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Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on February 24, 2016 at 9:33am

Dreu, I am intrigued by your choice of polyester resin and gelcoat as a boat finish. a quick search on Google and other anecdotal information on Woodenboatforum.com suggests that polyesterdoesn't adhere well on wood. If used with fiberglass cloth the chances of delamination are fairly high. Gelcoat is usually sprayed into a female model as the outside coat of a fiberglass boat and then polyester resin and mat is next sprayed into the cavity to make up the boat being cast. It seems like you will be going to an unproven system that I have never heard of being used on wooden drift boats. It is sometimes fun to reinvent the wheel but results may be less than satisfactory during the experiment.

The least expensive and lowest maintenance protection for the outside of your hull is paint. The more protective finish would be a lamination of 6 or 10 ounce S-glass with Resin Research's more flexible resin that Brad Dimock recommends. Then paint over that. Something like George Kirby paints. Here's the link to one of the most recommended paint manufacturers.  http://www.kirbypaint.com/aboutus.shtml

S-Glass is more durable than E-glass and will provide more protection form abrasion. It doesn't cost much more than E-glass. You can look up strength comparisons on the web. fiberglassupply.com stocks it as do other suppliers.

If you roll and tip an enamel paint you can get a good, easilty repairable finish than won't require much more than sandpaper, elbow grease and a paint brush to repair. On the boats Brad Dimock build for his use and his clients use in the Grand Canyon he uses George Kirby paints. He would rather float and build than repair. The Grand canyon is a very punishing environment on boats and people, if the paint works there it will work in many other less abrasive and damaging environments.

Just some thoughts. The discussion on finishes is never ending and has been discussed ad infinitum here and on woodenboatforum.com. Good luck on your build.

Rick N

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Permalink Reply by dreu patterson on February 24, 2016 at 11:21am

Rick,thanks for the reply.The product I was looking into was not polyester,it was vinylester.What I have read about this product it is better than poly and just a step below epoxy,but it still will chemically bond to gelcoat.I have sprayed gelcoat in the past on a center console I built and had excellent results but it was on a fiberglass hull,hence my reasoning to lay up with fiberglass first.And as a plus there is a clear gelcoat available.Gelcoat is easy to touchup as is paint but it is more durable.If you have any input on this product I'm all ears.Still undecided though-Dreu

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Permalink Reply by tungsten on February 25, 2016 at 6:00am

Yes the Ve resin is stronger then the poly but it still doesn't stick very well to epoxy or wood.People claim the gel coat will stick to epoxy but only if the part is stiff and doesn't flex.So probably not so good for a boat that will hit rocks gravel.

You can buy epoxy gelcoats but very $$

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