

The running bottoms on the big rigs are plenty tough enough these days, big water competition has driven that development. Weight is so close it hardly matters between the tournament rigs aluminum or glass. Both are tough enough to hold up to the worst punishment you can imagine. Put a keel guard on a Glass hull, and don't worry about it.

Dry storage? Glass. Faster? Glass. Softer ride? Glass. Pretty finish, nice amenities with less rotomolded plastic on the consoles? Glass. Better fuel economy? Glass. Seamless Hull? Glass. Dryer ride in general? Glass. Generally more expensive? Glass. What'll be under my butt? Glass. But my buddy runs an aluminum. I fish with him, too. No problems.[/QUOTE]

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Glass Man

Posted 3/23/2007 6:46 PM (#246930 - in reply to #246823)
Subject: RE: big water boats (alum v glass)

Here's a test for you. Take a screw driver or ice pick and a sheet of aluminum most use for running bottoms. Punch HARD downward on the center of the sheet. Right through. Take a sheet of layup, and try the same thing. No way will you punch a hole through.

Now take that sheet of aluminum and hit it to failure with a mallet. Do the same with a sheet of layup. The layup will take more abuse.

All 20' fishing boats will flex if you pound them across 4' waves at 30 mph. If a fiberglass boat is built right, stress cracks wont be a big problem. Radius areas are a problem because of thicker mills of gel coat and flex/stress so most boat builders are bolting in consoles now. No radius between the hull and the console. The main cause of gel coat crazes is impact. Aluminum dents, gel coat crazes. If all you see is a gel craze, no water is getting through into the glass. Gel coat is nothing but colored resin. No fiber to reinforce it, so it needs to be less than brittle, all new marine gel coats are. Add polyflake and you add two more layers which because it's thicker and not supported by glass more easily crazed than solid color gel which requires a much thinner coating. Remember, that aluminum boat is painted. It will scratch, dent, and ding. Guaranteed. Be careful, no matter what the boat material is. Big investment. Glass, if you have a big wreck, is way easier to fix.

Glass will allow for a molded engineered running bottom. Faster and if designed in,a softer ride. Stress formed aluminum allows for some of that same engineering. So does innovative design like to IPS running bottom on the Lund rigs. But the glass will be faster most times by enough to get attention.

The running bottoms on the big rigs are plenty tough enough these days, big water competition has driven that development. Weight is so close it hardly matters between the tournament rigs aluminum or glass. Both are tough enough to hold up to the worst punishment you can imagine. Put a keel guard on a Glass hull, and don't worry about it.

Dry storage? Glass. Faster? Glass. Softer ride? Glass. Pretty finish, nice amenities with less rotomolded plastic on the consoles? Glass. Better fuel economy? Glass. Seamless Hull? Glass. Dryer ride in general? Glass. Generally more expensive? Glass. What'll be under my butt? Glass. But my buddy runs an aluminum. I fish with him, too. No problems.