I was planning on adding a shelf in my locker and was speaking to guy that said that if I epoxy timber strips to the side of the hull I create a strong point and if I have an impact it might be an issue as it reduces flex..

my plan was to do this (sorry about the diagram on its side). add the strips and then put a shelf in to store my batteries. the bottom picture is the actual locker.

Bubble,

Personally I'd only put in a timber strip on the bulkhead sides and the inner wall.
Keep away from the outer hull.
Then make sure the ply base is strong enough to carry any weight across the locker.
May have to add a couple of reinforcing strips to the bottom of the ply.
Have a system of fixing the ply in place.

Need a drawing?

Id make 50 mm square blocks at what ever height is needed to flatten it out with the curvature of the hull and epoxy those on the hull sides and fix you self floor panel to those

i dont think it would make any diferance that would matter to the hull integrity just a small strip with no real brace i would just go for it

Thanks for the replys. I'll have a bit more of a think and work out exactly how I'm going to do it

The only thing a 50mm strip epoxied to the side of the hull will do is add a tiny amount of strength to the hull. When you fix the shelf it will add even more strength and as tiny as those amounts are it can only be a good thing imo

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andy59 said..
The only thing a 50mm strip epoxied to the side of the hull will do is add a tiny amount of strength to the hull. When you fix the shelf it will add even more strength and as tiny as those amounts are it can only be a good thing imo

my thinking exactly which makes me wonder why the helpful guy said that its not a good idea to add the epoxied timber strips. he said I would need to add a foam strip against the side of the hull to cushion it. he recommended that I do this or make the decision to not lay the shelf butted up against the hull and have a gap.

the guys was not some idiot either, he owns the marina and has been working with boats for countless years. he wasn't trying to sell me anything by telling me this, infact he did the opposite and it stoped me buying the epoxy from him as I left to rethink my decision on how to design the shelf.

I can only think that an impact in that section would stop the hull flexing to absorb the impact and so the hull would be breached?

The only time Ive ever heard of foam being used is when you epoxy a bulk head vertically inside the hull like the one I did but you can raise the ply off the hull no more than 10 mm and glass it to the hull . All the foam does is keep the bulk head away from the hull while the epoxy is drying once the epoxy has cured the foam is insignificant . In my case as I said I cut and trimmed the ply wood bulk head till it had no more than 10 mm clearance when it was in position. gave it a coat of thinned epoxy the day before which I was told helps the bonding between the hull and the bulk head.
My head ( toilet) floor to mount the head on was 300 mm square roughly. I just epoxied it to the hull. Have seen many photos of people doing the same.
Walkers are heavily laid up hulls
So to me you if your worried about it make the battery floor smaller and give it clearance and fiber glass the battery floor board between the hull and ply with woven matt.
What sort of batteries are you going to put there Bubbles wet cell or gel type?

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HG02 said..
The only time Ive ever heard of foam being used is when you epoxy a bulk head vertically inside the hull like the one I did but you can raise the ply off the hull no more than 10 mm and glass it to the hull . All the foam does is keep the bulk head away from the hull while the epoxy is drying once the epoxy has cured the foam is insignificant . In my case as I said I cut and trimmed the ply wood bulk head till it had no more than 10 mm clearance when it was in position. gave it a coat of thinned epoxy the day before which I was told helps the bonding between the hull and the bulk head.
My head ( toilet) floor to mount the head on was 300 mm square roughly. I just epoxied it to the hull. Have seen many photos of people doing the same.
Walkers are heavily laid up hulls
So to me you if your worried about it make the battery floor smaller and give it clearance and fiber glass the battery floor board between the hull and ply with woven matt.
What sort of batteries are you going to put there Bubbles wet cell or gel type?

don't know what battery yet.

theres a guy that sells reconditioned batteries for a bit cheaper on gumtree.. they had a few gel 100amps for $120 each that seem to have come from a Telstra exchange or something. want to get about 400amps in total.

Ive heard good things about those X telstra batteries . My thoughts to Bubble 400 Amps should be more then enough.

I went through the whole process on batteries a couple of weeks ago.
Decided against gels because they tell me they are easier to damage during charging.
Eventually brought new 100 ah discover energy AGMs for $275 each.
My thoughts on the ex telstra batteries are that even though they may still work telstra is selling them because they are past the point where they can be relied on to provide emergency power.
You would have to think they are more likely to let you down just when you need them the most than good quality new ones.
Also you will spend $480 to get 400ah but do these batteries actually have 400ah capacity after being in use for however long they have been.
If you spend $550 on 2 new batteries you might possibly get similar performance in an AGM with at least 2 years extra life
I figure 300 ah is plenty for my needs and I could get by with 200ah
Just my 2 cents worth

Thanks Andy
Once I get my fridge in I'll know more
The house batteries I just put in are throw outs

But it will give me some idea of what I'll be needing when she becomes a live aboard

Meant to add some people use s hot glue gun and spot what ever u are epoxying to keep the item in position while epoxying it in place

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HG02 said..
Meant to add some people use s hot glue gun and spot what ever u are epoxying to keep the item in position while epoxying it in place

that would have been an awesome idea.

I used epoxy glue and it held itself in place with a few wood braces but the glue gun would have been better.