In reply to "Gunwales", posted by Brunsie on May 16, 2001:
>Your plans call for bolting he gunwales in place. Is ther a reason you don't epoxy/glue them as well?
Yes, good point. The plans say to bolt them in place,
because that's the easiest way to do it and the traditional
way too. And I've tried to keep the plans easy, concise
and readable.
But yes, you can glue the gunwales in place. If you glue
the gunwales in place, and THEN wrap a layer of fiberglass
tape over top (of the gunwales) you get a stronger
gunwale. As Danny points out (next post) replacing a
oken gunwale (that has been glued in place) would be
harder than a bolted gunwale. But I built my first
driftboat in 1979. I was never a production builder, but
I have personally built about 35 - 40 driftboats, over
the years....of various designs. And I have never seen
a
oken gunwale yet. I've seen punctured bottoms,
oken seats, fractured sides (from hitting logjams
sideways in high water).....but never yet a
oken gunwale.