Donzi and Vinylester Resin

[harbormaster]

Donzi uses Vinylesther resin to built their boats.

Does anyone know how long they have been using this?

[oldLenny]

Scot, NO,...but this is the "cream of crop". Nothing better. I could quote some recent industry mags as to the resilience of this "ester" to osmosis and such but basically it is THE BEST.... It will adhere to any of the other polyesters, general purpose, Isophthalic, Orthophthalic, etc. Most manufacturers use it for the skin out against the gel-coat and then go for an Iso resin for the rest of the lay-up.....Ones who really care use it throughout. It has some "tendancies" to deny you the ability to "read" the colour of the resin and its' proximatey to "kicking". It is best used in a closed cell manufacuring situation (RTM) or "controlled environment" where temperatures and humidity are closely monitored. It does not give off "clues" to the novice user to the coming chemical demise. It is THE UTMOST resin barrier to a marine environment. It has not been widely used in the last 10 years due to its "finicky-ness" but new chemical attributes have made it workable and therefor it is finding its way into more products..I have not tried it other than in the form of VE Fairing Compound...It works great in that product. All resins are generally easy to work with, given your consciousness of times and temperatures...These two variables can NOT be $%$ucked with... :D

The "give away" of a vinylester boat is the lay-up is pink inside...

[MOP]

I am way behind the times with the newer products but did want to add one thing. Here on Long Island one thing that I ran into was humidity problems smoking out resins which I felt would hurt the bonding. What the shop I worked in did was to put up a plastic framed structure and running a dehumidifier to keep things dry. Lenny should be able to tell us if it is as critical with the newer resins.

[harbormaster]

According to a party at Donzi,

They have been using this since 2000.

I will post the reply when i Get home.

[oldLenny]

Scot, I have an article, (a couple months old), about the blister resistence of different laminates as tested over 15 years underwater...

It is about a 10 page long winded scientific read, but the long and short of it is that after 15 years underwater (heated water and saline) the orthphthalic resin sample was covered in blisters, the Isophthalic resin sample a few, and the vinylester had none...

The samples they used were identicaly layed up squares, edges treated and sealed and all three underwater in the same "pond" together. I will post it if you want but it is quite long.