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1 INTRODUCTION
Many people wonder how modern fiberglass boats are built, and boat building today is not at all
like it was back when antique and classic powerboats were built. These days, boat building is
actually pretty high-tech.

Prior to the development of fiberglass construction techniques, boats were built of wood, steel,
and other materials, by assembling pieces and parts into a structure which was then sheathed
with a hull. With fiberglass boat building, however, the major components of the boat – the hull,
deck, liner, and large parts like consoles—are molded from fiberglass. Usually, this means
starting with a female mold. The mold is first sprayed with gelcoat, then fiberglass cloth is
applied, and then resin is used to saturate or “wet out” the fiberglass. When the resin cures, you
have a hull or a boat part. Structural reinforcements like stringers and bulkheads can be molded
separately and then fiber glassed to the part, or may in some cases be laid up at the same time.
While the hull is still open and exposed, items that will be located below deck level like fuel and
water tanks or inboard engines can be mounted. This is also when plumbing and wiring may be
run. Then the major components are assembled. For most modern powerboats, that means the
deck and/or liner is lifted, often with a crane, and lowered into the hull.

Many boats are designed with a “shoe-box” joint where the hull and deck have mating flanges,
or overlap one another. Often mechanical fasteners such as screws or through-bolts are used to
secure the parts together, in addition to the use of a chemical bonding agent and sealant like
methyl methacrylate or 3M 5200, which also makes the joint water-tight. Additionally, some
builder’s fiberglass around the perimeter of the hull to deck joint.

Changes in how to build a boat

The first revolution in modern boat building was obviously the shift from mostly wood to mostly
fiberglass construction, but a second one has been much more subtle. There has been a transition
from conventional fiberglass methods to a host of exotic materials and techniques which can
befuddle even the experienced yachtsman with buzzwords and jargon.
The concept remains essentially the same, however. Fiberglass (properly called Fiberglass
Reinforced Plastic, or FRP) is still a fiber material set in a binding substance of resin. In the very
early years, fiberglass was literally fibers of glass, but that soon changed to fibers of various

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synthetic plastics. For many years, a fiberglass construction has been from cloth, roving, mat,
and resins you can buy in any hardware store. More recently it came to include more advanced
materials like Kevlar and carbon fiber, which many people are familiar with from their use in
other products. Today, however, there are so many different materials being used that a degree in
chemical engineering is helpful when reading the brochure for a new boat.
Some of the advances came from the efforts of the builders of offshore racing powerboats and
ocean racing sailboats to produce lighter, stronger, and therefore faster boats, but the real impact
came with the energy crisis. Since fiberglass is a petrochemical product, it made sense for boat
builders to investigate ways to make boats lighter without any loss of strength, because every
pound of fiberglass eliminated saved the builder money. For powerboat builders, a light but
strong boat is also more fuel efficient. Much of the research and development actually came from
the aircraft and aerospace industries, where strength and light weight have always been prime
concerns, and the trickle down of technology has become such a waterfall that many boat owners
are unaware of the changes taking place in both new materials and new molding techniques.

Types of fiberglass resin

There are three types of resins: polyester, vinylester and epoxy. Each has a place in the boat-
building world. The important factor is for the builder to correctly match the resin to the type of
reinforcing material being used so that the strengths are matched. For example, a vinylester resin
is ideal for S-glass but, when used with E-glass, the reinforcing material will fail before the resin.
Polyester: This is the resin most commonly used for boatbuilding today, and most boat owners
are familiar with it. It is inexpensive and generally all-purpose. It has low stretch (elongation)
properties so it is not used on modern high-performance boats, but it is perfectly adequate for
most boats. The most common polyester is an orthophthalic base, but newer isophthalic based
polyesters are gaining in popularity. The isophthalics are more resistant to water and chemicals,
are more abrasion resistant, and have higher impact and fatigue (flex) performance. Most modern
gel coat finishes are made with isophthalic resins. 
Vinylester: An alternate to polyester, vinylesters have better stretch characteristics than
polyesters, so they more closely match the strengths of the various exotic reinforcements.
Vinylester also has good water resistance and fatigue properties, but it is more expensive than

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polyester resin. One important feature of vinylester is that it has excellent secondary bonding
strength, so bulkheads or stringers added to a cured hull will have a better bond than on a
polyester hull. 

