Here at Merritt’s Boat & Engine Works we pride ourselves on trying to create a product that is second to none with some of the best craftsmen in the business combined with unparalleled service since 1948. Over the years we have invested in perfecting our composite lay up to be the strongest, lightest and quietest in the game and now we have done the testing to back it up. With the help of Imanna Laboratories who performs independent third party testing for the marine industry as well as government agencies, we put our layup to the test against the 3 other most common styles of boat building: Solid fiberglass, Cold Molded Okume /Mahogany combination, and Cold-molded Okume. The results speak for themselves. Merritt Boat Owners and crews have the luxury and peace of mind of traveling the world’s oceans on a bullet proof bottom, LITERALLY!
We put the panels through a series of 4 test which include: weighing each panel to obtain a cubic weight for each, an acoustic test to see how much sound is transferred through each panel as it travels through water, a breaking strength test, and last but not least we shot two of the panels with a .38, one was our composite layup and the other was the typical cold mold wood bottom which consists of one layer of 3/8” Okume plywood, two layers of diagonally planked Philippine mahogany with a layer of 1708 fiberglass on each side using epoxy resin.
You will see not only is our panel lighter and quieter than the competition but is also significantly stronger, both in the bullet test and in breaking strength. As you will see in the breaking strength test our panel does not actually fracture but instead compresses to absorb as much impact as possible.
Building using carbon fiber, Kevlar, E-glass and other high tech blends and resins is nothing new for us as we have been doing it since 1984 and will continue to build the next boat even better than the last.
Continue watching in IG TV to see the rest of the tests and don’t miss the gun test at the end. You can also go to the link in our bio to watch it on KZfaq.
The layup of the panels are listed below:
1: Merritt’s Composite Hull - Mix of Kevlar, e-glass and core-cell foam laid up using epoxy resin.
2: Okume/Mahogany Cold-molded - 1 Layer of 3/8” Okume Plywood, 2 Layers of 3/8” diagonally planked Mahogany, with a layer of 1708 fiberglass on each side using epoxy Resin
3: Solid Fiberglass using epoxy Resin
4: 3 Layers of 3/8” Okume with 1708 fiberglass on each side using epoxy resin.