Impact Resistant Composite Hull

[Bradkitcher]

Hello fellow racers.

We river race and as such hit submerged rocks hard.

Does anyone have any experience with impact resistent Laminates.

We have tried

4" Polystyrene Hull core 9oz Kevlar + 2 Double Bias Glass 11oz + Satin Glass 6oz

4" Polystyrene Hull core + 10mm end grain balsa wood + 3 x 11oz Double Bias Glass

4" Polystyrene Hull core + 4 x 11oz Double Bias + 6oz Satin Glass

Does anyone have any experience and or has done some testing? Any advice would be appreciated.

Think light weight and impact resistant.

Brad:confused:

[Fastjeff57]

Aluminum.

Jeff

[Andrew 4CE]

Look at what the jet river racers are doing in Alberta Canada and NZ and places are doing... they routinely go over rocks, logs, beaver dams, etc... this is fun for them, haha. Aluminum hulls.

http://www.outlaweagle.com/race.html

[Bradkitcher]

:)Ali is not an option two reasons. One it doesnt slid over rocks like Fibreglass is grabs and grinds and stops. Secondly for the first reason it was banned in the dingy club about 10 years ago.

Composites everyone. What is the lightest weight per ft2 you have come up with.

Help.

[Mark75H]

Don't the racers in Alaska use layers of Formica?

[JohnsonM50]

Interesting, never heard of formica- for that. The river boats get away with aluminum by having power to overcome its dragging on rocks. For smaller outboard racing it would drag hard. How bout aluminum with some kind of outer shell material laminated on that would slide easier?

[arcticracer]

Sam,

Yes they do use one layer of Formica on the bottom of the Y800 boats. Rocks are not a problem in the race, but they do hit chunks of wood, etc.

Many Jet boats here in Alaska, and Airboats use P-Tex (hope I have that right) on their bottoms, it's about 3/8 thick and like Teflon they can slide over everything.

[Lil Stinker]

P-tex is used for Alpine Ski bottoms also.

[Powerabout]

My wife sells a French made beach cat called a twincat, it is made from moulding a product called twintex the company has pioneered this process.
you can swing a sledge hammer at them and it bounces off leaving no mark
No quite as stiff as glass but very close.
Nothing like a rotomold so dont think that.

[arcticracer]

Of course P-tex would be too heavy, but the stuff is amazing. They also use it up here for runners on the Dogsleds!

[Seagull 170]

Have a look on you tube at NZ jet boat type vids, most of the glass boats have a Duralumin outer layer as a sacrificial skin for snow melt river work.