heavy vs. strong Posted by: nickjc on Dec-17-12 1:40 PM (EST)
They author mistakenly equates strength with weight. He's confusing the sacrificial quality of a thick gelcoat with the strength of the underlying fiberglass. I have a 43lb Sterling reflection which has a very strong layup but relatively thin gel coat. I've taken off big pieces of gel coat rock gardening but the glass has never been damaged in lots of high speed hits. Same goes for my Tiderace Xplore. Relatively thin gel coat but very strong layup. In contrast to some older brit boats with thick gel coat but low quality chopped mat layups, I'd rather do the occasional gelcoat repair and not worry about the hull integrity.