Modern epoxy has been a modern wonder to all the boating industry, wether it is a simple canoe or a supertanker modern epoxies are helping people build good strong craft and maintain them with a minimum amount of time ensuring maximum use.
Epoxies have developed to allow the average person to connect together almost any substrate and shape it into a good sea worthy craft. In conjunction with modern coatings the Epoxy base has allowed owners to simply do a quick clean up at the end of a year.
The best example is varnish , by using a modern epoxy to coat and seal the wood we now only have to apply one coat of a good varnish , the epoxy will ensure that no water will get to the wood, so no black staining and the varnish will not lift and all that is required is a quick rub down and a single coat of varnish to ensure the wood looks as good as any super yacht. No more scraping back to bare wood.
Using Epoxy as a sealing coat modern GRP hulls have been kept free from osmosis and the treatment of osmosis has been made simple and effective. The use of epoxy in GRP repairs has been a mammoth step forward no more waterproofing coats , small repairs and large ones can be made without molds and we know that the repair will in most cases be stronger than the original.
Older epoxy systems , these are normally identified as having hardener ratios of 7 to 1 5 to 1 and 3 to 1 are still about and although they work well on curring they still produce a waxing or blushing and this continues until the product is completely curred. If this blushing or wax is not completely removed then any coating or glueing to this layer will normally fail because the wax will come between the layers and the last coat will peel off. The wax must be removed
The great thing with the most modern epoxies normally a 2 to 1 resin hardener mix this waxing has been reduced. MAS low vis and flag resins are part of a highly complex chemical structure that has steped away from the old crud based epoxies to bring the industry a completely was blush free system so you know you will have success with all your final coats or additional glueing, which cuts down job failure , saves time and as a result saves money.
The top picture shows an epoxy that blushes and waxes, the second is MAS no blush no wax
MAS Low Vis and MAS FLAG Thick Resin both are designed so that there is little or no problem with sencertisation which comes with repeated use of the older type epoxies.
MAS epoxy can be used all over your boat above and below the water inside and out, allowing you to combine materials such as wood and GRP or grp /wood and steel your only limitations are now confined by your imagination. Don’t for get to look at fuel and portable water epoxy , these allow you to make bespoke tanks for your boat caravan or motor home.