Cloning a boat with fiberglass?

[Alan]

I heard about someone in Ontario making a replica of their LL skip using fiberglass. Has anyone tried this? It seems it wouldn't be too hard to do since you already have a plug to make your mold from. I'm thinking it might make an interesting winter project.

[Sir Adam]

Can you do it? YES. If you prep the boat right. Should you do it? Well, thats something different.

A couple items to consider:
1) By the time you purchase the materials to make a mold, and a boat, you will have spent more $ than on purchasing a NEW plastic boat
2) The folks who designed and built the boat are entitled to a royalty if you make a mold off of their design...and any further boats you build. I'm more familiar with it for true glass designs (Viper, Hearn Slalom boats, etc...), and though it is usually done by the "honor system", I hold it's a good thing to do.

If all you really want is a glass version of the boat (which is something I can REALLY identify with), contact the manufacturer and see if you can purchase a glass version. I believe Dagger used to do this, but I'm not sure about other companies, or newer designs.

Good luck, regardless!

[Alan]

Gee, I had figured I could do the boat for around $400 CDN. Maybe not though. I have only done a limited amount of work with fiberglass. I sort of thought that I could make to mold using cheap resin (Marine stuff from Canadian Tire). Then I would use something like West System epoxy for the actual boat. BTW, how much epoxy / resin does it take to make a boat (6-7ft length). How many layers of fiberglass? And for the mold?

I wouldn't need the mold to last for more than one boat or anything. As for the legality, I did a little research on the subject and it seems there are many cases of pleasure boat companies "splashing" other manufacturers hulls. I would definately look into talking royalties with the company before going ahead though.

[PAC]

Usually I don't think you would want to just "clone" a boat! I mean really what fun is that! You want your design to meet your special wants, need and desires! So you might take an existing design and modify to improve it (hopefully) or tweak it to make it function differently (you'll read about chops with squirt boats), or better yet come up with new approaches to exisitng problems.
You might want to read John Sweet's site for more info. http://www.johnrsweet.com/Mold.html related to molds etc. This and the rest of his site might help you judge how far down this path you want to travel.
You also get what you put into when making a boat. Make it cheap and you got cheap. Plus there is a lot, and I mean a lot, of time that goes into making a good quality boat.
Additionally, your first few attempts will be abortions and abominations! Just the way it is (or was with me and I even had and expert guiding me).
I'd want to hurry the process and make the mix too hot or make the weave to wet and then next thing you know things would go into a death spiral of problems, issues and profanity!
You might also want to read Jim Snyder's squirt book on how they came up with designs (you'll also understand why there is a royality issue). Or read up on the Viper on this site - it took them a year plus to get it where they wanted it. Then they started messing with chops. There is also a boat building book if I remember correctly that Charlie Walbridge wrote. All good reads.
Anywho if you're looking for a project study up and seek out a master to guide you in the building. Otherwise it is a very long and expensive process. If your up to it go for it and keep us posted and don't be afraid to fail you'll only be the 100Xs to do so and who knows you might come up with a wild design that everyone just has to have!
Just my thougts - others????

[Space Canoe]

I was just thinking, what would be wrong with making a boat copy off of a plastic hull? I got permission awhile ago (quite a while, actually, when I had both time and money and the inclination) to make a fiberglass Cascade. The plan was to just tape a sheet of plastic over a slightly larger than one-quarter section of the hull, coat it with mold release and lay up a two-layer section of each quarter of the hull. Then pull them off, sand them fairly smooth, and put them together and add a few more layers, then insert a cockpit ring. The only plan was to slightly raise the hull at the back of the cockpit ring so that I can get my feet out easily. Why wouldn't this work? I'm not interested in a perfect boat, and I can't believe that if you laid up a quarter of a section at a time that it would cause such heat during the resin burn off that it would harm the hull. Any thoughts?

I say this now because I have a new student who works for a jet manufacturing firm and might have access to carbon cloth (YUM YUM!)
Ric Taylor

[PAC]

Ric
If you have permission and have the materials (lucky dog) - go for it.
However, I would think that its much harder to pull a mold from a used boat than a clean plug. The used boat will have nicks and cuts in it making it hard to get the mold to give a clean release from the plastic (I'm not sure what chem would work on helping the release and not damaging the boat / mold - I'm sure someone else can help there).
You might want to build up the preliminary mold for the first go-around. This would be a bit heavier (for the pull off the plastic boat) then clean it up after you pulled it (filling cracks and nicks). Then work up a plug from that mold. Again clean it up (filling, sanding and such) then make a final mold from the plug. This way you get a chance to work the skills to make the layups better, get familar with the materials and tips and techniques, and tweak out the boat if you want to make some modificaitons to it.
I don't think the resin will heat up any where close to damaging the plastic. However. some of the chems (required for the release) might do something to the plastic (but then I'm not a chem eng - but your student might have access to that kind of beta data).
If you use a plastic sheet to help in the release and protect the plastic you'll most likely have the issue with parts of that sheet being imbedded in the mold when you pull it. This will make more work (sanding and filling), but again you can use the mold, plug, mold process to make the boat "cleaner". Once you get the halfs build we can discuss seaming and end pours - lots a tips and techniques there!
Again if you have permission go for it - I have a feeling based on the photos your outfitting you can pull it off. Keep us posted!!!!