GRP hulls

[radly53]

I m looking to at a boat with a GRP hull its a Vindö 40, this one looks to be in good shape. my first question is what is GRP and what kind of problems should I be looking out for? My other question is what do you think of these boats. this one was built in the mid70s most of my sailing is dune with my wife on the coast of maine.
thanks stephen

[Gary M]

I am going to take a wild guess here and suggest "Glass Reinforced Plastic" some times just referred to as a fibreglass hull.

Sorry not familiar with that particular vessel.

gary

[Faster]

Gary's correct - GRP is another term for regular fiberglass.

The Vindos are reputedly quality vessels - but I'm thinking they may be glass hulls with wooden deck and coachroof??? If that's the case then the deck requires very careful inspection. At that vintage things may have begun to leak and/or rot.

I believe Ferenc Mate's book "The Worlds Best Sailboats" featured the Vindos as one of his picks.

[Johnrb]

GRP is an acronym for 'glass reinforced plastic' as Gary stated above. I've most often seen it used in British publications, I expect it has something to do with "Fibreglas" being a trademark. In North America, the material usually seems to be referred to as fibreglass

Regarding problems to look for, search through the various threads on Sailnet for topics like osmosis, delamination, coring, etc. There is a lot of good information here.

[sailingdog]

BTW, GRP, FRP, Fiberglass are generally all the same. Some people use composite to mean fiberglass as well...but many people think of composite as "higher-tech" than plain old fiberglass... usually carbon fiber or kevlar.