> Paul your idea of bandsaw ripping sounds like the best way to go Whenyou
> go into any boat building workshop here in New Zealand every one has more
> than one in use, saw benches are always in the back covered in dust. I
> read the report on damage to glass boats the other day and was interested
> to see that boats layed up by chopper gun were bad news in the States. The
> funny thing is here in New Zealand our boats have always been built with
> chopper guns and have held up well to the hard conditions down here. I
> have just finished restoring a jet boat that was built in the mid 1960's
> by chopper gun it showed no signs of any problems other than the abrasion
> strip on the keel was starting to split from the glass hull, reason is
> that the strip is made of the same stuff as grind stones mixed into the
> ressin which makes such a hard surface any impact damage can be transfered
> further through the hull.Now days this strip is replaced with a 1/2 steel
> plat along the keel (The boats often hit rocks at speeds over 45mph in
> rivers with less than 12" water not bad for a boat that has a weight
> of 850lb plus)

Chopper gun is NOT the issue here. It is the LACK OF FIBER IN FIBREGLASS BOAT. Those manufacturers use filler because it is cheaper and cure hard, so it is cheaper to make boats. Hard filler also gives the false sense of stiffness, but does not stand a chance of bashing. In other words, it is brittle.