I was wondering what kind of materials it takes in gelcoat, release agent, resin, glass, stringer, bulkhead materials, etcto lay up a 21 ft donzi or superboat hull?

on the cheapest of scales using polyester and Chinese glass your at roughly $2.00 a pound give or take. Thats "at cost" for materials and at the cheapest end of the scale. When you get into cored skins and better materials (which are very much worth it) the cost rises exponentially pending products used. My cost on a drum of a non-spec polyester is around six hundred thats ok for making molds and stuff but the VE i use for all customers stuff is roughly $1800 a drum at the manufactures pricing i get.



to build a nice 21 sport boat i would probably have thirty five hundred to five thousand in mid range materials by the time the dust settled, thats just a guess on my end though without sitting and crunching numbers

Thx bro... preciate it... now who has a 21 foot mold they wanna lend me...

Dave i ran bodyshops for years in md and fl, and could not believe how inexpensive paint and materials are down here including ppg and dupont,, but when u dont have to pay insane workmans comp numbers, insane amounts for garagekeeper liability insurance you can sell product really cheap and still hold a decent profit margin...

Btw the courts here dont coddle idiots... an gringa (american woman) down here gets hit by a bus while walking. Tried to sue the bus company. At the hearing the judge said look lady you walked in front of a bus what did you think was gonna happen... gavel comes down dismissed

EPA and associated costs drive high prices as well. I bought a candy apple red a couple weeks ago for a graphics job i am doing and it was six hundred dollars a QT (cool sh!t though )

materials cost are pretty nuts but quality is much better with higher end stuff and in the long run is worth it. Funny thing is theres really no cost savings using cheap stuff (something i learned years ago) With cheap base coats you use probably fifty percent more product for the same coverage but end up with job that requires far more effort for a good result.

Thats the thing tho, this isnt the cheap dupont stuff, its the premium line just less than half of what you pay in the states bro , i was shocked how inexpensive it is, body filler everything is much less costly here, will find out what i can get a 55 of VE for down here

Dave is the need for VE primarily in a foam cored hull? Mighty pricey stuff , real close to what epoxy cost.

If not for coring adhesion what is the advantage of the VE?

Normal polyester fine with a balsa core hull?

Back in 1980 we used to have 6000 into materials in our 19 footer with a 2 tone gelcoat with a high quality tuck and roll cockpit interior and hatch pad with a 260 Merc package.

Boat weighed 2600 dry and was indestructible

Big savings was putting cheap Attwood pot metal vents and cleats . Same with the aluminum rub rail. Windshield. I think were 300

I've found just doing restores that you spend more on stainless screws and fasteners then anything else. Cheap can save you thousands.

VE is superior on all levels. A good ve is closer in physicals to epoxy (which is essentially what ve is anyway) then poly. Elongation is where it gets its strength and ability to bond and carry a load. When you flex a polyester laminate and hear all that cracking that is the resin failing in elongation. PE is still fine for a lot of stuff, it works good with balsa core. It just drops off when you start demanding a higher level of performance, lacks durability.