Re: Gizmo delamination from the hull?

Bernard Johnson (slithytove@earthlink.net)
Tue, 01 Jun 1999 05:57:50 -0700


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West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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Bill Combs wrote:

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> Bet thine buttocks, 'tho I wouldn't limit the trauma to that which is
> trailer induced. Large, flat FRP sections are prone to "oilcanning" --
> which leads directly to failure -- under the stress of sailing as
> well.

Bill, We had an engineer devoted entirely to fiberglass research for
aerospace applications. I car pooled with him for a while, and one of the
conversations touched upon fatigue life of various materials. According to
him both wood and fiberglass have no "memory", hence infinite fatigue life. I
believe we had got around to discussing the flexing of the wings on high
performance sailplanes. I think that oilcanning is more of a nuisance than a
factor leading to failure in this case. However, I think I would slap some
extra glass on these tubes, it certainly can't harm, and most likely will be
beneficial.

Bernie Johnson.