My circus you saw running in N.C. is 17 years old and still winning races. Doesn't look too bad for all the time it has seen. I just drop a bit of cyanacrolte in any old age wrinkles. Wood sounds better on the water!
Ah but Mr. Finch you are not telling the entire story. That Circus hull sat hanging on your wall for over 8 years & you used 1/2 bottle of CA to seal up all the seams where those"old age wrinkles" showed up. :lol: Even before that you raced it sorta sporadically and the guy you got it from raced it I believe once or twice. She does still haul butt though, but then again like a fellow racer said years back you could make a 2x4 go 100mph.
Let's not forget the hull you kicked everyone's butt with two years in a row at the '97 & '98 Internats was ....... fiberglass.
The common theme here is a properly built wood boat. Yes it can be done without a doubt but so far all who have spoken up are experienced, seasoned veterans with extensive building experience. Over the years I've seen more poorly built wood scales than good ones and I would generally steer a first time scale builder away from wood unless they are well versed in building with wood or have someone who can look over their shoulder giving sound advice & guidance all along the way. Wood does have certain distinct advantages- first unless you are paying someone to build it wood is typically cheaper. Also wood tends to give you crisp clean edges on areas like ride pads whereas fiberglass won't be as sharp. And, depending on the way it's built, wood can sometimes be easier to repair in minor crashes. Now some of the down sides are that a wood hull must be built on a jig. That jig must be solidly constructed & perfectly straight & square to insure the hull itself comes out straight & true. Sealing the wood, even the best sealed wood hull can become oil and/or water logged. The forces acting upon these hulls create a constant twisting action that can sometimes open seams even on the best built wood boats. Unless you are able to catch it if it happens & seal it back up right away oil & water can work it's way into the woodgrain that is **** near irreversible, the wood acts like a wick & the oils or moisture can travel even under that epoxy sealed top surface. This can cause swelling & splitting of wood sheeting and/or joints sometimes in places you can't even get to without a major teardown. BTW- I've seen wood scales gain excessive weight from builders becoming obsessed with sealing the boat so it's a fine line between sealing it well & keeping the weight down, something crucial on a scale hull that is already underpowered for it's size due to engine restrictions. And lastly wood changes shape as it ages, it tends to shrink a little as it dries out which can also cause seams to open up or in some cases the hull to twist.
Now on to fiberglass, seems like a better choice right? Well that all depends.......
A fiberglass hull in most cases will get you on the water faster. Since the hull is already built, once you have all the mechanicals completed it's just a matter of prepping for paint however that in itself can be an exasperating chore on a poorly laid up hull if numerous corrections need to be made or if it's full of pinholes and air bubbles. I have seem some really bad examples of this but also some that were ready for primer after an evening or two of prep work. Fiberglass, once cured, tends to hold it's shape well & doesn't care how much oil or water it gets exposed to. Fiberglass also is more forgiving during the prep stages if one gets a little "heavy handed" when sanding primer as if you hit the 'glass all you need is more primer, wood typically will need to be resealed. Some of the down sides to a 'glass hull is they can be more difficult to repair in a bad crash depending on how it was built & where the crash damage is. The problem here is after a bad crash that requires alot of repair work two things can happen. First the hull can gain weight rather quickly. Often a solid fiberglass repair that will be strong enough to hold up requires numerous overlapped layers of cloth between the broken parts. This added cloth & resin means added weight whereas with wood often a small strip of wood under or over seam or section repair is all that is needed. As an example take 2 strips of wood & CA them together in an overlapping joint then hold each end & break it, the wood will break on either end of the glue joint. Second if the repair is not done carefully, slowly & methodically it is very possible to cause the hull to change shape when the resin cures and shrinks. This is more critical in a poly resin build up as opposed to epoxy but needs to be considered regardless.
So what's the bottom line .......
Personally unless the first time scale guy is well versed in wood construction I would typically try to steer them towards a 'glass hull built by a reputable scale builder. They will generally be on the water much faster with greater odds of the boat being successful from the get go. Even so for an experienced builder who may not have the time, sure the out of pocket expense is more ..... or is it? That all depends on how much you think you own time is worth. Do the math at say a rather modest $25 hour for your build time & it's easy to see what I mean. Now in all fairness if you wind up with a 'glass hull that needs a bunch of corrections to make it right that can change the time factor considerably ...... been there, done that ...... too many times.
