: I assume the pix is of your tooling and not the final boat frame. Hey,
: where's the corregated cardboard!?

Well, The stringers are in that pic. The forms they're around are cardboard. If I were to use CB again, though, I'd make it 3-4 layers thick with the appliance grade stuff. Final frame won't be out for a while...

: As for a frame finish, it's hard to beat epoxy. While the
: "pentration" thing is over-hyped there is some migration of the
: resin into the surface cells of the wood. It will wear better than the
: other options mentioned and some oils will feed nasties. Monfort calls for
: epoxy on the kevlar anyway. In addition, the epoxy actually strenghtens
: the wood. So, you could even make the frame lighter!

I am considering epoxy too. I like the "seal" it gives to the wood. Like many other steps in this process, I haven't settled on a solution yet. In the Monfort video I have, he applies varnish to the kevlar roving. From my days of stunt kiting, I assumed this was to prevent fraying and abrasion. With kevlar kite lines, any high pressure contact between lines will having you running down field chasing your $200 collection of rags and sticks! They cut each other very easily.

: Is the dacron you're referring to a canvas type product? Or of the "heat
: shrink" variety? You know, I expect you to work all the bugs out of
: this process before I take it on.

The dacron is just polyester fabric. Lighter weight than canvas. As far as I can tell, and someone can correct me if I'm wrong here, any polyester/dacron will shrink up if sufficient heat is applied. May be the case with nylon too.

My list of "bugs" is growing:). I'll try to note them all when I'm done.

Bill