Carbon v Glass

My knees are good you just have to be patient and then weep the rewards. I sail with three others on a shifty pond and don’t have a problem with her on a bigger lake or the see they are a pleasure to sail

I had an RS300, kissed goodbye to  my knees!  I find the Phantom a much more pleasant sail and bigger fleet.  I've only raced against one RS300 in the Phantom and beat him over the water, it was light winds though.

Originally posted by jeffers Originally posted by russell Phantoms changed from polyester to epoxy - the hulls are not carbon.  My Vandercraft hull has 2kg correctors to bring it up to the minimum weight of 61Kg (including foils etc).  I believe this is about the usual now. Carbon masts and booms were also introduced a few years ago now.  The adjustable carbon rig has made a big difference to the sailability of the boat - its now a real pleasure and has opened up the weight range. Red Eye sails are also introducing a new hiking single hander, based on a smaller Phantom. Check out http://www.redeyesails.co.uk/Redeye%20Solution.htm Was looking at this as a replacement for my Laser (not sure I can afford it though). I am 85KG and find myself losing out because of the additional weight I carry that better boat handling etc.. cannot compensate for. Anyone have any ideas on costings yet?? Paul

I would buy a RS300 sounds ideal for your weight range and skill level. You also get good value for money

Paul

Originally posted by russell Phantoms changed from polyester to epoxy - the hulls are not carbon.  My Vandercraft hull has 2kg correctors to bring it up to the minimum weight of 61Kg (including foils etc).  I believe this is about the usual now. Carbon masts and booms were also introduced a few years ago now.  The adjustable carbon rig has made a big difference to the sailability of the boat - its now a real pleasure and has opened up the weight range. Red Eye sails are also introducing a new hiking single hander, based on a smaller Phantom. Check out http://www.redeyesails.co.uk/Redeye%20Solution.htm

Was looking at this as a replacement for my Laser (not sure I can afford it though). I am 85KG and find myself losing out because of the additional weight I carry that better boat handling etc.. cannot compensate for. Anyone have any ideas on costings yet??

Paul

Weights for cherub hull:
carbon ~ 40 kg
glass ~ 45-50kg ( estimated because no-one builds in glass any more)

( as JimC says, you need more glass than carbon, so the weight and time to build goes up )

If you are homebuilding, then there is some cost saving using glass.
This is only a very small percentage of the overall boat cost however.
For a boat builder, the cost saving on materials is negated by the extra labour.

Umm... the strongest laminate should be on the outside!
- if you are using foam.
For timber construction ( ie that weighs nearly 5 times as much as foam ) then both skins can be lighter, because of the compression strength etc of the wood. ( because it's heavy )

For lightest weight, you could use 150g/m² carbon outside, and 60g/m² inside, over 75kg/m³ foam, epoxy prepreg - ( but that means much more work on temperature stable moulds.)

Typical very light 'standard' construction would use 200g/m۔² carbon in epoxy each side of foam, maybe with extra 100g/m² glass ouside to give more impact protection.

S-glass is not now readily available in UK, hence the cost is close to carbon, so it's normally only used in classes that ban carbon.

rigid PVC eg airex is good
linear PVC eg airex R63 is good for heat-forming curvy parts ( and has better long-term fatigue properties)

corecell is somewhere between - fairly rigid, but also a bit bendy with heat.

Some foams have more open cells, and soak up much more resin.