Printable View
Hi all, I am building a cat and reworking a terrible handling BJ26, I was thinking of putting some 1/8 or 3/16 6 ply wood down the middle of the boats for strength and a nice even and clean space to mount and or move stuff around on. Has anyone done this? Would I still need to carvon fiber it too or just the sponsoons or would it not be needed. I thought 3/16 would be thick enough but not too heavy, what do you think?
It used to be done all the time, I have done it to several boats myself, 3/16 sounds like overkill, but if your not worried about the weight it would make it very strong, no need for carbon fibre on the tunnel too for sure. If you go for it, do the transom area where the hardware mounts too, and put some triangles on there edges to tie the tunnel to the transom rigidly and prevent any erroneous strut or rudder movement.
Do you really think 3/16 is overkill, the width of a flex shaft? I wanted to put some blind nuts in it from the bottom to bolt some stuff down, maybe. I havnt got any yet I could get 1/8 stuff, I wonder if JB WELD would work ok to put mounts, etc on it?
Been using JB for a few years now to mount everything in glass hulls, never had a mount beak loose with it. Scuff and clean the bond area first.
I think 1/16 would be enough for the bottom of a hull, gotta remember you will have it bonded to the original hull with epoxy, will form a very strong composite. I used 3/32 balsa on the floor of a hydro, couldn't believe how stiff it turned out with the grain going cross wise across the hull. Didn't add much weight.
A pair of rails out of plywood will also really stiffen things up, thats what I did to the floor of my Motley. Helped with many of the thin hull liner issues, now when I adjust the stuffing tube the motor end doesn't flex with the entire hull!