Gibson Fiberglass, for many decades was and still is an industry standard for FRP fiberglass boat building in the U.S. A misinformed critic would say any boat not made in the U.S. probably does not use use quality fiberglass like Gibson, so it cannot be as good. Wrong.

After 2002 shortly after China joined the WTO China began milling fiberglass cloth for Gibson. By 2010 China milled a great deal of Gibson Fiberglass. Around 2012 Jushi, one of the largest fiberglass cloth mill in the world bought Gibson and kept the Gibson name. Article: Jushi Buys Gibson

In 2005 we started building many of our hulls in China not far from the fierglass mills that ship supply to the U.S. We obtain and build boats with raw materials several weeks ahead of many U.S. suppliers that need to wait over a month for their shipments of fiberglass to arrive. This is directly related to the expiration of cloth materials below. The newer the materials the more efficient the saturation and infusion of resin into the hulls made = better hull integrity.

 Same with the best resin used for boat building like Reichhold "2011– New manufacturing plant opened in Tianjin, China" We get our resin a few days after it is made. Meanwhile in the U.S. they wait 45 days minimum, again goes back to expiry, the newer the resin the greater integrity of the activators = better structural integrity.

The shelf life for materials is about 180 days. For cloth after this time it is more likely to have absorbed moisture which prevents efficient infusion of resin, and excess of resin is needed to saturate the cloth where the strength of fiberglass is in the cloth not the excess resin. Gel Coat has UV protection additive that breaks down after the expiration date and if used after UV added protection breaks down the color will fade or discolor. Resin has activators that complete the hardening chemical reaction and when resin passes the expiration date the activators are not as effective in completing the chemical hardening reaction. We refer to the science of materials to reinforce that building our boats with materials that are newer than materials that need to be shipped to the U.S. is a distinct advantage, therefore, making the best hull construction.

Another logical conclusion is the same work force population that for decades has had the capability to manufacture top quality materials used worldwide will also have the ability and skill to perform proper applications of those materials especially when you consider that U.S. Allmand Boats traveled to China to supervise construction methods establishing best method practices back in 2007 and continued supervision with the same skilled contracotrs who follow ABS rules. Fact is production complies with every international standards of construction with documentation available upon request.

We build premium quality constructed hulls in China then bring them to Cincinnati to finish or we build entirely in the U.S. when the U.S.C.G. is needed to inspect and document construction as in our water taxi boats. We are a registered U.S. boat builder since 1976 documented to using the industry standard materials. We also obtain FRP raw materials before any other builder since our production in China is close to the raw material manufactuers.

We hope people begin asking critics the extent of their knowledge of materials and industry standards before jumping to incorrect conclusions.