Congratualtions!!!

It sounds like your daughter or son will have quite a cradle. I think your question on glass verses Dynel was answered above. However I would like to bring up one other issue.

Infant’s lungs are very sensitive. I would be concerned about varnish out-gassing even long after it has been applied. Long term exposure to such gasses could lead to life time repertory problems for an infant. Check with the manufactures my guess is that they will strongly recommend against using varnish in infant furniture. When our daughter was on the way we had an old crib refinished. The refinisher would only use shellac.

I would check with the manufacture on the epoxy as well. Epoxy has far fewer dangerous vapors than varnish and I think it stabilizes more. But I would still check. A day of research is a small price to pay, to avoid a lifetime of regrets.

Good-luck
Don

: Hello Everyone,

: My wife is pregnant with our first, and, instead of feeling a little left out
: of the whole process, I've begun building a baby cradle boat for our new
: arrival. It is a 42" strip-planked Bahama-style dinghy. The planks
: are 1/4" thick, 3/8" wide clear white cedar, with an occasional
: accent strip of Honduran mahogany. The transom, gunwhales, keel,
: inner/outer stempiece, breasthook, knees and floorboards are mahogany. The
: inside is to be finished bright (Epifanes or Z-Spar over West System
: epoxy). The outside will be Interlux (Endeavor Blue). My question
: (finally): the hull is obviously quite thin. In addition to the many coats
: of epoxy (thickened) on the outside, I wish to add a single layer of
: 'glass. My loacal shipyard (Martha's Vineyard Shipyard) only has 8 oz. and
: heavier. I'd like to find 2 oz., but would settle for 4 oz. The Shipyard
: offered me a huge bag of Dynel scraps for free (easily enough to do
: several baby boats). I have never used Dynel, but my understandings are as
: follows: Dynel is lighter than fiberglass (especially 8oz.), wets out as
: easily, doesn't dissappear when the weave is filled (which isn't a problem
: as the hull isn't to be finished bright, and drapes much more manageably
: than fiberglass. Does anyone have any reasons why hunting down and paying
: for lightweight fiberglass would be preferable in this situation? (My
: intention would still be to fill the weave, build up the surface and fair
: it)...Not exactly a kayak question, but sentient nonetheless, I hope.
: Thanks in advance for any help or advice.

: Cheers,
: Forrest