Talk Composites - The Forum for Advanced Composites

Aiming to build a carbon fibre canoe.

http://www.talkcomposites.com/Topic12552.aspx

By Zedok - 8/13/2014 4:46:58 PM

Good afternoon all,

Well this is definitely the place to be tolearn more about composites. I am a Canadian expat that’s been living in the UK for morethan 17 years now. As a teenager, I grew up enjoying long distance canoeing andeventually got into racing in the States and in Canada. In those days, Kevlar boatswere starting to be the craze and they were just as beautiful to watch as theywere to ride in. So over the years I gained experience in repairing both glassand Kevlar canoes and in making our own bent laminated paddles.  Recently, I have decided to build my owncarbon fibre canoe based on the Winonah pro model (http://www.wenonah.com/Canoes.aspx?id=137).So I guess I will be logging on quite frequently in order to benefit for the extensiveexperience of the forum’s members.

Cheers,

Z
By Zedok - 8/17/2014 10:18:42 AM

Hi Panda,
No mold to build the canoe from. Here is the plan:
I started building a female mold by using longitudinal wooden slats to build the shape. Then I will line the interior of the canoe shape with strips of 1.5in rigid insulating foam. Smooth the surface with body filler and then finish with pattern-coat primer and pattern-coat high-gloss. 
As with the Winoha canoes, I will use two layers of fabric. First external layer: Carbon Fibre 2/2 Twill 3k 195g 1.5m Wide and the interior and the second layer: Black Diolen 200gsm 2/2 Twill. Rigidity will be added by placing rigid cell PVC at the bottom covered by black Diolen.
It all sounds easy on paper...