> Almost ready to paint the hull of a CLC 17, but I need to drill a hole
> (forward & aft) for carry handles. Question 1 is, do I drill now or
> after all the painting has occured, or sometime during. Question 2 is, do
> I need to insert some type of protective material (I recall a post,
> sometime ago, regarding the use of copper & plastic pipe) into the
> hole to give additional protection to the hull from chafing from the
> rope...+

> David Cain And now for another opinion, Just drill the hole, carve,countersink the area that the rope will lay across,with the boat upside down use regular MAS to soak up the exposed plywood and any voids in the endpour,tape over the hole so that the glue doesn't all drain out, I'm talking about drops here. When it dries sand gently,if you really wanted to make the wear area tougher use cabosil in the glue. Lee