Velocity

[rgsauger]

85 Nova, also check youtube under transom and there are some great videos for working on transoms and stringers. Take plenty of pics!

[rgsauger]

"Can't we all just get along?" Rodney King

LMAO!

[FUJIMO]

In 1985, at the Pompano Beach Velocity plant, where your 22 was built, the ONLY plywood that was ever used in the entire plant, was 1/2" A-C fir. This is the only ply thickness that was used on ALL the other size Velocity's that were built there as well. All the stringers, the floors, the transverse bulkheads, even the transoms, which were 3 pieces glued & screwed together. Steve Stepp was very weight conscience(and cheap), regarding the boats bill of materials. His reasoning also was that, every raw material was sold by the pound. The less weight purchased, the less the cost. Regular GP (general purpose) polyester resin is what all the boats were builts with, other than some of the race boats. The GP resins of the 80's were much superior to the GP resins of even the 90's product. The tensile strengths & other physical properties, deminished greatly in this time period. 1708 Biax, which was a new product that came out in approximately 1983-84, was used on most everything, on all the boat sizes lamination schedules. Also 18 oz. woven roving, but it was a minor player. The O/B 22 stringers were radiused at the top & covered with a single 1708 Biax. The I/O 22's had a second 1708 over the stringer in the engine compartment. After the precut 1/2" plywood floors were screwed down with 1 5/8" drywall screws(remember: cheap), a precut to pattern, 1708 Biax was layed on top. A white paper bucket of GP resin was poured down at the bow, and squeegeed back & forth with a nice soft white rubber squeegee, all the way to the transom. It worked excellent, with no excessive resin, or glossiness left behind. Anywhere you have gloss, or puddling resin, you have waste of material, and waste of strength. Hope this helps you understand how your 1985 boat was put together.

[rgsauger]

Wow! Awesome writeup and explanation!

[tunnels]

Wow! Awesome writeup and explanation!

Yip I completely agree , things were simple and simple usually is best at the end of the day !! Didn't have a great choice of materials that we have today , but could make almost anything with what we had !!

[85nova]

Are they cored with anything?

[FUJIMO]

Are they cored with anything?

Your Velocity was originally built with 3/8" end-grain contour Balsa. It had a scrim on one side to hold it together & allowed you to follow a curve, or contour. BalTek was the vendor/manufacturer. Doesn't mean it has to be replaced with the same though. In the year 2013, I push CoreCell as a coring material, for just about everything.

[85nova]

Yea I figured it was balsa, when I pulled the transom out a few chunks of wet balsa, no rotted balsa just a little damp six inches from the transom forward on the port side, transom was wet due to the splashwell drains and eyelets on the transom, I'm gonna make the splashwell even with top of transom toget rid of the drains, fujimo did you work for velocity? You seem very knowledgable about them, thank you for the reply

[tunnels]

I have followed these posts for long time and never seen anyone aske why only 3/8 thickness core is used in the bottom of these hulls !! anyone know why its so thin !! most common would be 1/2 inch or even 3/4 inch and would be my choice if anyone asked until I sat and really thought about it !!.would like to hear your thoughts on that subject !! .

[85nova]

Well as fugimo said, Steve stepp wanted to keep cost and weight down, that would be my guess. In taking my boat apart build quality wasn't the greatest, bottom of the cross stringers were not glassed where they notched them for draining so they rotted out

[FUJIMO]

I have followed these posts for long time and never seen anyone aske why only 3/8 thickness core is used in the bottom of these hulls !! anyone know why its so thin !! most common would be 1/2 inch or even 3/4 inch and would be my choice if anyone asked until I sat and really thought about it !!.would like to hear your thoughts on that subject !! .

Believe it or not, the coring is but a small part of the overall laminations durability. You would need to know the complete design of the entire support system & lamination schedule to determine if a 3/8" Balteck coring can withstand the duty cycles it was intended for. In this 1985 Velocity 22's example, it was tested thoroughly & more than passed, with flying colors. In 1984, 1985 & 1986...It won the A.P.B.A., U.S. National Championships, all three years. Many A Class(single engine) and B Class(twin engine) Velocity 22's were campaigned back then. The pleasure boat 22's lamination schedule was the same as the race version, including the use of GP (general purpose) resin. This, without a doubt, should answer your concern regarding 3/8" thick coring on those boats.

[FUJIMO]

Well as fugimo said, Steve stepp wanted to keep cost and weight down, that would be my guess. In taking my boat apart build quality wasn't the greatest, bottom of the cross stringers were not glassed where they notched them for draining so they rotted out

For a brand-new, 1985 performance offshore powerboat, with a one year warranty...It didn't do too bad, did it? It lasted 28 years! Yeah..."The build quality wasn't the greatest". You guys crack me up.

[V pads]

I'm currently replacing the transom in my 2000 velocity 22. I'll get some pics when I can figure out the posting thing. The core in this boat is 3/4"" balsa and the stringers are 3/4" marine ply. I have all of the transom wood out and still trying to figure out what to put back in. It's a lot of material and the $$$ adds up quickly with composites. Good luck with your build, looking forward to some pics as you progress. I plan on deleting the splashwell to update the look a bit.

[tunnels]

Believe it or not, the coring is but a small part of the overall laminations durability. You would need to know the complete design of the entire support system & lamination schedule to determine if a 3/8" Balteck coring can withstand the duty cycles it was intended for. In this 1985 Velocity 22's example, it was tested thoroughly & more than passed, with flying colors. In 1984, 1985 & 1986...It won the A.P.B.A., U.S. National Championships, all three years. Many A Class(single engine) and B Class(twin engine) Velocity 22's were campaigned back then. The pleasure boat 22's lamination schedule was the same as the race version, including the use of GP (general purpose) resin. This, without a doubt, should answer your concern regarding 3/8" thick coring on those boats.

Thanks for the long story about the boats and passing with flying colours but completely missed the point of my question !! why did they use a 3/8 thick core ??, why not use a 1/2 core or even a 3/4 core ?? what was there reasoning to pick that particular thickness !! and the price of materials should have nothing to do with the answer !.

[85nova]

My guess is weight, I will say, even with rotted out stringers and transom my boat held together pretty good and I beat the snot out of it, only reason I started the project was because I wanted to rip the carpet out and gelcoat the floor, and the floor was a little distorted so I ripped it out and stringers were mush