Boats have always had a principle of building, that the material used should be light as well as durable at the same time. In this regard fiberglass has become one of the most widely used aside from aluminum. There is no doubt that aluminum boats are in high demand nowadays but fiberglass boats are also not to be left behind. With the growing interest of many people in fishing and rowing, most want to have a boat for their own personal use.
Many are available in the market but building your own boat is a completely different experience altogether. However, in spite of the huge popularity of fiberglass boats, there are certain advantages as well as disadvantages that you should keep in mind while doing the fiberglass boat building.
First, we will discuss the advantages of fiberglass boat building. The very primary advantage is that maintenance is drastically reduced. You do not have to constantly ensure that it is not being eaten away, like a wooden boat, or getting dents on its sides which may imbalance center of buoyancy, like in an aluminum boat. For fiberglass boat building your hull will be a single, continuous one without any assemblage.
Moreover, your boat is going to be extremely proof from any sort of rotting as in a wooden boat. Further, no plank shrinkage will occur, it is plastic and will not be affected by the moisture in the climate. One more important point is that fiberglass being inert will not lead to electrolysis or corrosion when in water. This is a very common case with the aluminum boats.
The best part of the aluminum boat building is that the construction is exceedingly simple. You will just have to make a mold and then one after the other, identical hulls can be produced. Also, it will help save your time. Remember how much time it too you to learn a wooden boat building? A fiberglass boat building takes a quarter of the same because no skill is required, you just have to get a basic training and make the mold. The rest of the perfection and beauty will come of its own.
But, there are certain disadvantages of fiberglass boat building. These are: you cannot make this boat out of any fiberglass whatsoever; you need to import them at all times. This can be a hefty job, every time you want to make a boat, you will need to import. You will have to predetermine which style of boat you are going to make, there is no choice of change once you have fixed your design and molds.
However, this is something that requires a group of technicians and you will also have to retain them no matter what. Lastly, if you are boating nearby a factory waste dumping water body, the boat will stand chances of chemical; damage and cause you heartache over the huge investment that you had made on this boat.
Finally you must remember that decent boat design software helps you to build the boat of your dreams.
Probably the best idea is to get some sort of 3D boat design software that is affordable, easy and flexible to use and is suitable for anyone from the hobbyist model boat builder to professional mass ship producers.
