C-Forum

For a winter project a friend and I have gotten an old Ocoee that's in real bad shape. Both the bow and stern are caved in and the hull under saddle is worn to nothing. We have some pretty good Ideas on the bow and stern but I'm looking for some suggestions on the hull. We'll cut out the bottom section, appx a 2' x 3' area and will rebuild it with either kevlar or fiberglass from the inside out then layer it up from the outside which brings me to my first question. What would provide better structural integrity, kevlar or fiberglass? And to the second question. What would you suggest to use as the outer layer on the bottom? We're thinking of 1/8" ABS, nylon, or just kevlar/glass all the way. Once we cut the bottom out we are going to need something to guide us as to what the curve/shape should be. We're hoping to find somebody with an Ocoee that we could borrow so we could wax up the bottom or lay plastic wrap down and make a template or mold of the bottom to put over the bottom of our boat as we lay it up from the inside. So if inyone in the VA/MD (or somewhat close) area has an Ocoee they could lend us, we'd really be gratefull and have some boats we could lend you while we got a mold off it. We may not be able to restore it but it looks like it's going to be a fun project to work on. Regardless if it works or not we'll have learned a usefull thing or two abot boat repair. Thanks in advance for any help and suggestions.

I have an Ocoee just north of Charlotte, NC. I could loan you the boat. 704 948-0203.

I'm about to lay up a slalom race boat in a slightly heavier layup than an expert like Kaz uses and he doesn't like some of the materials I will use(example-auromat for the stiffener layer). But for the bottom I'm trying an experiment from Salmon Fishing drift boats. I'm putting a thin layer of gelcoat saturated with graphite powder. This will likely provide a very slippery surface and deflect many hits before the S-glass and Kevlar that follow can grab rocks and rip. After the slide layer, I'm going with s-glass, two layers of 5oz Kevlar, 2mm auromat, one layer of 5 oz kevlar and some auromat, carbon fiber, 9oz kevlar ribs. And I'm about to learn as you are. Have fun and wear a respirator.
Pat