WEST construction - how good?

PaulR

PaulR

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we have had 6 yachts so far - all GRP - are interested in a WEST system (ie wood with west epoxy coating) custom design built by an apparently reputable yard to a well known designers design but have no experience of that construction or any pitfalls - boat is 20 years old - welcome any guidance on whether west boat of that age represents a greater risk in terms of maintenance issues etc than equivalent age GRP boats and whether ongoing maintenance more involved/expensive/burdensome?

any knowledgeable/informed feedback either in forum of via PM appreciated please.
 
First point to note is that WEST is not wood with a coating. It stands for Wood Epoxy Saturation Technique (or something very close to that). i.e. the epoxy should be more than a coating. As such, it should be extremely reliable and long-lived with rot very unlikely, provided the builders did the job right. To find out if that was the case you'll need to get references from owners of other boats from the builder.
 
PaulR said:
we have had 6 yachts so far - all GRP - are interested in a WEST system (ie wood with west epoxy coating) custom design built by an apparently reputable yard to a well known designers design but have no experience of that construction or any pitfalls - boat is 20 years old - welcome any guidance on whether west boat of that age represents a greater risk in terms of maintenance issues etc than equivalent age GRP boats and whether ongoing maintenance more involved/expensive/burdensome?

any knowledgeable/informed feedback either in forum of via PM appreciated please.
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Depends on the actual method of construction. There are many variations, with perhaps the most common strip plank , then sheathed with either glass cloth or wood veneers outside. Some are completely cold moulded and frames and bulkheads bonded in afterwards, others are built around laminated frames and possibly bulkheads.

The main ongoing issues are potential water penetration into the wood through things like deck fittings and abrasion of the external coating. There may also be structural issues in such areas as chain plates and keel bolts. Epoxy also degrades in UV so protective coatings are important.

Suggest you buy the Gougeon Brothers book so that you can familiarise yourself with the various techniques. The material published by Wessex Resins is also useful.

The most positive feature is that designers who understand the material have designed some superb boats that could not be built economically otherwise, and some builders have an enviable reputation for excellent construction. The downside can be that owners can indulge their fantasies so you often get quirky boats using the construction method!

Hope this helps
 
Be very careful, I know of large gaff cutter that was condemned by a surveyor at only 8 years old. The beam shelf, gas locker and other areas were rotten due to fresh water penetration. If the hull is damaged below the water line and not repaired immediately water will penetrate and the repair work can be very extensive. At 20 years old I would be particularly cautious.
 
jon said:
Be very careful, I know of large gaff cutter that was condemned by a surveyor at only 8 years old. The beam shelf, gas locker and other areas were rotten due to fresh water penetration. If the hull is damaged below the water line and not repaired immediately water will penetrate and the repair work can be very extensive. At 20 years old I would be particularly cautious.
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On the other hand if at 20 years of age you find no major problems the boat is likely to be ok.
 
In the eighties when many wooden boat people were increasingly appalled at ugly high volume contemporary designs and ever thinner GRP laminates it was consoling to think these boats would all fall apart soon and vindicate these views. That has not happened.
I am pleased to hear of a twenty year old wood/epoxy yacht still going strong but there are those who said that water would eventually win the battle of attrition and cause rampant rot or blow off the coating. Others thought this build method would revitalise the practically extinct wooden boat building industry: low maintenance wooden boats that did not leak; a challenge to the dominance of 'plastic' at last.
A key feature of the building technique is very dry timber to assist bond and penetration. If your surveyor can establish consistent moisture content throughout the structure at a suitable level then there is probably reason to think it may continue that way, provided there are no structural issues that might compromise this in the future.
 
Well I have to admit a certain bias here as I built my 34' Van De Stadt using this method. As far as structural integrity over the GRP mass produced method is concerned there is no issue - anywhere - assuming it has been built to spec., epoxy does not suffer from water absorbsion like certain GRP boats. The issue may be if it has been well built and that is something which may need investigation, but if it is from a reputable yard then I wouldn't worry.

In going back to the structural integrity issue, I am only going to comment on Van de Stad's designs, but the hull of my boat is made of western red cedar, which is as rot resistant than oak if not more so and a fraction of the weight. Water ingress is as damaging for foam or end grain balsa cored hulls as wood so this is a bit of a red herring; the chainplates are not attatched to the hull but to oak ribs bonded to the hull and the keelbolt area is 1 " brazilian mahogany with an extra six layers of 250g/m²glass each side plus the hull has two layers of 400g/m² unidirectional glass everywhere. The only place there is potential for water iingress is through the skin fittings and they were bored and lined with a layer of fibreglass mat, not to mention copious amounts of sikaflex. All this is normal so unless cowboys built it don't worry.

In fact epoxy has been around since WW2, so it's not new, it just got better!

Regarding surveyors, if the boat has been built properly it wont be possible to establish the moisture content of the core without cutting holes. If You asked me to cut holes in my hull I would give you the answer you would probably expect.
 
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