Injection molded would seem to indicate a plastic hull instead of fiberglass... maybe a solid styro fill too.
As to being legal for one design... probably not the same class as the fiberglass hulls.
That would make sense, except I don't see how they'd sell any injection molded Z420s, so there must be fiberglass involved. Guess we will have to await further news about their Chinese plans.Injection molded would seem to indicate a plastic hull instead of fiberglass... maybe a solid styro fill too.
As to being legal for one design... probably not the same class as the fiberglass hulls.
You can use injection molding with fiberglass. It actually results in a better/more consistent quality product then manually using wet layup techniques. I have no knowledge about the specific plans for the Sunfish, but here is a generic article about injection molding boat hulls. Vacuum Injection for Cleaner Boat Building - Advantage Environment
Mike
Vacuum Injection for Cleaner Boat Building - Advantage Environment
I don't get this. Is it absolutely impossible to directly contact ISCA and/or LP? Won't they answer? Or do you expect them to lie? Or is a guessing game on an internet forum more preferable in some other way?Let's hope that they mean some process like this and they do it in a way that keeps the hulls identical in weight, stiffness etc. to the current hulls.
I don't get this. Is it absolutely impossible to directly contact ISCA and/or LP? Won't they answer? Or do you expect them to lie? Or is a guessing game on an internet forum more preferable in some other way?
Ok, sorry if I was bit blunt. I guess I'm getting tired at these kind of "discussions" where everyone speculates but no one even thinks about going to a real source. Happens a lot in sailing club bars, usually about the rules....
But just like on the adjacent Laser forum, it looks like more people are interested in repair & restoration rather than new boats. Nothing wrong with that, but it means that active racers likely won't get their questions answered.
This seems like a pretty big change. How is the class going to handle this for racers? Are they going to have different races for non-import boats and import boats? What is the cost going to be for new boats since they now have to be imported from China?
Hardly anything manufactured in China arrives here with a better design than what it's copied from. What they're good at, is "customer satisfaction", so you can rebuild your newly-arrived Chinese Sunfish at home.This seems like a pretty big change for a one design class boat hull that basically is the same construction from the sixties. This seems like a very significant change in the construction the new boats maybe better or worse than the boat made now. How is the class going to handle this for racers? Are they going to have different races for non-import boats and import boats? What is the cost going to be for new boats since they now have to be imported from China?
But usually products from China are sold for less than domestic goods, which is why Wal Mart is chock full of imported goods.
Could be that they are infusing the hulls which is done by laying up dry glass, vacuum bagging the layup and then injecting resin into the dry layup. Gives you a better control on how much resin goes into a layup. Not always lighter weight, but stronger because you have better resin control.
Could be lighter.... And stronger. Higher ratio of cloth to resin.
I dunno.New boats is better than no boats.