: Hello: I plan to build a kayak using a mold. The plug is almost finished.
: This will be a boat for paddling in the rock gardens of the open Pacific
: coast. The boat will be 14ft. x 23in. I have done some research on the Web
: but I still have questions I hope someone could answer. In a standard
: layup ocean kayak how many layers of what weigth glass is generally used?

From what I've read, most of them average 30 oz. Really lightweight layups might be 20 oz. overall with reinforcing strips, heavyweight boats can be 50 oz/sq yd.

Use whatever weight glass you want. For example, 5 layers of 6 oz. plain weave glass will give you 30 oz./sq yd. Or, (2) 5 oz. kevlar, (1) 15 oz. biaxial, and (1) 5 oz. plain weave glass. Obviously, you're going to want to go heavier than 30 oz.

: If I wanted an especially strong hull what would be the best Layup. It
: apears that a combination of S glass outside and kevlar inside is
: best.When using multilayers of fabric does one lay them one by one with
: epoxi in between and then vaccum bag all the layaers at once or each layer
: is saturated and bagged one layer at a time?

Do them all at once--you'll get a lighter, thinner layup that will be just as tough. When you do the layers separately, the fibers in the fabrics don't get pressed together; they're floating apart by a layer of resin, and the boat is resin-heavy.

Vacuum bagging will let everything *squish* together nicely.

Shawn