The following was found on the www.themultihull.com website in the forum under materials:
Gidday
Just an update on my polyprop cored deck replacement on my Seawind 24.
I managed to beach the boat on Sunday and replace the rotting ply versions.
It has worked much much better than I expected. The stiffness is way beyond my expectation.
I bolted on 50mm x 3mm flat aluminium that slots into the original sail track for the tramps.
I covered it in the same outdoor carpet from the original decks
There is more flex in the central console than the decks. The result is it actually stiffened the console.
One other unexpected benefit was that the deck no longer gets too hot to walk on as it did before (the sun is hot here in summer). This leads me to believe it may have some fantastic insulation properties
Would I build a boat from it? In a flash!
I’ll post some pics after easter of the end result.
Rgs
Tony
G’day Tony
What thickness Polycore did you use for your decks, and did you add any stiffening webs underneath?
I spoke to the guy at Polycore in Q’land the other day,and he was very willing to advise… the price of the Polycore was only a little more than I was quoted for the same thickness sheet of marine ply – and a fraction of the weight. You’d have to factor in the weight of the interior f/g too, but you’d end up with a much lighter boat.
Col.
As per earlier post(have a look at the first lot)
Core is 15mm
600db top 400db bottom
4 x 34mm pvc tube half pipe glassed over with 400db for webbing.
If I did it again I wouldn’t do the webbing, no need.
I only did it as insurance because the laminate was an educated guess
There are some photos of it under vacume on the seawind picture area under “this way up”
With a little forethought and planning, building a boat out of polycore may be faster and lighter than strip.
My load test was to have two grown men jump up and down and see how much it would flex. It passed the test easily.
The guy at polycore was great to me and easy to deal with. Best advice I can give is to try it yourself. Its cheap enough
Rgs
Tony
Marty’s latest project!
A Polycore Dinghy.
