Barrelback 19 in Fibreglass Foam Sandwich or sindle skin

Australia · **Posted:** Thu Nov 01, 2007 7:12 pm

Dear Glen L or fellow boaties:
Hope my questions are not too bazaar and would appreciate your feedback and direction
I am very interested in building the Ken Hankinson designed Barrelback 19. But I would like to build the hull in either fiberglass foam sandwich or single skin fibregalss over a male mould. The deck would be timber.
I know the traditionalist would think this sacrilege but I have put a lot of thought into this and my reasoning is as follows:
1. I am limited in time – I do not want to start a strip plywood version of this boat and because of time constraints - the build would take a very long time
2. I am limited in space – my wife would kick me out if I told her that her car would have to stay in the drive way for an extended period of time while I built the boat
3. I live in Sydney Australia and good quality marine ply and other boat building timber is VERY expensive!
4. The boat will spend most of its time tied up to my Jetty and have multiple users (my extended family) and from previous experience will get scratched and dinged and if built in laminated ply would soon look scrappy – where as a painted foam sandwich I can repair and repaint any damage
So based on the above if built is over a male mould in either foam sandwich or single skin I can:
1. Make the hull frame out of cheap wood
2. Kick my wife’s car out of the garage then assemble the frame, attach the sandwich material, glass and fair the hull, turn over and put on trailer and then move it for painting and fit out to various locations or back into the garage for short periods of time to finish off
3. A friend of mine is a similar position and loves the barrelback. So building in sandwich I can disassemble the hull frame from the inside after layup and give him the male mould for reassembly for his boat. I have done this on a dingy build before.
I have noticed In the Glen L forum that some one has build a similar boat in C-Flex?
If building the barrelback 19 hull can be built as foam sandwich are you able to advise on best core material and the layup required. The boat would be fitted for a V8. If this can be done I will buy the plans immediately and get to work.
Kindest Regards
Daniel

Bruce Dow · **Posted:** Thu Nov 01, 2007 7:23 pm

It sounds like a cool concept, but have you thought about how you will get the stern section of the barrel back off of the male mould?

(On further thought.... I guess you could disassemble the mould inside the barrel-back section.)

(on further-further reading... I see you've already thought of that... sorry.)

Australia · **Posted:** Thu Nov 01, 2007 7:35 pm

Hi

Yes The plan is to dismantly all frames then stringers anthing i can't unscrew I would just cut out

Cheers
Daniel

Bruce Dow · **Posted:** Thu Nov 01, 2007 7:40 pm

You will need to figure out how to keep the stringers integral to the hull, but still get the hull off the mould...

This is an intriguing challenge... I'll need to catch up to your thinking on this one....

B.

upspirate · **Posted:** Fri Nov 02, 2007 7:48 am

After the molds are pulled out& there's just a shell,the engine stringers could be added in just like they do on a production fiberglass hull after the hull is laminated in a female mold.Also any additional frames/braces can be added then

leakcheck · **Posted:** Fri Nov 02, 2007 12:59 pm

You could build it in a split mold. Since you are going to build multiple boats, you can build a plug, then build a mold over the plug, cut the mold in half from stem to stern and then build your actual boat in two separate halves.

Put mold release on the mold, paint it with gel coat, use a chopper gun and lay in some chop, then build up your schedule, 18 oz woven roving, more mat, more roving more mat etc...until you get it to a sufficient thickness that it is very strong (or sufficiently stong anyway..aas you will be able to strengthen and stiffen with wooden members at a later date further on in the build) ..then you pop it out of its half mold, put the two halves to gether, tape the seams and away you go...SIMPLE ! (Where you want to reduce weight simply add klegecell or divinicell or any of the end grain balsa products)..All of those options would require some type of engeneering..and I would be of no help !

Steve

(That is an American joke)

That is how they build Maine lobster boats every day of the week ! So you can do it..you can make a four piece mold if you want to .

boat-bill-der · **Posted:** Tue Nov 13, 2007 2:54 pm

Have you taken a look at this post? Seems similar to what you are trying to do...

http://www.glenl.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.p ... ht=riviera

http://www.ozsoft.com.au/RivieraPhotos/Viewer2.aspx

Flipper · **Posted:** Thu Nov 22, 2007 6:39 am

No offense to the inventor in you or the desire to experiment, but just make sure you wear a life preserver on your maiden voyage in your "foam core" barrelback. The boat obviously needs it's framework to stay intact. Not removed so your friend can have it. Why don't you just build it correctly and enjoy the process, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel? Besides a traditionalist would not cold-mold it nor use Ken's drawings in the first place. JMO.

Eric · **Joined:** Wed Aug 10, 2005 4:40 pm **Posts:** 68

I don't think you'll really save any time or money with this approach, although I admire the willingness to think outside the box. But in this case I think the "box" is the correct way to go.

I would come up with time saving methods to build he boat properly. For example, there are two of you, work together and pre-make all the components 2 at a time. Store them to minimize adverse complications with the spouses until your ready to assemble, then again work together and knock it out.

I've made several molds and they are very time and money consuming. I think you'll be happier with the real thing than a composite copy.

Eric

Glen-L.com

Barrelback 19 in Fibreglass Foam Sandwich or sindle skin

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