Hey Ross,

I laid up my first FG kayak seat yesterday morning. I wasn't quite sure how long to let the epoxy cure--when I did my hatch lips, I stripped at green cure stage, but they were deformed, so I decided to let the seat cure a bit harder. After 24 hours of cure on the Raka 606 slow hardener, I could barely get the seat to budge. I used a generous coat of PVA on the mold, but it just didn't want to crack loose. I ended up bringing the whole shooting match to work this morning and drilling a couple of holes in the mold so I could use pressurized air to force the two apart. I still ended up deforming one hip brace and tearing the back of the seat.

I laid up 3-5 layers of 5.5 plain weave on top of a layer of 4 oz. muslin (for the canvas look). I also added 1-2 layers of 15 oz. biaxial under my legs, and on the sides where the seat will bolt to the cheekplates.

Note to self: the seat tore where the fabric was lined up. Throw in a layer or two of cloth on a bias to minimize the chance of this happening again.

Still, I think it's going to be a pretty nice seat!

Shawn