As you can tell from all my questions, I'm making rapid progress on my PC, but also heading into uncharted territory as I get close to glassing and painting. My latest idea is to cover the deck and cabin roof with canvas. This is a new concept for me (not being a man of the sea), but I learned about it from the May/June 2009 issue of Wooden Boat magazine. The author provided a detailed how-to and argued that provided a durable, traditional, and less toxic covering. I like the idea of using a traditional material on a boat with old fashioned catboat lines.
Does anyone have experience doing this? The author of the Wooden Boat article attached and saturated the canvas with Titebond and covered with paint. He said it holds up for years and years. As a bonus, it provides a non-skid surface.
Paul (who else?) posted a long comment a few years ago, and seemed to endorse canvas
http://byyb.org/forum/index.php?topic=63...57#msg4357
Canvas decks are fairly easy to do, but they don't last long, can cause all sorts of issues and can't hold a candle to epoxy set fabrics. In fact, I usually use a special epoxy mixture to bed down canvas deck covering.
As to the article in WoodenBoat that appeared a few issues back, don't believe everything you read. The author used TiteBond II which isn't waterproof and will eventually let go of the canvas (not good). TiteBond III is an option, but it tends to creep in time and I wouldn't trust it either. Both of these products are PVA's and once this stuff hits a surface, you have to go to great pains to remove it, if you want epoxy to stick to it in the future. Secondly, PVA's doesn't wetout canvas duck very well and you'll use gallons of the stuff attempting to soak a duck covered deck, which begs the question, why not use epoxy in the first place.
The flaws with canvas coverings are well known. On the deck of a 100 year old boat, yep, it's the only choice, set in white lead and painted. With modern choices, a 6 ounce 'glass cloth set in epoxy, well squeegeed and not filling the weave, will produce a look very similar to a canvas covered deck, but one that doesn't have the drawbacks. It too will have to be painted, but it brings abrasion resistance to the table and waterproofing too, which canvas doesn't. I've epoxied down both 'glass and canvas cloth, both work, though 'glass is stronger and much more wear resistant.
In short, if you want water to seep through and drip inside the boat, use a canvas cover on your deck. It's romantic to have a steady drip on your forehead as you try to sleep, very seaman like in fact. Man up and take it or epoxy the stuff down and wimp out, like all the California sissies with their cultivated hair and stylized shoe laces. Your call . . .
Thanks Paul for the confirmation to my thoughts. I was planning to epoxy a coarse glass cloth to imitate the canvas look and what you just said closed the deal.
Not that I would wimp out because of the driping on my forehead, it will probably happen anyway due to condensing. But rotting my deck ahead of time doesn´t sound like something I would want do.
Come on Timo, your a schooner man, you have to learn the joys of sea life. Pitch and tar all over everything, especially your fresh bread and bedding, salt crystals in your shorts, you know the pleasures of the sea.
I've found 6 ounce 'glass cloth a good substitute for the canvas look, but 8 ounce looks better to some. You be the judge, it's purely a preference thing. I think 8 ounce looks more like the cotton duck used on work boats while the 6 ounce the finer weave cotton used on yachts. It's very important to squeegee the cloth well during application, so no resin can pool or fill the weave. Done properly, it looks very similar (unless you're a real cotton duck buff). I've also epoxied cotton duck down to decks too. It's not nearly as durable and you'll use many more gallons of epoxy to stick it down then 'glass.
That old post of mine listed above is 5 years old, damn times flies, as I actually remember writing it.
I am imperially challenged so pls explain me 6 ounce / 8 ounce cloth ;D
I suspect it is ounce/some area but IIRR the area is different when measuring sail cloth or something else.
For us simple minds everything is g/m2, whether cloth, paper or whateverÂ
The experts and talking shop here, but can I butt in and clarify, Paul, that you are proposing that I can create a canvas-like appearance simply by applying a thin coat of epoxy to six oz cloth? Is one coat enough protection? In my (very) limited experience the texture is mostly lost after the second coat.
In either case, this sounds like a good compromise. Thanks for all the good information.
Yes, a layer of 6 to 8 ounce 'glass cloth set in epoxy and squeegee neat. Applying a second coat of epoxy is used to fill the weave and unnecessary to adhere the fabric. In fact a second straight coat (unthickened) is wasteful. The better method to fill the weave is a thickened second coat. In this application you DON'T FILL THE WEAVE, which leaves the texture of the fabric visible. 8 ounce looks best to my eyes, but you be the judge.
oz./yd.2 is the usual denotation for ounces per yard squared and g/m2 is the usual denotation for grams per meter squared. Typically the imperial denotation is shortened to just an ounces measurement, but I always see the full g/m2 notation (rarely gm/m2) or more often "Gsm" for metric.
6 ounce fabric is 203 Gsm and 8 ounce is 271 Gsm. The conversion is simple: to convert gsm to oz/yd2. Divide the gsm by 33.906 (33.9 is close enough). To do the reverse you multiply by 33.906.
200 (5.9 oz.), 300 (8.8 oz.), 360 (10.6 oz.), 400 (11.8 oz.), 600 (17.7) and 800 g/m2 (23.6) are common sizes for metric fabrics. These would translate to 6, 8, 10, 12, 18 and 24 ounce fabrics in "American" vernacular (respectively). In my plans I often spec 4 ounce and sometimes 2 ounce finishing cloth. In this case 4 ounce would be 136 (135.6) g/m2 and 2 ounce would be 68 (67.8 ) g/m2.
For those that needed to know more then they ever wanted about fabric weights.
Excellent! I'm glad I asked about the canvas.
Now I just need to finish sanding and filling.Â
