Hey Ross - I'm finishing up an open cockpit Eider (http://www.shearwater-boats.com/eider.html). It currently weighs just under 45 lbs. It's built from 1/8" Luan (a pretty good batch) - and 3.25 tight weave 'glass from Raka. The Luan is splintery and kind of brittle - so I 'glassed both sides with the 3.25 right off the bat. The resulting laminate is quite impressive. FLexible - but not too - and surprisingly strong. I think I put two or three more layers on the hull and one more on the deck. I haven't paddled it yet - but I'm expecting it to be plenty sturdy - although it will not be used in the kind of seas an Outer Island could handle.

The tight weave is tougher to wet out - but not too bad - especially if you have a highly viscous epoxy like Raka or West Systems. I got some 'tiny bubbles' in a few spots because I tried to 'glass dry plywood. I'm pretty sure if I had put a coat of epoxy on first I wouldn't have had any trouble.

It's definitely more work putting more layers of 'glass on - but it is way lighter for the same strength - though I haven't tried ripping my hull apart to see how strong it really is.

BTW - how does your ice-breaker paddle? How heavy is it?

Regards,
PC