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Originally Posted by irishman
hi im thinking of fiberglassing the inside of my 1980 zodiac bombard and then installing flotation foam and then making a new floor for my inflatable boat. im trying to convert my boat to a rib and look forward to any ideas and opinions. thankyou
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Firstly, welcome to RIBnet.
It sounds do-able. Finishing the edges of the fibreglass might be a bit tricky. After glassing the hull, you could insert the floor and fill the cavitity with skooshy foam.
The area at the transom might be a bit odd because the deadrise on the transom will be gull-winged. When the boat is on the water, the fabric will flex to a curve to match the gullwing shape but (I'm presuming it will be on dry land when you are doing this work.) the fabric will tension in a straight line. The full hull tension won't be achieved unless you do something with a dummy floor before you do the glassing because, as you'll know, the keel is loaded by the floor when the tubes are inflated.
I have heard of someone doing this to the outside of a Bombard hull. I was lead to believe it was successful but I have no personal knowledge of it and folk have the ability to convince themselves of all sorts of things.
I did cut the hull of a Bombard C5 and make a deeper keel and hull to improve the rough water performance. The first effort worked very well into waves but was just about uncontrollable in a following sea. Just taking 1" off the forward part of the keel and redoing that part of the hull sorted it. That forefoot area is critical for directional stability.
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Originally Posted by Stoo
However, the Bombards are not hypalon... isn't the tube Strongon or something? As a result, it probably will be difficult to glue a secure attachment point to the tube.
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Strongan is PVC fabric an can be glued with PVC adhesive. Is does adhere to fibreglass too.
Anyway, good luck with it and post your build if you go ahead.
Edit: You'll notice I managed not to comment about your name and this project....
