Scott Dufour wrote:"Why not just cut it off and glass?" he asked.  

My head spins.  Is this structurally doable?  The interior is open, mostly, except in the few places I've already glassed in bulkheads to the hull and deck, making it stronger than originally designed anyway.  He'd glass the interior of the joint, cut off the flange on the exterior, and glass that, too.  

On cold intellect, it makes sense that it will all be just as strong as originally designed, but...  it just seems crazy.  

I sure would like that flange gone, though.

Factory boats are about speed and training (as little training for the fastest result). The flange mean two pieces can be made in a mold where the guys who do nothing but lay glass in a mold... then the two pieces are joined by the guy that knows nothing but screws and nuts. The flange is a fast way to join the two halves but is prone to leak and the screws mean there are small points where the strain is concentrated. So rather than being "just as strong as originally designed" the fiber glassed over join would likely be both stronger and less likely to leak. This assumes the glassing is done correctly with old surfaces being ground off and roughened, all dust cleaned off and any gaps filled with filler. I guess I should add that by making the halves in molds the outside is prefinished and needs no painting after. If the halves were to be joined with FG, the area would need to be ground down, faired and painted. The painting especially would require a whole new room and trained people to do that.

Because you are joining fiber glass to fiber glass, normal resin should be just fine. If there are any other materials involved, (wood for example) it may be better to use epoxy resin instead. However, epoxy tends to be a little more pricey and once you start using epoxy putting normal resin on top can melt the epoxy.

My understanding, is that many people at least in the DIY world just use epoxy for all repairs because they know it will work with whatever they are repairing.

I've been quiet on the forums lately because, well... life.

But I recently had a conversation with the boat renovator who will be finishing out the  interior of Moon River for me.  He drove all the way down from Maine on his own dime to scope out the size of the project.  I've seen much of his work online, and it's great quality.

Toward the end of the tour, I mentioned that there's just one thing that I really don't like about the boat - the outward flanged hull to deck joint.  It requires a really ugly rubber bumper which traps all sorts of grossness, and the joint itself is subject to dock rash.  

"Why not just cut it off and glass?" he asked.  

My head spins.  Is this structurally doable?  The interior is open, mostly, except in the few places I've already glassed in bulkheads to the hull and deck, making it stronger than originally designed anyway.  He'd glass the interior of the joint, cut off the flange on the exterior, and glass that, too.  

On cold intellect, it makes sense that it will all be just as strong as originally designed, but...  it just seems crazy.  

I sure would like that flange gone, though.