Different types of boats undergo different types of loads under normal use. For example, the areas of expected load are different for sailboats compared to power boats.

To understand how to use laminants to take maximum advantage of their strengths, it’s important to understand the types of loads they experience.

Any fiber reinforcement not aligned with the applied loads can separate from the resin holding it together and create micro-cracks, which will propagate until full laminate failure occurs eventually.

The table below illustrates the four common loads used to determine where the stresses are.

Load Type	Effect on Laminate	What it Looks Like
Tension	A tensile load applied to a laminate will stretch it to the degree allowed by the tensile strength and stiffness of the particular type of reinforcement fibers.
Compression	A laminate under a compressive load relies on the adhesive properties of the resin to keep the fibers straight and prevent buckling.
Shear	A laminate undergoing a shear load relies on the strength of the resin’s mechanical bond to transfer the stresses throughout all the fibers. The resin also needs to have a strong bond to the reinforcement fabric. If not, the adjacent reinforcement layers will slide over each other.
Flexure	A laminate experiencing flexural loading is undergoing a combination of tension, compression, and shear loads. To remain strong, the fibers in the laminate layers need to be oriented in all applicable directions to balance the loads.

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