John,

Some ideas:

I recommend glassing the deck. The extra weight is worth the strength and abrasion resistance it gives you.

I recommend glassing the inside but not taping the seams.

I think the best place to cut down on weight is in the fillets and end pours. Make you fillets as small as possible, just big enough to get the glass to remain in contact. I may be wrong, but I think a glassed smaller fillet may be stronger than a bigger one. The strength comes from the glass and with a smaller fillet, it can have closer contact to the wood for a better bond.

Cut a small block of cedar or similar light wood for putting in the ends. Glue it in place with a small amount of thickened epoxy. This should be lighter than an end pour and plenty strong.

Remove the wires from your hull after the seams are glued. I think epoxy is lighter than copper. When you glass your kayak the epoxy will fill the holes.

Only put on enough epoxy to wet out the cloth on the inside, use a sqeegee to get excess resin out, you may go with one more ultralight coat especialy with a lightweight satinweave glass.

I used 3.25 oz. satinweave glass on my last kayak and doubled or tripled it where I wanted extra strength or abrasion resistance. Larry at Raka says that this glass is exceptionally strong. It also uses less resin than a standard weave.

I'm always concerned about weight, I have a bad back, but strength is still a very high priority for me. I don't want to damage a kayak that I put that much time and effort into.

Mike

: On my first boat, a CLC Millcreek 16.5, I merrily fiberglassed the deck, the
: cockpit, and also taped the hull before I put on the 6oz glass.

: It is so heavy I cant really pick it up.

: How dumb was that - does anyone not glass their decks? I guess the cockpit
: was overkill. CLC manual mentions that glassing the hull itself is
: optional. I guess if the boat were never going to bang anything then that
: might work out best. The lighter the boat the more you want to use it.

: Also do you save enough weight with thinner cloth to bother? I know you save
: a few ounces of glass, but then must also use less epoxy, right?

: I'm about to fillet up another boat, and want to optimize the weight.

: thanks in advance