Hello Paul,

When I chose to build a wood kayak I knew it's not going to be as durable as plastic, & I DID had plastic experience when I chose wood.

I have a Coho. It has hits & bangs all over it. but I don't care. It still draws attention when I pump gas. & I don't care about that either.

When I will paddle with a plastic buddy I will probably feel like you feel now, but I will hold to my initial considerations: I built it myself, it's stronger than plastic, it's stiffer than plastic, it's lighter than plastic, it's cheaper than plastic, & right now it is take-a-part the way a plastic can't be !

I think the source of the problem is the epoxy, it is softer than plastic.

soft is the opposite of hard.

weak is the opposite of strong.

don't mix this 2 characteristics.

any option suggested on previous messages that says use kevlar/carbon/this/ or that - with epoxy, will not do you any good because you will still get these scraches on the epoxy, & they will be deep enough to get to the cloth & expose its weave.

the large number of "pride" responses you got, supporting the wood kayaks, point at the inevitable answer to your question: NO ! there probably isn't a better choice. & I think it makes sense. If there was a better choice, everybody would have used it, & this bbs wasn't about wood kayaks, but about that other better way that doesn't exist yet.

think about the grinlanders/inuits/eskimos. their skins on frames where even more fragile than your wood/glass/epoxy, & they relied on it for their lifes.

I hope you feel better now... 8-)

Erez