How to prevent delamination
Hey all, Since I will be getting a fiberglass sided trailer in the near future I was curious about delamination and how to prevent it. 1.)Is it primarily caused from moisture getting into the wa...
Forum Discussion
Vacuum infusion is common practice in the boating industry. I've not heard a lot of complaints about delamination, though it does happen, as do voids. There seem to be fewer voids with vacuum bagged hulls and decks though. FWIW, mine was NOT vacuum bagged and I have several voids right under the gelcoat in the cockpit seats that need to be ground out, resin'd and the gelcoat repaired.
The obvious difference I see is in the amount of gelcoat (if you can even call it that) and type of glass fiber that's being used. The gelcoat on our TT is very thin, so thin that I can see that they used sprayed on chopped glass, not woven cloth, to make the panels because the texture shows through. Definitely not the quality of workmanship that was used to build my Catalina Capri 22 sailboat. Of course if the TT was built to the same spec as the boat it wouldn't be an ultra light. I'm also not sure how to deal with hairline cracks in the TT gelcoat because it's going to be extremely hard to match the somewhat translucent shade.
Chris: Our TT sat for 4 years uncovered down here in Albany and doesn't seem to have suffered much beyond some chalking on the roof and lichen all over the A/C cover (but only the A/C cover). Prior owner had 2 or 3 Dri-Z-Air tubs inside and they seemed to help, though I'm not a fan of the open top which is easily spilled (usually when I trip over it). I use a DampRid hanging bag in the boat, which is under a tarp (open at stern) from October through mid-May, and have to change it out once a season. I switched to the same thing in the TT after we bought it in March and it worked fine.
Let me know how it works out if you try a cover on your TT. I'm planning to use mine nearly year-round so putting a cover on/off every time I want to go to Newport for the weekend seems like a pain.
Go Beavs!
Chris
The obvious difference I see is in the amount of gelcoat (if you can even call it that) and type of glass fiber that's being used. The gelcoat on our TT is very thin, so thin that I can see that they used sprayed on chopped glass, not woven cloth, to make the panels because the texture shows through. Definitely not the quality of workmanship that was used to build my Catalina Capri 22 sailboat. Of course if the TT was built to the same spec as the boat it wouldn't be an ultra light. I'm also not sure how to deal with hairline cracks in the TT gelcoat because it's going to be extremely hard to match the somewhat translucent shade.
Chris: Our TT sat for 4 years uncovered down here in Albany and doesn't seem to have suffered much beyond some chalking on the roof and lichen all over the A/C cover (but only the A/C cover). Prior owner had 2 or 3 Dri-Z-Air tubs inside and they seemed to help, though I'm not a fan of the open top which is easily spilled (usually when I trip over it). I use a DampRid hanging bag in the boat, which is under a tarp (open at stern) from October through mid-May, and have to change it out once a season. I switched to the same thing in the TT after we bought it in March and it worked fine.
Let me know how it works out if you try a cover on your TT. I'm planning to use mine nearly year-round so putting a cover on/off every time I want to go to Newport for the weekend seems like a pain.
Go Beavs!
Chris
