Plywood GRP

Information

At the end of the fifties, when GRP came into boatbuilding, the euphoria was great. The new material was supposed to simplify the maintenance of the boats. Very popular was the construction of the hull from plywood, which was then covered with a GRP coating. This was also practised intensively by the Danish shipyard Coronet.

The first boats were classically equipped with Volvo Penta BB70 engines and shaft drives in 1959/60. In 1960/61, four boats were equipped with the innovative Aquamatic drive introduced by Volvo Penta in 1959. It took until 1964 before Storebro's first series model with Aquamatic was offered - the Sea Chaser II Aqua.

At Storebro there were great reservations about this new technique. Nevertheless, it was decided to build various test boats to gain a certain long-term experience. The tests confirmed the reservations of the shipyard. Often penetrating water caused detachment and bubbles between plywood and GRP. The shipyard therefore continued to rely on mahogany hulls and offered complete GRP hulls only since 1968. The first boat with a complete GRP hull was the Royal Cruiser I/Solö Lyx II.

At present the following development variants are known:

• A boat with inboard BB70 engine and shaft drive.
• A boat with Aquamatic as an open runabout version.
• A boat with Aquamatic with cabin (no picture exists).