Vinyl ester -the midway boat building resin

Resins for building reinforced plastic boats have become a largely bipolar affair. Polyester remains the general, affordable medium for 'commodity' boat building while epoxy, usually carbon reinforced, has become the resin of choice for high-specification performance craft. Consequently, many builders overlook the fact that there is a third resin family that is intermediate in terms of properties and price and offers advantages of its own. George Marsh reports.