question about fiberglass

[DougAU]

Hope I have this in the right place.

This is my first post but I have been reading on here for quite a while. I owe a big thank you to everybody on this forum and Ted Moore for Canoecraft for all the information and the confidence that allowed me and my son to build the two boats that reside in our basement(hopefully not for long)

A year ago my 8 year old son and I decided we'd like to build a canoe. Well as a woodworker I've always figured that you can build two of something almost as quickly as one so we decided to build two! After taking a little time to decide on the canoe that we thought would fit our needs and was aesthetically pleasing we decided on the Hiawatha. Figured that we could build two and sell one, we'd recoup some of our money and have a canoe for cheap.
I was able to buy 6 2"X4"X16' clear western red cedar boards for $300 and with a pretty good bandsaw in our shop I cut all the strips for the two canoes. I got 22 strips from each 2X4. The only waste was the sawdust, the bandsaw cut so nice I didnt need to plane any of the wood.

We have one canoe completed(stripped and faired in) with the other not far behind. I used a stapleless method, sort-of a hybrid method of bungee cords and hot glue to build the canoes.
I'm now planning to do the epoxy/fiberglassing and I'm having trouble finding fiberglass that fits our needs.
I can get 60" wide by 10 or 20 yards of fiberglass from the Gougeon Bros. for about $180 and $305 respectivly but neither really seams to fit our needs. The Hiawatha is right at 15' long so the 30' or 60' doesnt allow for any over laping at the stems, unless of course I dont care about waste!
I contacted Jamestown distributors today and they have 50' wide by all kinds of lengths for considerably less $$ but of course the drawback to that is 50" is just not quite wide enough for the Hiawatha canoe, I think I would actually need 54" at the widest part to cover the canoe in one piece.
My question, which seams to have taken a while to get to, is - can I fiberglass the canoe with the 50" wide fiberglass and then take an off-fall piece and fill in the area(the few inches on either side that the 50" blanket wont cover) with it and still maintain the strength necessary for a canoe? I work with a guy that builds remote control airplanes and he says that he two-pieces some of his work and still maintains the structural integrity of the plane but he's not sure that that translates to the same structural integrity that I would be faced with on a canoe.

I appreciate any feed back regarding my problem.

Again thank you all for the info that I have taken from this forum.

Doug

[Tim Eastman]

I ordered from Newfound Woodworks and Michael is a great guy to work with. You can order by the yard exactly what you need.

We went with 60" on our son's solo and used the cut off for the bias applications over the stems. With the size of a Hiawatha you might need 60" but other minds will have to weigh in on that.

In fact we ordered an extra yard or so just so we could cut some biased for the ends.

[DougAU]

Tim
Thanks, that was what I was looking for, a place that I could order what I need as opposed to their preset sizes.

Thanks

[Juneaudave]

I've also used Raka plain weave...you can get 6 oz 60 inch or 72 inch by the yard and it comes rolled....Dave

[Gary]

I have had good service from US composites.
http://www.uscomposites.com/products.html

[jimmar57]

I have had good service from US composites.
http://www.uscomposites.com/products.html

ditto. When I read the question I was thinking about posting the exact same thing.

[mbolton]

another vote for US Composites. Great prices great service! Thayercraft also has incredibly great prices if you can find what you need
http://thayercraft.com/

[DougAU]

Thanks everybody, after looking at the sites that you guys posted I see exactly what I was looking for.

Thanks
Doug