Yacht Insulation: Thinsulate

[jimthom]

I'm building a yacht and considering using Thinsulate for thermal and acoustic insulation. It has a number of properties , including ease of installation that on paper makes it a good choice in the marine environment. Does anyone have any experience using this?
Cheers, Jim

[JohnRPollard]

No experience. But one question that comes to mind are its properties vis-a-vis inflammability? I have never heard of it being used in boats, so you should do your research carefully and find out why others aren't using.

Is this for a steel hull or fibreglass? If fibreglass, I think you'd be better off using some of the conventional core/insulation materials that can be encapsulated in an inner skin of fibreglass, which I would not think possible with Thinsulate.

[Faster]

We used a similar product ("Ensolite", IIRC) 20 years ago on a boat that was unfinished glass throughout the interior. We glued it on with a paste glue, the name of which I don't recall.

Being closed cell, it works very well. We also put some furring strips up to aid in attaching a liner (we stapled that perforated white vinyl, and sewed a section for the forward cabin and glued it up as well)

The vinyl lasted about 8 - 10 years, and the next owner then recovered the insulation with another material of his choice... the insulation itself has stood the test of time.

There's a lot of over-your-head awkward gluing involved, but it certainly stopped the condensation problem that we'd had prior to this upgrade.

Edit: just saw JohnR's post re: flammability - good point, we never had a problem but then we never had a fire.......

[sanjuanderer]

thinsulate for boats can be found at textile outfitters web site