Epoxy: This is high-performance resin, with a matching price tag. Epoxy resins have had a
reputation for being hard to work since early epoxies were thick, but many modern epoxies are
quite liquid. Epoxy will adhere better than any other resin to a wide range of materials, which
makes it ideal for attaching cores, stringers, or other items

Types of fiberglass cloth

Woven fabrics using continuous strands are the most common cloths, with weights ranging from
four to 15 ounces per square yard. Heavier weights, usually called roving or woven roving,
consist of untwisted yarns of fiber in weights that range up to 48 ounces per yard. The finished
roving resembles a coarse burlap and, like all cloths, has good bi-directional strength. The lighter
cloth weights can be found in a variety of weave patterns, such as twill, satin and matt, for
different purposes.

E-Glass: This is the most commonly used fiberglass cloth in boatbuilding today. You can buy E-
glass at a marine supply store, and bond it with polyester resin. It is made from molten plastic
spun into fine fibers that are then either woven into cloth or loosely gathered into roving.
S-Glass: This is high performance fiberglass cloth from the aircraft industry. It is three to five
times more expensive than E-glass, but it is also much stronger. Developed by Owens-Corning,
it has 20 to 40 percent higher tensile, impact, and flexural strength than E-glass. There are two
types of S-glass: S-1, which meets critical aerospace standards and is blindingly expensive; and
S-2, which is used in the marine industry. In Europe, S-glass is called R-glass.
Mat: Mat is usually made of E-glass, and consists of random two- to three-inch fibers held in
place by a binder that is resin soluble. Mat is used primarily for building thickness and stiffness
into fiberglass layups. Mat resists "print-through," where the weave of roving shows in the outer
layer of the hull, but it also soaks up a tremendous amount of resin and is low in strength for its
weight.
Uni-Directional Fibers: This is one of the advances in reinforcing materials. It consists of
strands of fiber running in one direction only, held together by single fibers that are glued or

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sewn laterally, much the same way that a bamboo fence is held together by a few wires.
Obviously it has very high directional strength, so it can be used in areas where the loads are
specific. Because it is not woven, there are no kinks and it’s easier for workers to wet out with
resin since it doesn't hold air like a cloth fabric.
Bi-Axial Fibers: Technically most cloth is bi-axial, but the modern definition means a fabric
made from layers of unidirectional cloth that are not woven through each other. One layer simply
lays atop the next layer to produce a kink-free band of fiber.
Tri-Axial Fibers: This is a layered material similar to bi-axial cloth, except that the fibers are
oriented in three directions, often at 120 degrees to each other to spread the loads.

Advanced fiberglass construction materials

Carbon Fiber: These fibers of graphite provide superb stiffness as well as high tensile and
compression strengths and are often used in conjunction with S-glass or other exotics to provide
acceptable impact resistance, which is otherwise quite low. Carbon fiber is very expensive, but it
can outperform metal in many situations. Many companies produce carbon fiber worldwide and
the usages depend upon the carbon content of the fiber itself, with some being intended for high
strength applications and others being aimed for high modulus (stiffness) situations. It is the
most expensive type of fiber reinforcement available, costing as much per pound as 100 times
common E-glass. Second only to Kevlar in specific strength, carbon fibers are superior to any
other fiber in stiffness.
Kevlar: The trademarked name for a DuPont product, it is used to refer to aramid fibers of
which Du Pont is the sole producer worldwide. An aromatic polymid (usually shortened to
aramid), Kevlar is a form of nylon that was originally developed in the mid-1960s as "Fiber B"
to reinforce radial tire belting. Its unique properties soon were put into other uses, and the public
usually thinks of Kevlar in terms of bullet-proof jackets. There are, in fact, two forms of Kevlar
available. Kevlar 29 is used for lines, cables, and flak jackets, while Kevlar 49 is used as a
reinforcement fiber in plastic composites. On a strength to weight comparison, Kevlar has the
highest specific tensile strength of any commercial fiber. It is five times stronger than steel and
twice as strong as E-glass, which allows a Kevlar hull to maintain the same strength as an E-
glass hull at a fraction of the weight. Impact strength is also a Kevlar forte, and it is able to

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withstand repeated impacts as well as resist the tendency of other reinforcing fibers to allow
cracks to spread. The negative side to Kevlar is a marked weakness in compression strength, so it
is often used in conjunction with other fibers that balance that trait.
Nomex: A chemical developed by DuPont, Nomex is most famous for its fireproof qualities, and
it is used in fire-resistant suits for firemen and race car drivers. It is an aramid, which is turned
into a paper-like substance for use in honeycomb.
Hybrids: These are reinforcing fabrics that combine two or more different types of fiber. One
common hybrid is a mixture of Kevlar with carbon fiber. The Kevlar provides high impact
resistance, while the carbon fiber supplies the stiffness. Combinations of S-glass, Kevlar and
carbon fiber are also available to optimize certain properties at minimum cost.

