: Mike

: I think that the seam at the hull to deck "joint" would be much
: stronger with epoxy than paint. From my composite airplane building
: experience, I think that covering with fiberglass and then resin would be
: a disaster if you were to try to tension the cloth and fasten it to the
: frame rather than a mold of some sort. The glass will be very difficult to
: tighten evenly and you will have a very difficult time attempting to wet
: out the glass evenly without leaving dry and rich areas that will detract
: from the optimum cloth/resin ratio. The resin will flow slowly and pool
: and drip as it cures. Fiberglass does not have the fine fibers and the
: absorbency of polyester. It is designed to have the resin hold the glass
: in an orentiation that will optimize it's strength. One layer of glass
: will probably not suffice to keep the water and air apart because
: fiberglass needs thickness to produce the beam strenght that it needs to
: properly work.

Thanks for your reaction Pete,

the reason I'm asking these questions is because I have some ideas but not yet necessarily intentions. I have ideas about designing a different frame approach and want to express it by having a durable and yet transparent as possible covering. With Jay's epoxy approach but on polyester, I wondered about using glass and achieving somewhat similar to our almost totally transparent use on strippers. I know there is translucency on polyester, but would there be a way to say use multiple layers of lesser wts of say satin that would both wet and saturate, but not pool in order to achieve the most transparency possible. Or how transparent is polyester w/ clear untinted epoxy?

-mick