: I called Borden about this a year after the article came out. They reffered
: me to a special number, where a guy opened with "We really wish John
: hadn't written that article" Said the stuff isn't waterproof, has
: poor creep resistance (your twisted strips might shift,)and they don't
: want to sell it for boatbuilding.

: Being experts in their business, they likely aren't passing up the sales for
: no reason.

Well, that's very interesting. The deck was sheathed in Dynel and wet out with Wonderbond. The boat in question is the "Endangered Species", based in Seattle. The article said it placed third in the '98 Swiftsure race, and was in transit to LA for the Transpac. If anyone happens across it during a paddle, could we have an update?

: Anyway, a while ago I heard of a company in Pearland Texas who sold a water
: based epoxy. Maybe...............

There are several water based epoxy coatings on the market, and I have used some of them for industrial applications, but they have a serious drawback for boatbuilding. Evaporation of the solvent (even if it's water) through the partially cured film creates zillions of pinholes. Acrylic latex deals with that problem through the use of a secondary coalescing solvent, but epoxy is 50 years behind it on the development curve. The big attractions of this product are low odor (100% solids are already low-odor), no organic solvents needed for cleanup (we throw away our brushes and rollers) and improved safety. The tradeoff, at the present time anyway, is decreased performance.