Bell White Gold Layup???

Can anyone here comment a bit on the white gold layup from Bell? I know it is heavier than their newer layups. How does it compare to Kevlight and Black Gold in terms of strength and stiffness? How is it laid up again…I recall that it has a sheet of fiberglass cloth vice Kevlar.



Thanks



matt

Please check the archives
I think this was answered for you before. CEW gave the complete layup schedule

My white/gold Flashfire is very stiff.
That’s the extent of my feedback. I just got the boat.

For me,
I’d take a WG boat over a Kevlight boat any day. It weighs more by a good margin, but it’s tougher and stiffer.

This is true. Kevlight and the old
Kevlar Crystal are for those who must have minimum portage weight, while giving away some rigidity and a lot of durability.



The Black Gold and White Gold layups would actually be suitable for whitewater use. The Kevlight layup, no.

bell info from archive
bowler1, here is info from an archive from Charlie Wilson. He knows just about everything about the Bell layups:…jesse



Bell’s Fiberlar was a three blanket E glass lamination with a gel coated exterior with an arimid partial bottom with a polyester core-mat center and some arimide stem pieces. Fiberlar was discontinued when ABS came on line, ~2000.



White / Gold had an e glass outer blanket under a gel coated exterior, an arimide bottom with a core mat center, an arimide blanket, an arimide diamond and another arimid inner blanket that, after the mid 90’s was 25% black Kevlar 29 and 75% Kevlar 49, the Bell “tweed”. I use the term arimide because Bell started purchasing European goods which must be Twaron, not Kevlar, in the early 2000s. Every other woof strand is black aramide #29.



Kev-Krystal, later Kev Lite, is a two layer “Tweed” hull with aramide quarters, foam core and sometimes ribs and tweed foam covers. Early versions had, usually, clear gel but could be special ordered in opaque shades. Later versions are skin coated.



Pre 94 Kel Lite and Kev Delux Hulls had a 30" longitudinal section of s glass immediately under the gel coat, this was dropped for cosmetic and weight reasons in 1994.



Black/Gold started with clear gel, which could be special ordered opaque and is now often skin coated. The lamination starts with a carbon blanket, carbon bottom and center diamond, all black, then a tweed blanket, a tweed bottom and diamond and another tweed inner blanket. Newer black/gold hulls may have foam cores. Almost all tandems and Magic have foam cores replacing several layers of fabric to reduce weight.



The above from my Word Perfect file “Bell Lamination Schedules” dated 1994, later converted to Word and last updated 1999.