Unfortunately I managed to break the bronze P strut off at the hull, possibly 40 years of electric mice nibbling away, now I need to replace it.
I will be replacing like with like, the question I have is about the bonding method. The boat is solid polyester and the strut is inserted vertically through a slot into the boat like a blade. Once its at the right height and angle with the shaft etc lined up two holes are marked and drilled into which two transverse bronze pins are inserted in such a fashion that the part is supported against the hull. Then its lightly bonded in place, and after the glue has set then the whole top is covered in cloth and laminated in place.
The question I have is this, can I simply use polyester resin with glue fibres as the bonding agent and polyyester with chopped strand as the laminate? All the boatyard chatter is to use epoxy but my take is that previous polyester method has lasted 40 years, didnt fail and although I know it has lesser adhesion to itself than epoxy to poly, its still seems a reasonable to use it. The main motivation is to use "like with like" and the speed of cure so I can launch quickly the next day (there is huge yard pressure at the moment). I am very familiar with epoxy work and have no bias either way, its just a matter of expediency.
Thanks for your advice
I will be replacing like with like, the question I have is about the bonding method. The boat is solid polyester and the strut is inserted vertically through a slot into the boat like a blade. Once its at the right height and angle with the shaft etc lined up two holes are marked and drilled into which two transverse bronze pins are inserted in such a fashion that the part is supported against the hull. Then its lightly bonded in place, and after the glue has set then the whole top is covered in cloth and laminated in place.
The question I have is this, can I simply use polyester resin with glue fibres as the bonding agent and polyyester with chopped strand as the laminate? All the boatyard chatter is to use epoxy but my take is that previous polyester method has lasted 40 years, didnt fail and although I know it has lesser adhesion to itself than epoxy to poly, its still seems a reasonable to use it. The main motivation is to use "like with like" and the speed of cure so I can launch quickly the next day (there is huge yard pressure at the moment). I am very familiar with epoxy work and have no bias either way, its just a matter of expediency.
Thanks for your advice
