Glad to hear you're leaning towards the natural wood look! I was very perturbed after the first few scratches on my boat, because when you scrape over a rock or log, it leaves a whitish streak in the varnish. After all the hours building, this is very depressing, but I'm over it know. The major scratches are on the lower hull, so the rest of the boat still looks beautiful (aside from on big scratch on the aft deck from some eskimo-rolling lessons...) On the plus side, most of these scratches come out if you lightly sand and re-varnish the boat evey year. Painted hulls are more durable, but they make the boat look virtually indistinguishable from a 'production' boat.

There is, however, a way you can have your cake and eat it too: you can paint the hull below the waterline only. This leaves about 75% of the boat with the natural wood look, and has a more durable finish only where it needs it. (Most of the people who take notice of my boat see it on top of my car -- if the hull were completely painted, it would be hard to tell it from a fiberglass boat given that the deck is facing skyward.) I was going to build my second stitch-and-glue boat this winter using a white 2-part polyurethane paint on just the 2 lower hull panels. But then I decided to do a strip kayak, and thought it sacreligious to put any kind of paint on a boat that's to be a floating work of art...:)

Dean

> Thank for the response!

> So am I to understand then that the best scratch resisitant hull is just
> to stain the wood and then give it a clear epoxy finish? If so does that
> mean the fiberglass cloth normally used on the outside is now on the
> inside? After your l posting mentioning the avenues of achieving a better
> paint coat sealent, Im leaning heavily now with just letting the wood
> show. What does one do tho with that fiberglass cloth that is saturated
> with epoxy? We omit this when showing woodgrain or do we put the cloth in
> the interior? Again, ofcourse , i havent begun the process yet. Bottom
> line is that scratched epoxy im sure is a lot easier on the eyes then
> paint removed from abrasion.

> Again thanks!!

> Best Always ,

> Pete