Cascover Sheath

[Fire99]

Hi All..
Thanks to everyone who responded about my Norman 18. One other issue i was wondering if people could help with is that i am looking at moving up on the size department and am considering diesel motor cruisers between 23 and 32 feet.
i.e Princess 25's 32's Shetland Black Prince's Senior's Cleopatra's etc. I had decided on GRP as I have been advised against a wooden boat but I did notice a Cleopatra 30 with a Marine Ply Hull and GRP superstructure but the Hull had been Cascover Sheathed from new.. Could anyone tell me what a Cascover Sheath is and also for a normal chap like me who has a full time job etc., would a boat like this be suitable without needing masses of maintenance..
Any reply's would be greatly appreciated..
thanks
Nick

 

[Guest]

Scuse me if wrong, but I believe that it was an epoxy or plastic layer applied over the wood. Fine if done properly, but a bugger if water got through it. There was an article in one of the mags a year or two back about a guy rebuilding one. Needed stripping off to bare wood, and when the hull dried out, the boat weighed something like 1.5 tons less. Caveat Emptor.

 

[longjohnsilver]

Agree with you Graham, I think it is more normal for bits above the waterline to be treated in this way. I would be very concerned about a hull which was cascover sheathed, very susceptible to slightest damage and then a major problem!

 

[byron]

I think but I am not sure that Cascover was abandoned in the late 1960s as it had a tendency to trap water between the hull and the sheathing eventually rotting the ply.

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[Jcorstorphine]

Cascover was actually a fine nylon cloth which was epoxied to new boats. I had an Arden 4 sloop which was strip planked in mahogany and Cascover sheathed before launching. The boat was built in 1965 and I owned it from 69 to 71. At that time the sheathing was perfect and gave no indication of problems. I have seen the little yacht recently and sad to say the hull was not in the best condition. Part of the problem was that the sheathing had been damaged and allowed water to ingress between the sheathing and the wood, result a soggy boat.

As one of the previous postings stated there was a "PBO" who removed the sheating and then dried out the hull.

Think you should talk to a surveyor with experience of measuring water content of this type of construction as ther may be problems with water content.

John C.

 

[Guest]

Longtime since I wore a sheath!!!!.

 

[ccscott49]

My boat was cascover sheathed from new, she is now 30 years old and the hull is as sound as the day she was built. Cascover (Nylon scrim impregnated with cascamite) is an excellent anti borer worm treatment, the problem is, it was used on boats of mediocre construction with inferior materials, (not correct marine ply) to give them better waterproofing, which it was not designed to do. It was also used to shore up very suspect hulls later. Mine is laid on iroko splined planking. If the stuff was applied correctly it should be OK, Saying that I would avoid any plywood boat which is sheathed, with anything!

 

[byron]

I once went to a fancy dress party with one on my nose, you got to guess what I went as because I didn't know ;-)

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