Wooden Boat People

By McKenzieDriftBoat.com

plastic bottom

I'm planning on putting a 1/4 or even 1/8 inch of plastic as a second bottom. First to protect the wood bottom but even more inportantly to slide over the rocks we hit here in NH and Maine.

Anyone else tried it and of course where is the cheapest supplier?

New Hampshire Den

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Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on March 15, 2009 at 9:45am

Den, there are several years of discussions on the http://montana-riverboats.com/ boat building forum. Seems like the common point is if you live and store your boat in a temperature stable environment the expansion and contraction of the UHMW won't reach destructive dimensions. If you stay on the Oregon Coast and use your boat in that environment the plastic won't pull out the screws and allow water to enter your boat. Ray Heater seems to have some good points in some of his discussions there. I live in Eastern Washington and even though my boat kit came with a sheet of UHMW I don't think I will install it. Temperature swings of -5 F to over 100F too much. Probably follow Ray Heaters advice, Fiberglass, epoxy and graphite. My ideas are drawn form a synopsis of others experiences and discussions. Good luck

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Permalink Reply by Jason Knight on March 16, 2009 at 5:10am

I am building in Michigan - so we have a similar climate. I opted to stay away from UHMW for the bottom of my boat. I feel the temperature swings way to much in short periods of time out here. 60 today but tomorrow is could be freezing cold. I am doing a fiberglass bottom with graphite in the epoxy mix.