Well, someone did make a bamboo composite cat from the looks of it. Wonder how much it weighs...?

From bamboo surfboards hawaii website...


After over 10 years of bamboo board making, I would estimate that each layer of rotary bamboo veneer is roughly as strong as one layer of 4 ounce unidirectional fiberglass. Two layers of bamboo veneer with grains crossed, epoxy laminated and vacuum bagged uses less resin than a hand laid-up 8 oz. fiberglass. On bamboo NFC surfboard decks I use as many as five layers of bamboo in high stress areas. In the fin box area, up to three layers of bamboo are used.

What's it rate?


Ooops, sorry, wrong board...

looks very cool... but i see no mast... It is against my religious convictions to paddle when there is wind!

Just because you can do it, doesn't mean you should do it.

Very cool!

Renewable structural fibers? Excellent idea.

carbon is renewable, just takes a bit more time and patience.

What is teh cost compared to glass?

Bamboo is natural carbon fiber, just like wood. If you think of it, glass is recyclable. the problem (if any) would be with the resin content - but that goes for all of them.

Bamboo is NOT carbon fiber, it is cellulose fiber,-a long chain polysaccride. (Or nature's plastic.) It's just another way to make plywood. -But probably very good plywood.

For the record the term "renewable" is yesterday. Today's word is "sustainable".

Tomorrows word is "re-sustainability(ism)"

Looks great, like bamboo panted fiberglass. Yes, I know it's not.

Now where's that bamboo composite Mast? GILLIGAN!!

I'm really serious, I swear! 'Member those "Chinese handcuffs"? You stuck your fingers in them and when you pulled away they tightened?

So, you weave some bamboo cloth like that, saturate, slide it over a mandrel, tighten up and viola! instant mast?

Cellulose is made up of a lot of carbon :-)

Unlike Glass...silicon.

kinda like these?:

http://www.solarcomposites.com/

(neat product...horrible website).

Uh. Yeh. I'm not real technologically edikated.

Technically renewable and sustainable are different things.
Today's word should be sustainable living/architecture/production by means of using renewable resources (energy&matter)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainability

Regards,

So...Craig Calfee (Bamboo bike guy) is just south of me. He's a very cool cat and can be seen riding his bamboo bike around town. He's a Hobie 16 sailor. Just north of me are these guys:


They make surfboards out of hemp fiber and epoxy. Due to the nautical history of hemp, and it's superior strength, I think it would be a good direction for boat building.

I guess that trimaran Earthrace had some hemp fiber in the hull laminate. They didn't publicize it too much due to different rediculous drug laws around the world. If you dig out a piece of epoxy-laden hemp fiber and load it in your bong Michael Phelps style, I guarantee the hemp won't be the thing getting you high.

Neat to think about anyway...

J

Calfee's bamboo bikes are phenomenal creations! I hear they ride great too.

Just checked out your boat at Craigs. NIIIICEEE! I like the new beam set up.

J