Was woking on an accessory for the Laker the other night and used a 120W floodlight to help see by and also to speed up the epoxy set. Turned off the main lights in the shed to go inside for a while and the seams were lit up like neons with the light passing through the filler. Had expected this to a certain degree as I had seen sunlight go through before when working on the interior. However, I also noticed some "seams" that I don't remember creating.
This is the bottom in the area where my feet go. The horizontal, very bright lines are seams, the vertical lines are voids. I have stood on this on dry land a few times when doing test fits for seat etc so I guess it is still fairly strong but the extent of the voids was startling to say the least.
This one is toward the rear, also on the bottom. Again, the vertical lines are voids.
Despite all this I still think my Laker is a strong boat, partly because it is like a box beam and as long as the voids don't line up all the way around there will be sufficient structural strength
. On the other hand these areas are probably more prone to puncture from rocks, snags etc.
I think it fair to say that this proves the point people make about marine ply being better than cheap stuff. Next time I go shopping for ply it will be at night and I'll be the one with the 10,000 candlepower spotlight!
Was going to call the Laker "Ply Floater" but now it may have to be "Darth Voider"
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