Wooden Boat People

By McKenzieDriftBoat.com

Kevlar

I am going to build a stich and glue 14' drifter. I want to build a boat that does not wiegh a ton but is very strong and has a reinforced hull. I have read a lot about racing boats using carbon fiber and kevlar. Has anyone on this site used kevlar or carbon fiber to build thier boats? If so what weight did they use? And how many layers was applied to the bottom of the boats. Someone told me to put a spray on truck bed liner on my to be constructed boat, but I am concerned about its wieght charateristics and plastics can react to each other over time with very bad results. I beleive that lineX stuff is PVC based plastic and out gases of a long period of time, pvc also is very reactive with other plastic types. So that considered I like the idea of kevlar, its a little more expensive than glass but it very tough stuff. Anyway what is the groups opinion on kevlar and carbon fiber?

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Permalink Reply by Randy Dersham on June 20, 2009 at 10:53pm

You are correct, how the rower reads the water and then handles the boat is the most important part of success on the river. That is critical. This whole discussion revolves around 50 to 80 lbs of "ballast" on the bottom of the boat. So, it is very much a nit-pick that likely only matters to boats in white water that have little payload.

What you are describing with the passengers is control of dynamic weight. Dynamic weight is important for all the reasons that you mention. Static weight of a boat, meaning total weight, its trim and its center of gravity, along with hull shape combine to give the boat the "feel" that it has as you apply dynamic forces like rowing or moving about in the boat.

My point is that the static weight properties of an empty boat do matter to most people that row white water without a lot of gear and that the bottom of the boat is not a great place to look for weight savings because raising the center of gravity of the static weight of the boat is usually not a good feel for the rower. It will make the boat feel a bit tender under the feet. As you correctly mention, the boat with a Plascore bottom that is loaded properly with gear performs great. I have no doubt. I have nothing against Plascore and am looking into ways to use it bonded to UHMW which will add the weight back to the lowest portion of the boat; however, I believe that it is likely that a white water boat with only a Plascore bottom needs to have that beer keg in the boat to keep the static center of gravity low. The Plascore bottom would allow you to carry more beer;)