Mike Borgelt wrote:
...
The words "quality" and "gel coat"(as used currently by most of the
German glider manufacturers) should not be used in the same article.

The currently used gel coat will last a few years before cracking and
causing a very expensive refinish.

Polyurethane won't crack. Take a look at an old Pik20 or Std Jantar.

The scandal is that the cracking of the gel coat has been known since
about 1977(only a couple of years after they went to that product) and
the manufacturers flat out refuse to do anything about it.

Yes there are gel coat products that won't crack but as they "weren't
invented here" the manufacturers don't want to know.


This is not true of all manufacturers. DG and Centrair use a very
good quality of gel coat, at least on the latest gliders (Pegase
90) for Centrair. My clubs owns 2 Pegases 90, they are 8 and 9 years
old and look like new. We also sold a DG 300 in order to replace
it by a more recent glider, I think it was more than 10 years old
and had no cracks. OTOH the policiy of the club is to buy used
gliders with badly cracked gel coat and so lower price, and to
use the local skill and available time to refinish them. So I
have seen badly cracked LS1f's and LS4's.

A few people around here got Ventus 2's unfinished and had them
painted here with polyurethane.

Mike Borgelt