Tom, a few question for you regarding towing your boat, what do you tow it with, how many axles on your trailer, what wheel size, and what is your beam and have you ever had any problems with "the law" since you are over the legal 8' 6" or do you get permits everytime... im asking because I tow my express27 and never had any problems even though its above legal size but I plan in the future on towing something much widder..!thanks. eric ----- Original Message ----- From: tomdepot<mailto:[email protected]> To: UnifliteWorld<mailto:[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, October 22, 2009 1:57 PM Subject: [UnifliteWorld] Re: Uniflite 27 express
Oliver, Sorry, I should have been more detailed in my explanation. I have stress cracks EVERYWHERE topsides (mostly in corners and edges) and they never concerned me, as I figured they were exactly what you said they are. In this case, the thin fiberglass material broke in half presumably due to age and some impact at some point. Now that I am thinking about it, since I trailer my boat it does go 55-60 mph for hours at a time, and so that might have done it. I will have to take a picture of the area, but it is very thin fiberglass (like only 1/8" or so thick) whose sole purpose is to hold the plate glass windshields up and to provide a physical barrier for wind when underway. In other words, it's clearly not structural. The two windshields for the lower helm have about a 2-3 inch space between them, and this was the small piece of fiberglass that broke through. I was upset about it at first, but then I calmed down and figured that the boat was over 40 years old and the part that broke is easily fixable. Mostly I was concerned that it was an indication of things to come. For instance, if these boats get more brittle and lose strength with age, do I have to worry about people walking on the cabin roof, or for that matter the flybridge. The cabin roof has always had some give to it, yet I considered it to be structurally sound. Of course I wouldn't go jumping on it, but then again, you could turn your head and next thing you know all 8 of your guests are standing in the same area............. Thanks for your input. I think you are pretty close with the weight. I did have a guy tell me that, since these boats were hand laid, that he has seen the same model hulls vary as much as 1000# bewtween them just due to different guys laying them up. Of course that's what I heard, not what I personally experienced. Thanks, Tom in Florida 1968 31' express cruiser --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "UnifliteWorld" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/unifliteworld?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
