A note of caution on staining. I used a water based stain on the combing lip of my Pygmy Osprey. It looked great before I assembled the pieces onto the boat. When assembly was completed I had to do a small amount of sanding. This resulted in the stain being removed or lightened in the area I sanded. It is not real noticeable to anyone but me. But it is there.

Attach the panel to the boat before you epoxy saturate the area you are going to stain (do epoxy saturate the other side of the pannel). Make sure all the sanding and cutting you need to do is complete then stain the wood.

Better yet see if you can find a suitable piece of plywood, with a finish color closer to what you are looking for. On my next boat I am going to laminate pieces of redwood. Also remember with most epoxies the wood will go a little darker and a little more red when you epoxy saturate it.

Good Luck Don

> I am building the "yare" from C.Kulczycki's "the kayak
> shop".I plan on staining the deck prior to the application of the
> epoxy.Is this an accepted practice? Are there any potential pitfalls that
> I should know about? Thanks in advance.(more questions sure to follow)

> BTW: I wish I had found this forum a couple of weeks earlier than I did.I
> live 2 min from Fort Worden and could kick myself for missing the wood
> kayak event there.There's always next year I guess.

> darren