Thanks mate, I will keep that in mind for the next time I’m diving in a corner. Thanks again for watching 👍

Aloha mate! Thanks for watching 👍

Hi Mark, good name by the way! That is a very interesting question and you’ve certainly done way more research on the topic than myself. Firstly I get most of supplies from Fiberglass A/Asia Pty Ltd, a store in Sydney that has 40 odd years experience. They assured me the vinyl ester I purchased is suitable for use in fuel tanks. I’ll get back to you on the exact brand and make. I’ll also add that I have a friend who built a tank in 19r the same and he’s had no issues 4 odd years into using that boat, further to that Coota Craft build tanks in a similar fashion and I’m lead to believe they just use vinyl ester resin with one final coat of waxed resin over the whole tank before sealing off. This is covered in my next video which should be up within a week. You raise a good point about Ethanol, I personally would never put E10 in a boat but the potential is there. I do share your concerns about the tank degrading over time, I guess time will tell with mine now, I just sealed the lid off last night and plan of glassing the lid down today.

Swancor 901-TP VE is the resin I used Mark.

@@ADVENTURES_ADRIFT Thanks Mate! I've found a data sheet for the swancor resin your using. looks like it's a bisphenol resin like the Trojan Fibreglass Vinylester. Still waiting to hear back from those guys about compatibility with e10 but if they're not keen I may give the Swancor stuff your using a go and then maybe still apply the coat of Caswell novalac epoxy inside. Keen to see your next video. One shit thing that worries me is if the politicians decide to mandate ethanol content in fuel in years to come like the UK and USA.

Just had a response from Trojan about their vinylester - They were not able to guarantee it's use on fuel as it had not been tested for the purpose. Doesn't mean that it won't work though. Something else he mentioned witch you've talked about in your video "If you do use vinylester, you will need to ensure the resin has fully cured that will be in contact with the fuel. If you’re using a male mould for instance, the surface that’s in contact with the fuel will cure well from being in contact with the mould. If it’s a female mould, you’ll either need to vacuum bag it or use a wax in styrene solution. Wax in Styrene solution needs to be added carefully, and does not guarantee 100% surface cure. You’ll also want to flush the wax out with a non-polar solvent such as IPA. Your only other option would be to source a resin certified for fuel use, which will likely be a Novolac based resin. I’ve only seen one person in Australia use it, so I’m not sure how easy this will be to obtain." This was all a bit new to me. Only ever used epoxy.

Hey Mark, I just spoke to the supplier and he said that the Swancor VE is suitable for fuel tanks, manufactures don’t guarantee it for this purpose as they can’t control how the product is applied and the environmental’s at the time. Examples would be incorrect curing and applied in high humidity environments. Time will tell with my tank, worst case I cut the floor up and get a alloy tank welded up. Hopefully that never happens and if it does i hope it’s 10 years down the tract. As for Ethanol, given that it’s only 10% I’m not sure it will effect the resin. Good luck with your build mate and I hope it all works out.

I asked my fibreglass supplier for some 1708 but they don’t stock it and said they get asked about once every 3 years for it. It doesn’t seem to be as common here in Australia as it is in the US. Plus it chews up heaps of resin and takes time to soak in.

It did have a keel stringer, I choose not to put one back in for two reasons. First being I layer a heap of glass in the keel and the glass from the stringers also overlapped inside the keel. Additionally the V in the hull is what gives the glass strength because of the angle and the additional glass I’m very confident it will be more than strong enough. Further to that I have 5 bulkheads between the stringers and the false floor. Plenty of boats don’t have keel stringers but if you’re worried just put one back in.

As I’m using Vinyl-ester resin it doesn’t need flow-coat due to Vinyl-ester resin being water proof. I won’t ever see under the fuel tank so no need for flow-coat.

@@ADVENTURES_ADRIFT Cool I use vinyl ester finish coat over the vinyl ester laminating resin to allow it to cure, its from Trojan Fiberglass, basically a waxed vinyl ester resin with pigment

Hey mate, it’s hard estimate because I have purchased all my resin and glass in bulk. But if I was to have a stab I would think you could build a tank for around $1000 with stainless pipe work fabricated.