As I mentioned yesterday I spent the day at the Maine Boat builders show. It is always good to see old friends and hopefully to make some new ones. Surprisingly the show has been very busy this year so far with some new exhibitors one of which was showing a product called multi panel . This is a light weight closed cell foam panel which can be used for all manner of boat building and improvement projects. It comes in a variety of thicknesses from 8 to 30 mm thick, is light in weight and bonds well to polyester and epoxy resins. Foams have been used in boat building and repair for years but this foam which is very structurally rigid could be used for all sorts of projects. As I was admiring the products on display I was thinking of all the ways in which this foam might be employed.
Although this is an Australian product it is sold distributed in the USA by ThermoBoat ltd who frankly do not have a great website but what they do have is a link to a you tube video showing some of the things that can be achieved with the panels and how easy it is to work. Easily machinable with woodworking tools the panels can also easily be formed to conform to fairly complex shapes by heating with a hot air gun. I hope to get hold of some samples to have a play and find out for myself just what is possible in the very near future. By the way in case you were wondering I grabbed this photo above from their web site and it shows the aft end of a pilot house roof made from some of the panels.
The foam has a fairly high R value, the 30 mm panels are rated at 6.3 so bulkheads made from these panels would not only be light in weight they would also offer good heat and sound insulation properties.
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