Great discussion Bob....thanks! Any chance that your convention talk will
be published somewhere?


Will be happy to share convention presentation when finished. The formal
technical paper will be presented at a technical conference on October.

Bob, Thanks for your detailed insights. What are your thoughts on the
affects of a fiberglass trailer painted with regular ol' paint instead of gel
coat.
Does any UV make it through the trailer to affect the glider within? TIA.

If the regular ol' paint happens to be urethane it is not much different from
gel coat - almost all white coatings use TiO2 pigment, so the inherent UV
penetration is not an issue. Of course there is a wide range of photo-aging
performance with various types of paints.

One difference between gel coat and paint is the thickness. Because a paint
film is typically thinner than gel coat it will allow more long-wave
penetration (not harmful to polymer surfaces), but may allow more solar heating
inside a trailer. I've never seen any actual data describing the difference, so
don't know how significant the delta might be.

Bob