carbon fiber for transom ?

[george90]

i was thinking of using carbon fiber when i do my transom will this be better and will it stick to the fiberglass hull

[Caymanboy]

Seems like a waste of $$$$.

[shine]

i was thinking of using carbon fiber when i do my transom will this be better and will it stick to the fiberglass hull

no benefit, much more expensive. Mixing glass and CF only works if you really know what your doing, they have different properties.

CF developts most of its strength with out stretching much at all, say .5% or less. Glass doe snot reach its ultimate breaking strength until it stretches at least 3%-5% (I dont have the figure in front of me, so this is just for illustration purposes). So if you did some of your transom with CF, then it would have to be stiff enough to cover all the stresses.

the analogy of the chain and rope describes it well. If you have a chain with a breaking strength of 100 pounds and a rope with a breaking strength of 100 pounds, how much can you lift? answer 100 pounds, because they develop strength with different amounts of stretch. say you put on 120 pounds on the chain and rope combo (carbon fiber + fiberglass) Chain holds 100% of load (almost 100% anyway) initially with no stretch , then it breaks and then the rope stretches to it's max, then it breaks. You would have been much better off with two smaller/cheaper 60 capacity ropes

hope that helps. If the desire it to save some weight, you can use foam cores and better resins/fibers (epoxy/vinylester and biaxial glass)