I agree. Clumsiness in my initial beach launch caused a little rock to put a "racing stripe" on the bottom of my painstakingly applied finish (Interlux Brightsides). That scratched (and touched up) hull, my six-year-old's scraped-up new bicycle, and my basketball-caused broken finger reinforce the notion that it is better to "get out there" and leave the museum quality pieces at the Louvre. Each person needs to find his/her place somewhere between an Intel clean room and a sloppy job.

> Before you take all this (excellent) advice and achieve a perfect
> finish, think about how you want to use the boat. I paddle with plastic
> boats and like to crunch onto the beach and drag over rocks with them.
> If I had a huge investment in my paint job I wouldn't have the heart
> to abuse my boat so. I'm not reccomending sloppy workmanship; just
> offering a rationale to go paddling sooner. ;^)