Advanced core materials

Core materials are often used to reduce weight and increase stiffness. Some builders core the
entire boat; others construct with solid fiberglass from the waterline down and coring above, and
still others use some mix of coring and solid glass throughout the boat.

Balsa Core: When first used as a hull stiffener boat builders laid long planks of balsa into the
hulls, but this method led to rot and structural failure when water "wicked" through the entire
plank. It's taken balsa a long time to live down this beginning, but modern balsa is now a widely
accepted coring material in boats. The solution came from slicing through the grain, turning it on
edge, and producing a checkerboard pattern of end-grain pieces that do not transmit water. The
result is a stiff, light and inexpensive core with good impact quality and high compressive
strength. An added feature is the insulation quality of balsa against sound, thermal change, and
vibration. One negative factor is that balsa can absorb resin, making the hull heavier, but quality
workmanship can keep that from happening.
PVC Foams: Airex and Klegecell (pronounced kledge-a-cell) are the most popular
commercially produced foam cores that are used today. Both are closed cell foams made from
polyvinyl chloride, but each has different characteristics. Airex is a non-cross-linked PVC,
making it more flexible and resistant to damage. Klegecell is a cross-linked foam that is
extremely rigid. Foreign-built boats often use Divinycell, a Scandinavian version of Klegecell.
Honeycomb: Honeycomb is just what it sounds like: a waffle-like pattern of material to give the

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highest stiffness of any core of equal weight. The compression and shear strengths are second to
none, which might be expected from a material originally used in aircraft for flooring and
bulkheads. Nomex honeycomb is the most commonly found on yachts, although it is definitely a
high-ticket extravagance for owners in search of the last ounce of weight savings. Surprisingly
enough, some honeycombs are made of paper. A kraft paper is impregnated with resins and then
formed into a honeycomb, making it water resistant as well as sturdy, but the paper honeycomb
is heavier than Nomex. "Skinned panels" are ready-made sheets of honeycomb resembling a
piece of plywood, and are available with teak veneer or various other overlays that can be cut
into ready-made honeycomb bulkheads.

Advanced boat building techniques

Along with these new materials, methods of laying them up into what will eventually become a
boat have also advanced in recent years. Again, minimizing weight while maximizing strength is
virtually always the goal.
Vacuum Bagging: This process begins like an open molding layup, but the wet laminate is
enclosed in a plastic film and a vacuum is applied to draw out excess resin. Excess resin doesn’t
add strength – that’s what the fiberglass is for – but it does add weight. So the vacuum bagging
process reduces the boat’s eventual weight without sacrificing any strength.
Vacuum Infusion: The vacuum infusion process similarly incorporates plastic film and a
vacuum to attain an ideal resin-to-glass ratio. However, rather than beginning with a wet lay up
the vacuum, along with a set of resin feeding lines, introduces and draws the resin through the
cloth in the first place. This allows for a more precise measurement of the materials and the
ability to apply even pressure across a large area, so you can lay up larger parts.

This project is all about constructing an academic fishing boat with the mixture of epoxy and saw
dust as the initial materials. Unlike the fiberglass material where the body is plastic, this project
is mainly a hardened saw dust with epoxy as a fastener. The material is formed into pallets of the
shapes of the boat in construction, after which measurement will be taken for the final
construction to be made. The choice of this material is that epoxy is a good resistance to water,
as well as, the saw dust. This saw dust is dump since the means of transformation is not readily

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available. This project is making good use of the saw dust, not be a waste but rather beneficial to
the environment.

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT OF THE PROJECT

Boat building in Ghana and the world at large as become a very expensive task, since the
selection of material has been only timber, steel or glass fiber. The material for construction is
the major problem for the making of boats whether for fishing or recreational purpose. Therefore
the use of this new material (saw dust and epoxy) will go a long way to solving this problems.

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT

The main objectives of the projects are;

i. To construct a fishing boat using a mixture of saw dust and epoxy

ii. To design and construct a pallet for the construction of the fishing boat.

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT

The importance of this project is to make a good use of saw dust, as a good material for the
construction of boats and other products.

1.5 SOURCE OF DATA

Primary data for the project was through personal interview and the secondary data was
through textbooks, journals, articles and websites.

1.6 LIMITATION

 Lack of previous research studies on the topic which has allowed for further analysis,

 Limited financial resources and/or funding constraints.

1.7 DELIMITATION
This study is limited to the project objectives.