Richard, I have built polyester canoes and have played around with
carbon fibre - so have experience of both systems. It's not clear from
your mail whether your boat is constructed out of carbon and you need
to repair it, or if you just fancy repairing a glass fibre boat using
carbon.
The actual techniques are broadly the same but I would always
recommend repairing like with like. If your boat is made out of
chopped strand mat (CSM) and polyester resign, then use the same to
repair it.
There is a lot of miss-understanding concerning carbon and if used in
the wrong place, can actually result in a weaker repair. Because
carbon is so stiff, it can take all of the load in a structure,
meaning the weaker material (glass) takes less; the then overloaded
carbon simply fractures. Imagine bonding a piece of glass to a hose
pipe - then flexing it.
Nigel
Quoting Richard Iddon <riddon@sent.com>:
>
> Not quite a Europa question but I note that several contributors
> have made parts for the Europa with carbon Fibre. I need to make a
> repair to a part for a boat out of carbon fibre (sorry, not the
> plane). Is it the same as working with epoxy / glassfibre? Can I use
> the same resin or are there special considerations for working with
> carbon?
>
> Richard Iddon.
>
> G-RIXS
>
>
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