Question:
Wonderful people, I have desire to build a 49' sail boat that is called the
Reliant from www.glen-l.com or something simular. I have no experience in
building boats and I plan to get some experience by building smaller ones
first. My question is, I have heard arguments that fiberglass is better
than plywood with stitch and glue they said that wood required more
attention and of course I was wondering how being covered with fiberglass.
If you could give me some sound advice in this so I will know which
direction to take in my boat building learning experience. I thought that
the ply wood one would be a sounder structure, but if a fiberglass one would
be best then I would love to build it because its lighter. I just kinda
wonder if a sail boat 49' long in fiberglass would be strong enough to sail
on the ocean. I know I could find one and refitt it but right now I have
this desire to build one that I could use in my retirement. This has
probably been covered many times so I really hate to ask but if you have to
flame me then ok, but I really want to know what is thought of as best.
Answer:
For your apparent experience level, epoxy over plywood seems to be the only
viable option. You can easily learn and implement stitch 'n' glue. Not so with
straight "fiberglass" (molded GRP).
