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proceeding through splintering, and ending in the disintegration of the material. At that point, the ends of myriad broken glass
fibers are pulled from the resin in which they were once embedded.
Fiberglass, like other tough materials, has a high work of fracture. It fails in three stages, starting with micro-cracking,
ecause each employee in a typical
boat building or repair operation
is in a position to "make or break" the
boats that go out the door (and, perhaps,
the business itself), it''s crucial
that everyone knows what he or she
is doing on the shop floor. Unfortunately,
basic fiberglass work still has
the reputation of being relatively easy
and non-critical—something almost
anyone can do after a week or two of
training.
Ten years ago, there was some
truth in this notion, because many
"quality" fiberglass boats of that era
were substantially overbuilt. At the
time, overbuilding was often regarded
Editor''s note: Terms that appear in
boldface type are defined in the accompanying
glossary.
as insurance to cover uncertainties
about actual service load, as well as
the possibility of deficient materials or
workmanship.
Today, though, most composite
materials have become too costly to
squander in a hit-or-miss fashion on
areas of a boat that may—or may not—
need extra reinforcement. In addition,
growing emphasis on performance
and, in some cases, fuel economy, is
putting a premium on lightweight construction.
Modern boatbuilders often
tread a fine line between turning out
boats that are structurally marginal
and boats that are "overweight" (at least
in the face of competitors'' sometimes
optimistic displacement claims). In this
situation, it''s important that everyone
on a boatbuilding team has at least a
basic understanding of how fiberglass
behaves as an engineering material.
Large objects made of glass (window
glass, not fiberglass) are notoriously
brittle. That''s partly because their
surfaces are covered with microscopic
scratches and flaws that tend to act
as "crack starters," and partly because
there''s nothing about the molecular
makeup of homogeneous glass to stop
a fracture from spreading like wildfire
once it gets going.
On the other hand, when such glass
is melted and drawn into slender
strands, the great majority of superficial
flaws are eliminated. A subsequent
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 1991 33
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